Sourdough Hot Cross Buns Recipe

SOURDOUGH HOT CROS BUNS RECIPE FEATURE IMAGE

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns Recipe

A sourdough version of a popular Easter treat, these sourdough Hot Cross Buns are sure to delight even the toughest critics!

Course Dessert

Cuisine English

Keyword Flavored Sourdough, Sourdough Discard

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 22

Fermentation Time 10

Total Time 11 22

Servings Buns

Calories 317kcal

Equipment

Digital Scales
Mixing Bowl
Baking Tray

Ingredients

For the buns

200 g Milk warm - around 37 degrees celcius is perfect
500 g Bread Flour you can use AP flour if you want to
50 g Sugar
100 g Sourdough Starter fed and bubbly
120 g Butter softened
10 g Salt
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
140 g Mixed Dried Fruit I have used a blend of apricots, blueberries, raisins and candied orange peel.
2 g Ground Cinnamon
5 g Vanilla Extract

For the cross

75 g All Purpose Flour
75 g Water

For the glaze

50 g Apricot Jam
20 g Butter

Instructions

BEFORE YOU START

You need to do two things before you start this recipe:
1. Add the cinnamon to the softened butter and set aside.
2. Add the dried fruit to a bowl and cover with hot water to soften and plump up (you can add vanilla, honey or maple syrup to the mix if you want to).
Set both of these aside for use further into the process.

MAKING THE BUNS

Add warm milk, starter, bread flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and eggs to the mixer bowl. Bring the ingredients together to form a rough dough (it will be quite shaggy and that's ok).
If you're using a stand mixer, you'll need to use the dough hook for this part.
Knead the hot cross bun dough until it forms a fairly smooth dough. It doesn't have to be super smooth just yet, but you would need to knead for around 3 minutes in a mixer).
Let the dough rest where it is for around half an hour.
Now, start your mixer and add the cinnamon butter a little at a time. Around 10-15g at a time is fine. Allow the mixer to knead the butter in the bowl before adding more. Once all the butter is added, knead the dough until it's smooth and shiny.
Let the dough rest where it is for around half an hour.
Now, drain the dried fruit and gently squeeze out the excess moisture. You want them to be plump, but not dripping when you add it to your dough.
Now there are two options here. You can add the fruit to your dough and knead it through in your mixer. This will chop up some of the fruit (not all).
If you would prefer more whole pieces you can knead it through by hand on the counter. Either way is fine and will not affect the rise of the buns at all.
Try not to over knead here - you want to just combine the fruit through the dough.

BULK FERMENTATION

Once the fruit has been kneaded through, form the dough into a ball and pop into a bowl to bulk ferment. The time the dough takes will depend on the strength of your starter and the temperature of your kitchen. You can leave the dough overnight if your house is cool enough (even with eggs, butter and milk it will be fine).
When I make these, I find that the dough does rise a little slower because it is enriched with butter, milk and eggs.

SHAPING THE HOT CROSS BUNS

Once the dough has finished bulk fermentation it will have risen to double and be soft and pillowy.
Turn the dough out onto the counter (don't add extra flour to the counter at this point). This dough will be enough for 12 generous sized hot cross buns or 18 smaller buns.
Shape each piece into a ball (see recipe notes above for full instructions).
Place the balls of dough onto a tray.

SECOND RISE

Once your buns are shaped, you need to let them rise again in the tray. Set them aside, covered with a tea towel, to plump up and fill the tray. This will take a few hours.

PIPING A CROSS

Before you bake your buns, you'll want to pipe a cross on each one.
Take the flour and water and mix together to form a smooth paste (like pancake batter). You can pop this into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner cut off. Pipe a cross onto each bun. It can be a bit tricky, but don't worry, they don't have to perfect!

BAKING THE BUNS

Now it's time to bake your buns. Place them into an oven preheated to 180C/350F for around 22 minutes or until the buns are golden (but still soft).

GLAZING THE BUNS

Mix the jam and butter together in a small dish. You can microwave them a little to soften up if you need to. Use a pastry brush to paint the apricot glaze onto the hot cross buns as soon as they're out of the oven.
Allow them to soak it all in before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Notes

This recipe is written to be mixed in a stand mixer (or Thermomix). You can make the recipe by hand, you will just have to knead the dough quite vigorously to ensure it's smooth and elastic. You will find notes on making it by hand (and why I choose to use a mixer) in the recipe notes above.

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