Hot cross fun: the joy of homemade Easter buns (including a gluten-free version!)

With tips and recipes from expert bakers, including ideas for gluten-free and plant-based recipes, plus chocolate, cherry and native spice twists, here’s how to DIY a brilliant hot cross bun.

Philip Khoury's hot cross buns. Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Matt Russell

Some folk think a hot cross bun’s finest moment is when it’s warm from the oven, others like nothing more than to split, toast and slather them with butter. Some like candied peel, some definitely don’t (and that’s okay!). And when it comes to the early appearance of HCBs in stores and bakeries… well, that’s a whole other controversy!

What we all agree on, though, is that a dry, overly dense bun is a big disappointment.

Australian chef Philip Khoury, currently the head pastry chef at Harrods in London, puts it beautifully. A hot cross bun should have “the kind of lightness you want to sink your teeth into,” he says, when we talk to him about his plant-based take on the Easter favourite, shared (with many excellent tips) in his book, A New Way to Bake (and pictured above).

Gluten-free blogger Laura Strange, author of the just-released cookbook Eat & Enjoy Gluten free, which includes her Hot Cross Bun 2.0 recipe (and gluten-free puff pastry and filo pastry, among other GF joy), is in the soft bun camp. “Oh yeah you've got to have a nice soft hot cross bun, right?” she answers, when we talk to her about the extra challenge involved in creating a gluten-free version.

Laura Strange's hot cross buns from her new book. Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Lizzie Mayson

Of course, there world of HCB variations is endless: Mary Berg describes her chocolate hot cross buns, which she shares in season 3 of Mary Makes It Easy, as “hot cross bun adjacent”, with a texture that’s both light and chewy. “It kinda has the consistency of a cake donut. But also bready… the texture on these is wild!” she says. And brioche sometimes joins the bun party too, such as this recipe that Ben O’Donoghue makes on My Market Kitchen and serves up with “lashings of butter and jam”.

Whether you’re keen to try making a hot cross bun for the first time or looking for ideas to make this year’s buns better, we’ve gathered together some tips and recipes to help you on your way.

Flour

Dried cherry and chocolate hot cross buns. Credit: Alan Benson

You’ll see bread flour used in many hot cross bun recipes. As Anneka Manning explains in her recipe for dried cherry and chocolate hot cross buns, bread flour is a higher-protein flour. That makes for a higher-gluten dough, giving extra structure and spring to yeast-raised recipes such as breads, buns and pizza. It’s what Philip Khoury uses in his hot cross buns, and what Caroline Griffiths uses in her sticky fruit buns (she describes it “reminiscent of hot cross buns, but without the cross – perfect to eat all year round!”)

If you don’t have or can’t get bread flour, you can still make a delicious bun. Try this recipe (pictured below) for apricot, sultana and currant-studded buns (and using orange and lemon zest rather than candied peel), finished with a mixed spice and sugar glaze. Or this classic fruity hot cross bun recipe.

Hot cross buns Credit: Derek Swalwell

A gluten-free version

“Developing gluten-free baking recipes is quite scientific, as you need to be creative and thoughtful about how to replicate the properties gluten would normally give to a bake, such as softness, pliability and stretch. … there was a lot of trial and error when I developed my very first hot cross bun recipe – some real rock cakes and crumbly buns came out of the oven!” says Laura Strange.

Laura Strange's book 'Eat & Enjoy Gluten Free'. Credit: Hardie Grant Books

Strange was diagnosed as coeliac almost 25 years ago, so she’s spent a long time perfecting gluten-free recipes, including the Hot Cross buns 2.0 recipe from her book, which she’s shared with SBS. Why the 2.0?

“The beautiful buns in my book are the perfect combo of soft crumb with a bit of stretch to them (thanks to the tapioca starch and psyllium husk in the recipe - two magic gluten-free ingredients, which I demystify in my cookbook). I'd been doing a lot of experimenting with adding psyllium husk into gluten-free breads and decided to apply it to my original hot cross bun recipe, which had been so popular with my website readers. And it made them even better! Adding a beautiful squishy-ness to the buns so they are really glorious to eat,” she tells us. “Try them warm from the oven or toasted, slathered with butter, for a perfect teatime Easter treat.”

