Ingredients
- A 300g active sourdough starter
- 2 large eggs
- 200 ml whole milk
- 500g Strong Baker’s flour
- 60g light brown sugar
- 5g cinnamon ground
- 5g mix spice
- 1 orange zest
- 100g raisins
- 25g currants
- 25g dried cranberries
- 25g mixed peel
- 25g chopped dried apricot
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- Pinch Maldon Sea salt
- Apricot jam for glazing
Hot Cross Buns
Perfected over the years, our delicious hot cross bun recipe creates rich, glazed buns that smell and taste divine. Follow the recipe below to recreate them at home.
Makes plenty for 12 of you.
Method
Place 200g of the starter into a large mixing bowl.
Beat and add the eggs (reserve 20g for the glazing and keep in the fridge).
Add the milk, flour, spice, sugar, zest and fruits into the large bowl and fold the ingredients together, using your hands or a mixer with a dough hook. Continue folding until you have a nice, smooth dough. Then cover with a damp towel and leave to proving for 30 minutes. Cover the rest of the starter with a damp towel and keep refrigerated.
Still in the mixing bowl, work the butter and salt into this by squishing and kneading it together until it’s all incorporated.
You can then tip this out onto a work surface and knead it for five minutes. This process can be done in the mixer with the dough hook.
Once you have done this, create a ball with your dough and place it back in the bowl, place it somewhere warm with a damp towel and leave to rise for 3-4 hours until it has doubled in size.
After this has doubled in size, tip the dough out and knead lightly, then spilt into 12 pieces, approximately 100g each.
Next, line a tray with baking paper and place all balls on to the tray leaving a little space between for proving.
Cover with a clean damp towel and leave to rise for 2-3hrs at room temp, or overnight in the fridge ready for baking fresh in the morning. (Tip, if they’re fridge cold allow them to come to room temperature before cooking.)
Pre heat oven to 180°c, then brush the buns with remaining egg mix. Put the rest of the sourdough into a piping bag and pipe crosses over the top of the buns. Bake until lightly browned around 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Finally warm the apricot jam in a pan and brush over the buns, then enjoy!
