Heavy with vanilla, spice, chocolate and raisins, these are our Hot Cross Buns with the lot!

Prep:
2 hours
Cook:
30 min
Serves:
20

Ingredients

Buns

  1. 3 1/3 cups (500g) plain flour

  2. 20g dry yeast

  3. ½ cup (110g) caster sugar

  4. 3 tsp ground cinnamon or Queen Cinnamon Baking Paste

  5. ½ tsp ground nutmeg

  6. ½ tsp ground cloves

  7. A pinch of salt

  8. 50g butter, melted

  9. 2 large eggs

  10. 2 tsp Queen Vanilla Bean Paste

  11. 1 cup (250ml) milk

  12. 150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

  13. 1 cup raisins or sultanas

Crosses

  1. ¼ cup (40g) plain flour

  2. 1-2 tbsp water

Glaze

  1. ½ cup (110g) sugar

  2. ½ cup (125ml) water

  3. 1 tsp Queen Vanilla Bean Paste

Method - Buns

  1. Step 1

    Combine flour, yeast, sugar, spices and salt in a large bowl and mix until combined.

  2. Step 2

    In a separate bowl, whisk cooled melted butter, eggs, Vanilla Bean Paste and milk. Make a well in flour mixture and pour in liquid. Mix from the centre, gradually mixing in more flour until a sticky, soft dough forms. Place on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth.

  3. Step 3

    Transfer dough to a large bowl, cover with cling wrap and set aside to rise for 60 minutes on the benchtop. Once risen, turn dough onto lightly floured benchtop and gently knead in raisins/sultanas and chocolate. Return to the bowl, cover and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced). Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Roll dough into 20 equal-sized balls and place on baking tray close together in a circle.

Method - Crosses

  1. Step 1

    Prepare crosses by combining flour and water until smooth, then transfer to a snap lock bag with the corner cut or piping bag and pipe crosses onto the buns. Set aside to rise for a final 30 minutes, then bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Method - Glaze

  1. Step 1

    Prepare vanilla glaze by combining water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat and mix through vanilla bean paste. Brush over buns immediately after removing them from the oven. Allow buns to cool slightly then serve with butter.

If using Queen Cinnamon Baking Paste, incorporate paste into wet ingredients.

Comments & Reviews

Can I use GF flour in this recipe and is it necessary to include the chocolate

Faye

Hi Faye, unfortunately this recipe requires a flour with gluten in it to develop the gluten strands necessary for this yeasted bread recipe.

Queen

I always feel like Hot Cross Buns are going to be a hard obe to make, but this squashed all thoughts like this it was so tasty and easy.
I was sceptical of the vanilla in the glaze but it goes beautifully – will make the again for sure.

Amy

So glad you enjoyed this recipe! It’s much more rewarding than supermarket hot cross buns 🙂

Queen Fine Foods