High Altitude Hot Cross Buns
Homemade hot cross buns are soft, fluffy and subtly sweet, with raisins and warm spices. These make the perfect roll to serve with Easter dinner.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- 9x13 Baking Dish
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 3 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 2 tbsp bread flour
Dough
- ⅔ cup raisins
- ¼ cup hot water
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry or instant/rapid rise yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 3 cups bread flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 large egg, room temperature
Egg Wash and Cross
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp whole milk
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2-3 tbsp water
Glaze
- ½ cup orange marmalade or apricot jam, pureed and slightly warmed
Instructions
Make the Tangzhong
- In a small saucepan, whisk together the water, milk and flour. Cook over medium heat for several minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens into a paste.
- Remove from the heat, scrape the tangzhong into a small bowl, and refrigerate to cool it down while you make the dough.
Make the Dough
- In a small bowl, combine the raisins with the hot water, then let them soak and soften for several minutes.
- In the same saucepan you used to make the tangzhong (no need to wash the pan first), melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the milk, and warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let sit for a few minutes until it starts to get bubbly.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine all but 1/2 cup of the flour with the remainder of the sugar, salt and spices. Add the warm yeast mixture, the cooled tangzhong, egg and raisins, including the raisin water.
- With the dough hook, knead the dough for 10 minutes, gradually adding the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, only if needed. The dough should be soft and smooth, and will wrap around the dough hook, but may still stick to the bottom of the bowl. Don't be tempted to add more flour, though, or the buns will be dense.
- Scrape the dough into a greased bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. This could take anywhere from 45-90 minutes, depending on the freshness/brand of yeast, and how warm your kitchen is.If your oven has a bread proof setting, you can use that. Otherwise, preheat your oven to the lowest setting, turn it off, then set the dough inside to rise.
Shape the Buns
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and flour the top of the dough, too. Gently press the dough out into a circle, about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 12 equal portions with a bench scraper or a sharp chef's knife, dipped in flour in between cuts.
- Take a piece of dough, cup it in your hand, and pinch the dough together to form it into a bun, so that it's smooth on top and pinched on the bottom.
- Place the buns, smooth side facing up, into a buttered 9x13 inch baking dish.Baker's Note: If you want to make the dough and shape the buns the night before Easter, complete all the steps up to this point, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, proceed to the next step. The buns may need an hour or longer to come to room temperature and warm up before they start to puff and fill the pan. Once they do, they're ready to bake.
- Cover the pan loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside until the buns are starting to puff up, about 20-30 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- For the egg wash, whisk together the egg and milk, and lightly brush the egg wash over the buns (save the leftover egg wash to add to scrambled eggs). This will give them a beautiful golden brown color as they bake.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour and water to make a drizzly paste - it shouldn't be so thick that you can't pipe it through a piping bag, but you don't want it too thin and watery, either. Scrape the flour paste into a piping bag, snip off the tip, and pipe the paste across the buns in both directions, to form a "cross" on each bun.
- Bake the buns for about 25-35 minutes, until golden brown on top and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the buns reads 195 F. If the buns are underdone, they'll have a doughy texture, but baking them for too long will dry them out, so checking the temperature is important for a perfectly baked bun.
- Brush the marmalade or jam over the top of the buns while they're hot to give them a shiny finish and to add a little sweetness. Let cool for a few minutes, then pull the buns apart and serve warm with soft butter.
Notes
Store leftover buns in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. To reheat, place the buns in the oven and warm them at 300 degrees F for about 5-7 minutes.
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