The Royal Pastry Chefs shared their recipe for delicious hot cross buns fit for a Queen on Friday, 15 April 2022 on social media.

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and the United States.

They now traditionally go on sale on Boxing Day in Australia!

Ingredients

• 1.5 free-range eggs
• 25g (1/8 cup) fresh yeast
• 375g (3 cups) strong flour
• 2 tablespoons unrefined caster sugar
• 60g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• a generous pinch of salt
• 130ml (½ cup) tepid or lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons candied mixed peel
• 2 tablespoons golden sultanas
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice

The Piping Paste

• 4 tablespoons plain white flour
• 1 tablespoon unrefined caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon cold water

You will need a piping bag for the paste.

The Sugar Syrup

• 100ml (½ cup) water
• 200g (1 cup) unrefined caster sugar

Method

Preheat your oven to 220ºC (425ºF or Gas mark 7).

Disperse the yeast in tepid water. Sieve the flour, salt, sugar and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Place the eggs and dispersed yeast into a small bowl and mix together before pouring into the well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Mix together to form a soft pliable dough and work in the butter.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and carefully incorporate the dried fruit into the dough. Knead the dough for a further 5 minutes, or until it feels smooth and elastic. 

Divide the dough into evenly sized buns – this recipe makes about 15.

Or you can weigh them on a set of scales to ensure consistent sizes; you will need about 50 grams of dough per bun.

Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place it on a lined baking tray and cover it with cling film and leave it to prove for 30-45 minutes – they should double in size.

While you are waiting, mix together the ingredients for the piping paste to form a paste with a consistency that will allow you to pipe a cross onto each bun.

Once the buns have finished their prove, pipe the crosses, then place the buns on the middle shelf of the preheated oven and bake for 8–12 minutes, or until they turn a pale golden brown.

Whilst they bake, boil together the sugar and water to make the sugar syrup. As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, brush them with the warm sugar syrup and set them aside to cool on a wire rack.

Serve and enjoy!

Origins of Hot Cross Buns

A 14th-Century monk Brother Thomas Rodcliffe first baked hot cross buns at St Alban’s Abbey in England which were then given out to the local poor on Good Friday.

Eating hot cross buns symbolises the end of the Christian season of Lent.

The ingredients of the hot cross bun have a certain symbolism as the cross represents the crucifixion of Jesus whilst the spices represent those used to embalm him at his burial.

London Clerk of Markets during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign banned the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced breads in 1592, except for burials or funerals, Good Friday and Christmas. Those who disobeyed resulted in forfeiture of the forbidden products to the poor.

The ban continued during King James I’s reign from 1603 to 1625.

As a result, hot cross buns were made in people’s homes.

The nursery rhyme, Hot Cross Buns, was first published during the 18th Century.