You won't be able to resist these gently spiced, sweet, fruity and delicious Vegan Hot Cross Buns. Perfect treat to enjoy at Easter & beyond!
These egg and dairy-free vegan hot cross buns are as essential for me during the weeks in the run up to Easter as my mince pies are during December festive season!
I usually make them quite a few times before and during the Easter holidays. We all happen to love them so single batch doesn't last long at all!
Fluffy, light, fruity, gently spiced and with the right amount of sweetness, they are best enjoyed warm with some dairy-free butter!
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Hot Cross Buns - Origins
Hot cross buns are yeasted, gently sweetened buns made with mixed dried fruit (raisins, currants, orange peel etc.) and known for their characteristic cross on top.
They were traditionally eaten on Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and to mark the end of Lent. Nowadays, they are available pretty much all year round. [source: Wikipedia]
✔️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Traditional bake made easy.
- Delicious yeasted buns your family will love.
- Great snack in the run up to Easter and beyond.
- Make perfect breakfast.
- So much nicer than shop-bought.
- They will make your kitchen smell amazing.
- Freezer friendly.
📝Ingredients and substitutes
Strong Bread Flour - Using bread flour rather than plain (all-purpose) one here will result in lighter, fluffier buns. However, you could use plain flour as well if that's all you've got.
Wholemeal Flour - I like to add that bit of goodness to my buns with wholemeal flour but feel free to use 100% white flour if you want.
You could also go the other way and increase the amount of wholemeal flour. Having said that, I wouldn't go over half & half ratio though if you don't want your wholemeal hot cross buns to be dense .
Dried Yeast - I use instant yeast that doesn't need to be dissolved in water and can go straight into the mixing bowl with all your other dry ingredients.
Caster (Fine) Sugar - To add that little bit of sweetness and fine, caster sugar works the best.
Mixed Spice - So beautifully fragrant and convenient but you could of course use single ground spices instead (nutmeg, ginger, cloves etc.)
Cinnamon - My favourite spice ever so I am being very generous with it and personally I don't find it overpowering but if your feelings towards cinnamon are mixed then perhaps use 1 teaspoon instead of 2.
Salt
Dried Fruit - I usually go for raisins or sultanas alone as my kids are not too keen on orange peel. Feel free to use mixed dried fruit that you enjoy the most including peel.
Orange Zest - Even though my kids don't like orange peel in their hot cross buns, we all love that gentle citrus aroma hence addition of orange zest. You could use lemon zest instead if you prefer.
Vegan Butter - I use block vegan butter - Flora Plant (UK)
Oat Milk - Use unsweetened version if possible. Soya milk works just as well.
Maple Syrup - It works really great as a glaze and gives the buns that wonderful sheen. However, you could use some sugar syrup, apricot jam or even marmalade to glaze yours.
🔪 Instructions
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Put all the dry ingredients + orange or lemon zest (if using) in a large mixing bowl or bowl of your stand mixer.
Make sure to keep yeast away from salt and sugar at this point.
Give it all a good mix with a whisk or paddle attachment (if using stand mixer).
Put butter in a small saucepan/milk pan and melt it gently over low heat. Once melted, take it off the heat, add oat milk and give it a little stir.
The heat from just melted butter will warm up the oat milk and the mixture will be just the right (warm to hand) temperature to use in the dough.
Make a well in your dry ingredients and pour in milk and butter mixture.
Slowly start incorporating it into the flour until you get sticky, shaggy dough mixture. As hot cross buns dough is quite sticky to work with, I would highly recommend using stand mixer with dough hook for kneading.
Turn the dough out onto lightly floured counter and knead for approximately 10 minutes by hand (or 5 if using your stand mixer). Make sure to use lowest possible speed if using mixer.
The dough should become smooth and elastic but it will remain pretty sticky. You can add a little bit of flour as you go to make the dough easier to handle, however, try not add too much as it will result in denser buns.
Add dried fruit and continue kneading the dough until it's well incorporated.
Once you've incorporated dried fruit into the dough, return it into lightly oiled bowl, cover with clean tea towel (or plastic shower cap) and put it somewhere warm to prove until doubled in size.
Proving time will depend on the temperature of the environment.
Punch your risen dough to deflate it, give it a quick knead and divide into 12 equal balls. I like to weigh my dough but you don't have to.
Shape the balls into neat buns and place onto prepared baking sheet making sure that you leave some space between them to allow for expansion.
Cover the tray loosely with a clean tea towel and leave the buns to prove in a warm place until they double in size or at least puff up substantially.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
Make crosses by preparing simple paste from mixture of plain flour in water. You want it to be consistency of thick paste.
Put it in a piping bag or simple plastic sandwich bag, snip off the tip and pipe a cross on each of the buns.
Bake hot cross buns in preheated oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
As soon as the buns are out of the oven brush them with some maple syrup for that shiny, sticky glaze and transfer onto cooling rack.
Overnight Hot Cross Buns
You could start making hot cross buns the evening before and finish off in the morning.
In order to do that simply prepare your dough as per recipe below and instead of letting it prove somewhere warm to double in size, let it prove in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, take the dough out of the fridge, and proceed with the recipe as per instructions below.
💭 Helpful Tips
- Use stand mixer with dough hook attachment if you've got one as the dough is quite sticky and it's much easier to knead it in a machine.
- Too much extra flour will make your buns denser. Sprinkle a little extra if you have to but only so the dough is manageable and doesn't stick to your hands too much. I had to add couple of extra tablespoons to this batch to make the dough manageable.