The tangzhong technique

Tangzhong is a cooked flour and water paste that adds lightness to yeasted bakes and helps them last longer, too. It’s one of the keys to the texture of Khoury’s buns. “Hot cross buns have a tendency to be dense, but also dry out and become stale pretty quickly. Using the tangzhong technique ensures that these will be fluffier and stay moist for as long as possible,” Khoury writes in his book. “Spices in a yeasted dough can slow down fermentation which can lead to them being dense. And without adding butter or more water, tangzhong allows you to add a bit more moisture without compromising handling,” he adds, when we talk to him about his recipe (which you can see him making on YouTube - the book has QR codes linking recipes to clips so readers can see how it's done).

Philip Khoury and his book A New Way To Bake Credit: Hardie Grant Books

Mary Berg uses it for her choc-orange buns, too. “It’s great to add to pretty much any sweet buns because it helps keep the dough fresh and soft longer. Sweet doughs in particular really like to go stale fast,” she says.

Chocolate orange hot cross buns. Credit: Mary Makes It Easy / Geoff George

Rising and proving time (aka don’t rush it!)

Many yeasted baked goods have two stages where the dough, or the shaped buns, loaves, etc, are set aside for the yeast to do its work, and it’s crucial not to rush these stages. ‘Rise’ is usually used to describe the stage where a mixed and kneaded yeasted dough is set aside to rise, usually until doubled in size; ‘prove’ refers to the stage where shaped breads, buns etc are allowed to rise a second time.

Philip Khoury’s recipe includes multiple helpful tips, including an explanation of why it’s important to let a yeasted dough rise and prove.

“[The] initial rise – or what professionals call a bulk ferment – allows the dough to develop flavour and to rest. Timings are always a guide, based on a room temperature of 20–22°C (68–72°F). If your room is warmer or colder your timings may need to shift. Yeast is a living organism and if it’s warmer it works quicker and if colder it’s much slower, so read your dough for its visual cues rather than rigidly sticking to timings,” he writes.

Likewise, his tip on proving has several helpful pointers:

“Proving is the one stage most inexperienced bakers will rush but it is crucial to ensure light fluffy products that eat beautifully. Underproved doughs result in dense, unenjoyable eat. You will know most doughs have fully proved once they have doubled in size or pass the jiggle test – where a gently wobbled baking sheet makes the buns jiggle. I also find it useful to mark the size of the buns on the tray before proving.”

Philip Khoury's hot cross buns. Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Matt Russell

Soaked fruit and Indigenous spices

There are many ways to make a HCB recipe your own, from the fruit to the spices to the glaze.

Want to put an Australian twist on this British bun? Try this recipe, published by NITV, for native-spiced hot cross buns, from Warndu co-owner and First Nations Food Companion co-author Rebecca Sullivan. Her recipe adds cinnamon anise, anise myrtle and lemon myrtle powders, finger lime zest, muntries and riberries to the dough.

Australian Native Hot Cross Buns by Rebecca Sullivan (Instagram / @grannyskills) Source: Instagram / Instagram / @grannyskills

Philip Khoury also shared an idea for a flavour lift: “I love to soak my fruits (the night before I make them and leave them at room temperature) - usually a bit of Earl Grey tea just lifts the flavour and keeps the fruit nice and juicy!”

Curious as to what Khoury uses to top hot cross buns, given he writes in his book that he prefers to avoid margarine in cooking, we asked him about his favourite way to eat them.

“I love a toasted bun with a healthy smear of almond or hazelnut butter! There’s a great clean label spread called Naturli which also works great when I crave a butter hit but otherwise, it’s a nut butter – I also make my own with toasted almonds and a pinch of salt and ground blended in a NutriBullet until a paste forms.”

Beyond the bun

Finally, we bring you this idea, where bun meets biscuit: a hot cross cookie recipe!

Credit: China Squirrel

Find many more Easter ideas in SBS Food's Easter recipe collection.