Hot cross buns: easy, no-knead recipe | Moorlands Eater (2024)

Who doesn’t love Hot Cross Buns at this time of year?

With their roots in Britain’s pagan past and its celebration of the return of Spring, making a batch of these fruity and spicy buns isn’t difficult, even if you’ve never made bread before.

Jump to Recipe

THANK THE GODDESS EOSTRE FOR HOT CROSS BUNS

With their bold cross and association with Easter, you’d might assume that Hot Cross Buns have roots in Christianity.

But one theory says the buns date back to pre-Christian Britain.

Among the many gods and goddesses said to be honoured by the Anglo-Saxons was Eostre. Possibly the origin of the word Easter, she was goddess of the dawn, fertility and Spring. Eostre, so the theory goes, was honoured with feasts in the month of Eostre.

At those feasts, it’s thought that breads were decorated with a cross to symbolize the four quarters, or phases, of the moon.

As the ancient Britons weren’t keen on giving up their pagan traditions, the early Christian church adapted many of them to suit its own story. Hence Hot Cross Buns became associated with the crucifixion and the Christian festival of Easter.

Interestingly, the Easter chocolate egg is also said to have roots in an ancient symbol. That of birds’ eggs, representing new life and Spring.

SIMPLE, NO KNEAD BUNS

My Hot Cross Buns are made with a simple, sweet dough, enriched with butter and egg, flavoured with mixed spice and cinnamon.

You can make the dough with either fast acting yeast or your sourdough starter.

I leave the dough overnight, where time will do the work instead of having to knead it.

When you knead dough, what you’re doing is developing the gluten. Gluten is the protein which allows bread to rise. But, leaving a wetter than usual dough to prove overnight for around 14-16 hours, the gluten will get along very nicely without you. Hence, no need to knead.

As an added bonus, I think the longer proving times result in a far better-tasting bread.

In the morning, sultanas, mixed peel, apple and orange zest are folded in and the shaped buns left to rise for a short while.

The distinctive cross is piped on just before I bake the buns. Right after they come out of the oven, I brush the warm buns with honey to give a shiny, sticky glaze.

WANT SPICY FRUIT FLAVOUR BUT A LITTLE QUICKER? TRY HOT CROSS SCONES

ONE A PENNY, TWO A PENNY, HOT CROSS BUNS

Whether you make the sourdough or the quick yeast version of my Hot Cross Buns, the technique is pretty simple. But you do need to be aware of a few things:

• The dough will be very wet so don’t attempt to knead it! Keep your work surface well-floured.
• Folding the dried fruit into the dough is the trickiest part as it will get quite sticky. Just keep going, folding over until the fruit is distributed fairly evenly, using more flour as needed.

• If you think you might start making breads regularly, then it’s worth buying a dough scraper. They’re cheap (not much over £2) but make it so much easier to get wet dough out of proving bowls and to fold it. Scrapers are also good for cleaning up the work surface when you’re done.
• I like to soak my dried fruit and orange zest overnight, using the juice from the orange, but it isn’t vital. You won’t need the juice of the orange in this recipe if you’re not soaking the fruit.

YEAST OR SOURDOUGH?

The only real differences between using quick yeast or a sourdough starter are the length of the proving and the cooking times.

The sourdough will need a longer prove but it’s all hands-off time so you can be doing something else. I usually find that the denser sourdough needs a little longer cooking too.

Whichever method you use, keep a close eye on the buns once they’re in the oven. Due to the added sugar and the sugar in the fruit, they can burn easily.

For this post, I made a batch of yeasted and a batch of sourdough buns. As you might be able to tell from the image above, taken after the overnight rise, the sourdough has a more robust texture whereas the yeasted dough looks a little slacker and has spread out more.

This difference was reflected in the finished Hot Cross Buns with the yeasted ones being a little softer and the sourdough ones chewier. I liked them both so it’s really up to you which method suits you best and what texture you’d like.

Quick Yeast Method

If you want to use the quick yeast method, make sure that the dry yeast you buy is labelled ‘quick’, ‘fast acting’ or similar. The instructions on the pack should say to add the dried yeast with the rest of the dry ingredients. What you don’t want is the type of dried yeast which you have to activate with warm water and sugar first. That type of yeast will not work with this method.

After an overnight prove and folding in the dried fruit, all the yeasted dough needs is bringing together in a ball, resting for 10 minutes then dividing into 16 pieces. Once the pieces are shaped into balls, they’ll need a further rise of just 30 minutes before the cross is piped on and they’re baked in a pre-heated oven for 12-18 minutes.

Sourdough Starter Method

If you’re a sourdough bread baker, then you’ll know that your starter needs to be lively, bubbly and recently fed before use. I always feed my starter again in the late morning if I’m making dough that evening.

For the Hot Cross Buns, your starter is dissolved in cold milk and added to the dry ingredients to make a dough. After the overnight rise, the remaining ingredients are folded in and the dough will need to rest for 30 minutes. After the buns have been shaped, they’ll need another hour before the cross is piped on and they’re baked in a pre-heated oven for around 15-20 minutes.

THE CROSSES

You don’t have to put crosses on the buns, but I like the tradition. It makes them a little bit different to any old fruited bun you might eat the rest of the year.

Often, the cross on a Hot Cross Bun is simply a paste of flour and water. However, I like to include a little sweetness. I use two thirds plain flour and one third icing sugar.

If you don’t usually keep icing sugar in the house, it’s probably not worth buying any for the small amount you’ll use in this recipe, so just use flour. If you’ve got a grinder attachment on a food processor or similar, you can just whizz up some caster sugar and use that instead.

Rather than using a piping bag to put the crosses on (too fiddly for me), I use the squeezy-bottle type with interchangeable nozzles. They’re very cheap to buy and are good for drizzling sauces and dressings too.

HAPPY EOSTRE / EASTER!

Whichever method you use, it’s well worth the little bit of effort to make your own Hot Cross Buns. Slightly crustier than the shop-bought version, but rich with spice and fruit, these taste great whether just-warm from the oven or left to cool.

But always, always slathered in creamy, salty butter.

Happy Eostre!

For an extra buttery version try these Brioche Hot Cross Buns!