Best Soft Hot Cross Buns Recipe
This is an easy, step-by-step recipe for soft hot cross buns. Made from an enriched dough, with spices and fruit, these hot cross buns can be made by hand or in a mixer.
Fluffy hot cross buns around Easter time are a New Zealand staple! Served fresh or toasted, with lots of butter.
The ingredients
Find the full list of ingredients for this hot cross buns recipe in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here is a rundown of a few of the key ingredients.
- Spices. The spices in this recipe include ground cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cloves.
- Fruit. The fruit in this hot cross bun recipe includes raisins, orange zest and juice, and lemon zest. The raisins are soaked in orange juice first to slightly plump up before being added to the dough. The dried fruit used can be swapped or added to if you wish – Candied citrus peel, sultanas, dried apples, currants, chopped apricots, and cranberries work well too.
- All-purpose flour. The dough for the hot cross buns is simple to put together, though it needs plenty of time to be kneaded. For this recipe, an all-purpose flour is used, one with a protein level of around 11% is best. A bread flour could also be used. If kneading by hand, flour with a higher protein level is easier.
- Yeast. The yeast used in this recipe can be instant yeast or active dry yeast. Instant yeast will rise faster than active dried yeast. Whichever one you use, it needs to be viable. Usually, the instant yeast sachets are pretty foolproof, but sometimes active dried yeast can lose viability.
- Whole milk, egg, brown sugar and unsalted butter, room temperature.
Baker’s Schedule
This recipe can be an overnight hot cross buns recipe or a same-day hot cross buns recipe, depending on what works best for you. Here is the baker’s schedule with the two options.
Day 1
- Mix and knead the dough.
- Proof the dough until doubled or place the dough in the fridge overnight to rise slowly.
- Shape the hot cross buns and let them double.
- Bake and glaze
Day 2 – if the dough was refrigerated overnight
- Remove the dough from the fridge
- Shape the hot cross buns and let them double in size.
- Bake and glaze
Method
- In a saucepan or in the microwave, warm the orange juice. Take it off the heat and add in the raisins.
- Leave them to sit and hydrate while the dough is mixed.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add yeast, sugar, flour, salt, spices, warm milk and egg.
- Turn the mixer on low speed and combine until it forms a thick but slightly sticky dough.
- Add in the softened butter and keep mixing until the butter has been incorporated.
- Turn the mixer on medium speed and keep it mixing until the sticky dough starts to strengthen and come together and pull away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. This can take around 15 minutes.
- Proper gluten development will allow you to stretch the dough so thin you can almost see through it. This is called the ‘windowpane test.’ To test this, leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes before grabbing a small piece and stretching it.
- Drain the raisins and add them to the dough along with the fruit zest.
- Mix it together to incorporate the raisins. If doing this by hand, you will notice this brings extra moisture back into the dough. Don’t worry, just keep kneading it gently until the raisins are incorporated. Using wet hands can help.
- Pull the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball.
- Place the dough ball into a clean bowl and cover it with a lid or plate, or a damp tea towel, and let the dough rise in a warm place or 1.5- 2 hours until doubled in size.
If making overnight hot cross buns, the dough can be covered and placed in the refrigerator overnight to rise slowly.
Shaping the dough
- Pull the dough onto a clean bench and cut it into 9 equal pieces (use a scale for exact measurements).
- Use your hands to form each piece into a tight ball. Line a 9×9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper.
- Place each ball into the baking tray, then cover with a damp tea towel and let them rise until just doubled in size. You can create a warm spot by gently preheating an oven to 104°F/40°C, turning the oven off, and placing the dough buns in there.
Baking
- Mix the ingredients for the crosses and fill a piping bag fitted with a small tip. Pipe the crosses onto the buns.
- Bake the buns until golden brown. While the buns are baking, mix together the glaze ingredients.
- Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the buns with sugar syrup the moment they come from the oven. Leave the buns to cool for about 20 minutes before eating.
Serving and storing
Serve fresh with butter, or toast them. Store leftover buns in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
More hot cross buns
Here are some others to try!
- Brioche Hot Cross Buns
- Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
- Orange Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
- Double Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
Soft Hot Cross Buns Recipe
A traditional hot cross buns recipe for the fluffiest, soft hot cross buns. Filled with spices and fruit, these hot cross buns can be made by hand or in a mixer.
Ingredients
Dough
- 240 g luke-warm milk
- 2 tsp instant or active dried yeast
- 75 g brown sugar
- 440 g all-purpose flour*
- 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 large egg
- 60 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Fruit
- 140 g raisins
- Juice and zest of 1 orange
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
Crosses
- 50 g Tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 50 g water
Glaze
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp boiling water
Instructions
- To test the viability of yeast before beginning, warm the milk and mix in the yeast along with one tablespoon of the sugar. Leave it to sit for 5-10 minutes. If it becomes foamy, it's good to go.
- In a saucepan, warm the orange juice until simmering. Take it off the heat and add in the raisins. Leave them to sit and hydrate while the dough is mixed.
- Add the yeast, milk, remaining sugar, flour, salt, spices, and egg in a stand mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook. Turn the mixer on low and combine until it forms a thick but slightly sticky dough. Add in the room temperature butter and keep mixing until the butter has been incorporated.
- Turn the mixer on medium speed and keep it mixing until the sticky dough strengthens, comes together, and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. This can take around 10-15 minutes. Proper gluten development will allow you to stretch the dough so thin you can almost see through it. This is called the 'window pane' effect. To test this, leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes before grabbing a small piece and stretching it.
- Drain the raisins and add them to the dough and the fruit zest. Mix it to incorporate the raisins. If doing this by hand, you will notice this brings extra moisture back into the dough. Don’t worry. Keep kneading it gently until the raisins are incorporated.
- Pull the dough from the bowl onto a bench and form it into a ball. Place the dough ball into a clean bowl, cover it with a lid or plate or a damp tea towel, and let it in a warm spot for 1.5- 2 hours until doubled in size. If making overnight hot cross buns, the dough can be covered and placed in the refrigerator overnight.
- After proofing, pull the dough onto a clean bench and cut it into nine even pieces (use a scale for exact measurements). Use your hands to form each piece into a tight ball. Line a 9×9 inch square baking dish with parchment paper.
- Place each ball into the baking tray, then cover with a damp tea towel and let them rise until doubled in size. You can create a warm rising spot by gently preheating an oven to 104°F/40°C, turning the oven off, and placing the buns there.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180°C standard oven. Mix the ingredients for the crosses into a paste. Scoop it into a piping bag with a small tip and pipe the crosses onto the buns.
- Bake the buns for approximately 25-30 minutes until golden brown. While the buns are baking, mix the glaze ingredients. Use a pastry brush to brush the hot baked buns with glaze when they come from the oven. Leave the buns to cool for about 20 minutes before eating.
Notes
Use the toggle to switch between metric and cups. The cup sizes given are for US cups. Note that these are smaller than metric cup sizes. For best results, use grams.
Nutrition
Serving: 1gCalories: 405kcalCarbohydrates: 78gProtein: 9gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 218mgFiber: 3gSugar: 29g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
I have tried different recipes over the past few years but this recipe by far trumps them all! They were like bakery bought ones but better!!
Have you got a recipe for chocolate hot cross buns?
Thank you
Hey Ellie! I am so pleased you enjoyed them. I don’t currently have a chocolate one on the blog but it is definitely on the cards!
Hey Kelsie, sorry they didn’t work for you! You don’t need to let the dough come to room temperature before shaping them into balls, but after shaping you definitely need to let them double in size before baking! Did you do that step?
I’ve been looking for a good fluffy hot cross bun recipe for years. I have now finally found it. These are so good. Also, thanks for not making this recipe page unusably full of advertisements and popups.
So happy you liked the recipe! I appreciate you making it :).
Some ads will become a part of the blog in the future though so I can afford to keep writing recipes. Hopefully, with the jump to recipe button, it’s nothing that will deter your experience too much!
I’ve been making hot cross buns for many years now, and this is the best recipe I’ve come across. They are the fluffiest buns I’ve made. It’s my new go-to recipe.
Yay so happy to read this!
Discovered this recipe last year and when my daughter asked to make HCBs today – the first of the season- I knew exactly which recipe to turn to. So so good. Love the orange juice-soaked raisins (actually used currants this time as I couldn’t find my raisins!), and so light. So good. Try these, you won’t regret it!
These look great! Have you tried them without the fruit? I have a family member who can’t eat any dried fruit due to medical reasons. Would I need to add more liquid to account for this?
Hey Ash, you can just leave out the fruit ingredient :). I do a similar version of this dough for my double chocolate hot cross buns and they don’t have any fruit added.
Awesome, thank you!
Just had to come back to say these were the BEST! Absolutely perfect texture. I did the overnight version and warmed the oven gently for their second rise this morning. Family said they were the best they’d ever tasted. This is my forever recipe now – thank you!
Yaay so happy to read this!! 😀😀
I am so hoping mine turn out! They seem almost too buttery as if it didn’t mix into the dough enough BUT will see how they go overnight 😁
Mine also did not stick to my dough hook like yours did (KitchenAid) so I kneaded by hand
Hope they work out for you! 🙂
Mine are in their second rise, and they look wonderful, but I see two different baking temperatures. Shall I use the 350 F. degrees in the PRINT instructions or the 390 F. degrees in the detailed instructions?
Hey Jill it should be 350, thanks for pointing that out! 🙂
Have a question going to try this recipe for the end of the month, what is the recipe for the chocolate ones.
Thanks and have a Blessed Day🙏
Hey Virginia, I have two chocolate versions on the blog you might like! An orange chocolate – https://bakingwithbutter.com/orange-chocolate-hot-cross-buns/
and a double chocolate – https://bakingwithbutter.com/double-chocolate-hot-cross-buns/
I just mixed this dough and it smells absolutely divine!! I added a half tsp of coriander in the attempt to get the spices closer to British mixed spice and I’m very excited to try these out!
I have made these and chocolate with chocolate chips and they are amazing.
So amazing in fact that it’s 1am and I’ve just put two batches of dough in the fridge to rise so I can shape the balls and do the second rise early in the morning as I have guests coming. They were amazing last year and I’m sure they will be amazing this year and for many years to come.
Thanks for the recipe,
Cazz – Australia.