- Don't let yeast come in contact with salt and sugar when you add your ingredients into a bowl. Always put yeast on one side and salt and sugar on the other.
- Use airing cupboard if you've got one for proving your dough.
- Don't worry if your hot cross buns don't exactly double in size during second proving. As long as they've risen a bit and puffed up, that's fine.
- Use reusable shower cap to cover bowl with your dough when proving.
🥡 Storing and freezing
Vegan hot cross buns are best eaten on the day they're baked but they toast beautifully the following day too.
Once cooled, store them in the airtight container for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
When freezing, I like to cut my buns in half so that I can pop them into the toaster straight from the freezer.
Alternatively, freeze whole buns and defrost on kitchen counter and warm up in the oven.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Vegan hot cross buns really don't need a lot. Some dairy-free butter and you are in heaven.
For a twist on classic hot cross buns try using vegan chocolate chips instead of dried fruit. Such a treat! Chocolatey buns go beautifully with some peanut or almond butter, so good!
❓ FAQ
No you don't. You can make them simply as sweet, fruity buns if you wanted to.
You can easily make these the night before to bake in the morning. See- Overnight Hot Cross Buns.
Have you tried my Vegan Hot Cross Buns?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below and share your views or tips in the comments.
😋 More Easter bakes you might enjoy!
Easter Biscuits (Vegan)
Mini Egg Brownies (Vegan)
Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake
White Chocolate Blondies with Mini Eggs
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Mini Eggs
Mini Egg Cookie Bars (Vegan)
📋 Recipe
Vegan Hot Cross Buns
Equipment
Ingredients
Hot Cross Buns
- 350 g strong white bread flour
- 100 g wholemeal flour see notes
- 50 g caster (fine) sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon mixed spice see notes
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon see notes
- 2 teaspoon (or 7g sachet) dried (instant/easy) yeast
- 50 g vegan block butter I use Flora Plant
- 300 ml oat milk
- 120 g mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, orange peel etc.) see notes
- zest of 1 orange or lemon optional
Cross
- 4 tablespoon plain (all-purpose) flour
- 2-3 tablespoon cold water
Glaze
- maple syrup, sugar syrup, apricot jam, orange marmalade choose whatever glaze you like
Instructions
- Put all the dry ingredients + orange or lemon zest (if using) in a large mixing bowl or bowl of your stand mixer. Make sure to keep yeast away from salt and sugar at this point. Give it all a good mix with a whisk or paddle attachment (if using stand mixer)
- Put butter in a small saucepan/milk pan and melt it gently over low heat. Once melted, take it off the heat, add oat milk and give it a little stir.The heat from just melted butter will warm up the oat milk and the mixture will be just the right (warm to hand) temperature to use in the dough.
- Make a well in your dry ingredients and pour in milk and butter mixture.Slowly start incorporating it into the flour until you get sticky, shaggy dough mixture. As hot cross buns dough is quite sticky to work with, I would highly recommend using stand mixer with dough hook for kneading.Turn the dough out onto lightly floured counter and knead for approximately 10 minutes by hand (or 5 if using your stand mixer). Make sure to use lowest possible speed if using mixer.The dough should become smooth and elastic but it will remain pretty sticky. You can add a little bit of flour as you go to make the dough easier to handle, however, try not add too much as it will result in denser buns.
- Add dried fruit and continue kneading your dough until it's well incorporated.
- Once you've incorporated dried fruit into the dough, return it into lightly oiled bowl, cover with clean tea towel (or plastic shower cap) and put it somewhere warm to prove until doubled in size. Proving time will depend on the temperature of the environment.
- Punch your risen dough to deflate it, give it a quick knead and divide into 12 equal balls. I like to weigh my dough but you don't have to. Shape the balls into neat buns and place onto prepared baking sheet making sure that you leave some space between them to allow for expansion.Cover the tray loosely with a clean tea towel and leave the buns to prove in a warm place until they double in size or at least puff up substantially.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
- Make crosses by preparing simple paste from mixture of plain flour in water. You want it to be consistency of thick paste.Put it in a piping bag or simple plastic sandwich bag, snip off the tip and pipe a cross on each of the buns.
- Bake hot cross buns in preheated oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
- As soon as the buns are out of the oven brush them with some maple syrup for that shiny, sticky glaze and transfer onto cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per bun and should be treated as a guideline only.
- Feel free to use 100% white flour here. I added a bit of wholemeal for a little bit of goodness. You could also go the other way and increase the amount of wholemeal flour vs white one but your buns will not be as light.
- Feel free to use single spices like ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves etc. instead of mixed spice if you want but keep overall amount to 2 tsp.
- If you are not a fan of cinnamon, feel free to use 1 teaspoon instead of 2.
- When it comes to mixed fruit, I usually stick to raisins or sultanas but feel free to use whatever mixture you like.
- You can make these hot cross buns overnight. For details see "Overnight hot cross buns" above.
- Best eaten on the day they're baked. Freezer friendly.
- Use stand mixer with dough hook attachment if you've got one.
- Don't add too much extra flour.
- Don't let yeast come in contact with salt and sugar when you add your ingredients into a bowl. Always put yeast on one side and salt and sugar on the other.
- Use airing cupboard if you've got one for proving your dough.
- Don't worry if your hot cross buns don't exactly double in size during second proving. As long as they've risen a bit and puffed up, that's fine.
- Use reusable shower cap to cover bowl with your dough when proving.
Nutrition
Esther says
These are lovely and so easy to make! I usually make them as and when the mood strikes and not just at Easter. Thank you!
joskitchenlarder says
Woman after my own heart! Thank you for your lovely feedback Esther! 🙂