A Great Recipe for Easter

Warm, fragrant, and soft, these spiced hot cross buns are a lovely way to celebrate Easter, and they’re completely gluten free. I created this recipe for YesYouCan, and you can find more of my recipes here:

Avoiding gluten means more than giving up traditional breads, cereals, pasta, pizza, and beer. Gluten also lurks in many other products, including frozen vegetables in sauces, soy sauce, some foods made with “natural flavorings,” vitamin and mineral supplements, some medications, and even toothpaste. This makes following a gluten-free diet extremely challenging.

I wanted to take this as a challenge and provide options using the amazing YesYouCan gluten free flours.

These buns are studded with raisins and mixed peel, scented with orange, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and cardamom, and finished with a sticky apricot glaze. YesYouCan Plain Flour is versatile and designed to replace regular flour cup-for-cup in your favourite recipes. Not only is it great for baking breads, cakes, pastry, and pizza bases, it’s also fantastic for batters, dumplings, thickening sauces, and coating foods for frying. It’s dairy and egg free, so suitable for vegan cooking, and also low FODMAP. Shop here: https://www.yesyoucan.net.au

For the Recipe

This recipe uses YesYouCan Plain Flour.

Makes: 12–13 buns (70g pre-baked weight) or 8 rolls (100g pre-baked weight)

Special note: YesYouCan Plain Flour comes in a 500g packet. This recipe has been scaled so you can use 440g for the dough, 40g for the crosses, and 20g to flour the surface.

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 440g YesYouCan Plain Flour, plus more for dusting

Spices and fruit:

• ¼ tsp ground clove
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• 20g mixed peel
• 120g raisins
• 1 tbsp orange zest and juice

Dairy:

• 80g sour cream
• 120ml milk
• 85g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, room temperature, lightly beaten

Sugars:

• 40g cinnamon sugar (38g sugar + 2g cinnamon)
• 40g light brown sugar

Others:

• 1 tsp smoked vanilla salt
• 7g instant yeast (check that your brand is gluten free; you may need to add more depending on the product specifications)
• 15ml vanilla extract

For the egg wash:

• 1 whole egg
• 1 tbsp cream

For the cross:

Please note the video demonstrates a double recipe.

• 40g YesYouCan Plain Flour
• 60ml water

For the glaze:

• 15ml vanilla extract
• 20ml apricot jam
• 20ml water

Directions

For the buns:

• Zest the orange and set aside. Place the raisins and mixed peel in a bowl and squeeze half of the orange’s juice over them. Mix well and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• In a separate pan, combine the milk, butter, and sour cream. Heat until warm to the touch (38°C), then stir in the vanilla and orange zest.
• Add the flour, salt, spices, sugars, and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together to combine.
• Attach the dough hook, pour the wet ingredients into the bowl, and mix on low speed.
• With the mixer running, pour in the lightly beaten egg.
• Add the raisins and peel and mix until the dough comes together.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, sprinkling with extra flour as needed. The dough is ready when it has a smooth texture and holds its shape.
• Transfer to a large bowl, cover, and leave to rise in a warm place. This is a very dense dough, so the yeast will take a little time to get going, but the dough should more than double in size.
• On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into about 12 equal pieces of 70g.
• Shape into rolls and place on a parchment-lined baking tray, 2 inches apart so they have room to expand. For soft-sided pull-apart rolls, place them closer together.
• Cover with cling film and rest in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, until they have almost doubled in size.
• Make the flour paste while the buns are rising.
• Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced.
• Once the buns have risen, brush them with the egg wash.

For the flour paste:

• Whisk the flour and water in a bowl until smooth. You want a thick, pipeable paste, so add more flour or water if needed.
• Transfer the paste to a piping bag, snip off the tip, and pipe a cross onto each bun.
• Bake at 190°C for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. If the buns are browning too quickly at the 20-minute mark, cover loosely with foil and continue baking.

For the glaze:

• Heat the apricot jam and strain it into a bowl. Whisk in the vanilla and water.
• Brush the glaze onto the warm buns and finish with a knob of unsalted butter. Serve and enjoy.

Watch the video below: