Learn how to make your own soft & fragrant gluten free hot cross buns! Though they’re traditionally enjoyed on Good Friday in time for Easter, these spiced buns are good enough to eat any time of year. This recipe is made with a basic gluten-free enriched dough, filled with a warming blend of spices, tea-soaked dried fruit and fresh orange zest with a sticky apricot jam glaze brushed on top.
Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns
- Soak the dried fruit in hot juice or tea.
- Sneak a bit more flavor into your buns by plumping up the raisins/sultanas before adding it to the dough. Then save the tea/juice and use that to make the flour cross later.
- You must chill the dough before shaping.
- Enriched doughs like this tend to be quite sticky because the enriching ingredients (milk, butter, eggs) add a lot of fat and moisture. Though it may be tempting to add more flour so it’s easier to handle, that will just make your buns hard & dense. The fix? Rest your dough in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes. This will firm up the dough a bit, making it less sticky & easier to handle.
- You can play around with different spices and add-ins:
- Use whatever citrus you have on for the zest, add more or less dried spices depending on what you’re going for. Swap the sultanas for raisins, dried blueberries, currents, chocolate chips, etc. Ditch the crystallised ginger or add candied orange peel.
How to Make these Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns
1. Steep dried fruit: Add raisins to a large mug and cover with 1/2 cup boiling water, tea (chai, ginger or something warm & spicy) or juice (apple or orange). If you don’t own a kettle, boil some water on the stove top then add the raisins. Set aside to soak while you prep the other ingredients.
When you’re ready, strain out the fruit but save the leftover liquid to use to make the flour crosses later. Make sure to pat the dried fruit dry before you add them to the dough.
Make the Dough
2. Psyllium gel: whisk whole psyllium husk and water together until no lumps remain – very quickly the mixture will thicken up into a gel. Set aside.
3. Dry ingredients: Whisk the gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, yeast, sugar & spices together in a stand mixer bowl.
4. Wet ingredients: Add the psyllium gel, egg, milk, yoghurt, softened butter and orange zest. Mix on a medium speed about 4-5 minutes to combine.
5. Dried fruit & ginger: Add the dried fruit and crystallised ginger to the bowl. Mix another minute or so until you end up with a thick, sticky dough.
6. Chill: Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl and gather the dough into one big clump. Cover the bowl then place in the fridge to rest/ chill 30-60 minutes so that it firms up/less sticky.
7. Shape & divide: Lightly flour a work surface and add the chilled dough. Sprinkle a bit more flour over the top and smooth along the outside surface of the dough. Divide the dough into 12 pieces.
8. Roll dough: Roll each piece of dough into a ball then place in a greased 9×13 inch baking dish. Leave a little bit of space in between each ball for rising.
9. Cover & proof: Cover the dish then set aside in a warm, draft free environment for 1 hour or until the dough balls have risen.
Make the Flour Cross
10. Flour paste: Whisk leftover tea or juice with 1/2 cup flour to form a thick paste. If it’s too dry to pipe, add a little bit more water. If it’s too thin and runny, add a bit more flour.
After mixing, transfer the paste to a piping bag or a DIY piping bag made from a large zip-top bag.
11. Pipe crosses: While the oven preheats, pipe the flour paste on the top buns. Pipe a line down the middle of each bun then rotate the baking pan and pipe another row down the middle to make crosses.
12. Bake: Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. After about 15 minutes, remove the foil to let the tops golden. The steam trapped in the foil during the first half of the bake time will help keeps the tops of the buns soft so they don’t cook on top too quickly.
13. Glaze: While the buns bake, add apricot jam and water to a small microwave safe bowl and heat for about 30 seconds. Whisk together to make a glaze. Brush over the tops of the buns right after they come out of the oven, while still warm.
Recipe Tips & Variations
- Alternative add-Ins:
- Swap out the dried fruit for chocolate chips or try it with dried blueberries or cherries instead. Add chopped candied citrus peel, fresh grated ginger.
- Fruit steep:
- Instead of soaking the dried fruit in tea you use warmed orange juice, apple juice or even water.
- A different glaze:
- sugar: mix1 tbsp sugar with 2 tbsp hot/warm water (warm water helps dissolve the sugar)
- honey/maple: mix 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup with 1 tbsp water
- golden syrup: mix 1 tbsp with 1 tbsp water
- Play with the spices:
- HCB spices quite a bit from recipe to recipe. You’ll find cinnamon is pretty much every recipe along with some combination of allspice, ginger and nutmeg. Less common, but still popular spice additions include ground coriander, cloves and mace.
More Gluten-Free Bread Recipes
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this Gluten Free Hot Cross Bun recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns Recipe
Gluten free hot cross buns made with a basic enriched dough full of warm spices, dried fruit and orange zest. Each bun is complete with the traditional cross & brushed with a apricot glaze.
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried raisins, sultanas or dried fruit of your choice (70g)
- ½ cup strongly brewed tea - chai, earl grey, ginger - see notes* (120ml)
- 3 tbsp whole psyllium husk (15g)
- ⅔ cup room temp water (160ml)
- 2 ½ cup + 1 tbsp gluten free all purpose flour (360g)
- ½ cup brown sugar - light or dark (110g)
- 1 tsp salt (8g)
- 2 ¼ tsp instant yeast (8g)
- 2 tsp baking powder (8g)
- 2 tsp xanthan gum (6g)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 ground all spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ⅓ cup whole milk, room temperature (80g)
- ⅓ cup greek yoghurt, room temperature (80g)
- 3 tbsp softened butter (42g)
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tbsp fresh orange zest
- ⅓ cup crystallised ginger (45g) - optional
Flour Cross
- ½ cup gluten free all purpose flour (70g)
- 4-6 tbsp leftover tea used to soak the dried fruit
Glaze
- 1 tbsp apricot jam
- 2-3 tsp water
Instructions
- Soak fruit: Add the raisins/sultanas to a large mug with strongly brewed tea or warmed juice/water. Leave the fruit to soak for 15-20 minutes if making the dough ASAP or leave to soak over night. Strain out the fruit (save the tea/juice/liquid for later to make your flour cross). Make sure to drain the fruit well and pat dry excess moisture so it doesn't weigh down the dough.
- Psyllium Gel: Mix water and psyllium husk together in a medium bowl. Set aside to thicken into a gel.
- Dry Ingredients: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk: flour, sugar, yeast, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, cinnamon, allspice and ginger.
- Wet Ingredients: Add psyllium gel, milk, butter, egg and zest to the flour mixture. Mix on a medium speed with the dough hook or paddle attachment, about 5 minutes to ensure it's evenly mixed. Stop and scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl every so often. Add the sultanas and ginger and mix another minute until well combined. The dough will look sticky and wet, but should easily clump together when you scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.
- Chill: Cover the bowl and place in a fridge for 30-60 minutes. After chilling the dough should be less sticky and easier to divide and roll into shape.
- Pan Prep: Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish or two 9-inch baking dishes. Place within reach of your dough so you can add dough balls to it as you work.
- Knead & Divide: Add dough to a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle a little bit of flour top of the dough to make it easier to shape, then divide dough into 12 equal sized pieces (about 90g each).
- Shape: With floured hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball by flattening the dough into a disc shape into your palm, then gather and pinch together the edges of the disc so the dough stretches across one side to create a smooth, dome. Place the dough balls in the prepared pan, seam-side down. Leave a bit of space in-between each dough ball so that they are barely touching or almost touching.
- Rise: Cover with plastic wrap, foil or a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm, place to let the dough rise for at least 1 hour or until the dough balls have doubled in size - no more space in between.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Make the cross: Whisk the flour and 4 tbsp of leftover tea together in a small bowl to create a smooth, thick paste. If the mixture is too thick for piping, add an extra 1-2 tbsp tea until your mixture is smooth, thick but still thin enough to pipe. Spoon the paste into a piping bag or large sandwich bag with a small piece off the corner of the bag. Pipe a long line down the center of each row to end up with a line down the middle of each roll. Then turn the baking dish 90° and pipe another line down each row to complete the crosses.
- Bake: Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Rotate the pan halfway through cooking to ensure even coloring.
- Glaze: Mix the jam and water together in a small bowl. Brush the glaze over the warm rolls and enjoy.
- Leftovers: Cool and store in an airtight container 1-2 days at room temperature, in the fridge up to 1 week or frozen up to 3 months.
Notes
- Tea alternatives: Instead of soaking the dried fruit in tea you use warmed orange juice, apple juice or even water. You won't get too much flavor from tea/juice in the raisins/sultanas, but it will add a bit more flavor to flour cross later.
- Yoghurt: The extra fat & protein helps make for softer, more tender buns that have a little extra squishiness to them, but if you prefer you can swap out the yoghurt for more milk instead.
- Make it egg free: Add 2 tbsp milk (30ml) + 1 tbsp oil or butter (15ml).
- Yeast: Use instant yeast (AKA: quick-rise or rapid-rise yeast) so there’s no need to dissolve it into water first.
- Make this by hand without a stand mixer - Just make sure to take your time to ensure you mix everything thoroughly. Use a wooden spoon to combine the wet and dry until a dough starts to form, then use your hands to mix and knead the rest. The dough will be quite thick & sticky before you chill it - try not to add any extra flour before chilling so you don't dry out the dough.
- Glaze alternatives: Mix 1 tbsp honey, maple or golden syrup with 1 tbsp water OR 1 tbsp caster sugar with 2 tbsp warm water - mix until sugar dissolves.
- For best results: Use a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients. Small weight variations can make a big difference!
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