WOW your friends with these delicious vegan hot cross buns. They are a firm favourite at Easter and they’re surprisingly easy to make. They are lovely fresh out of the oven or toasted. I like to smother mine with Flora Buttery.
When I made my hot cross buns I was lucky to have all the ingredients in the larder. The only thing I didn’t have was a piping bag, luckily I know how to make one out of a piece of greaseproof paper.
Easy Vegan Hot Cross Buns
12
servings2
hours20
minutesA hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday
Ingredients
500g Strong Bread Flour
7g Fast Acting Yeast (Sachet)
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Mixed Spice
Aquafaba from a tin of chickpeas
50g Caster Sugar
250g Mixed Fruit
210ml Soya Milk
50g Plant Based Butter
- Cross Paste and Glaze
100g Plain flour
2 Tbsp Apricot jam, for glazing
Directions
- Making the dough
- Put the milk and the butter into a pan, heat until the butter has melted. Leave to cool for around 5 minutes. Sift the flour, yeast, caster sugar, mixed spice and cinnamon into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Mix with a wooden spoon.
- Whisk the aquafaba and then add to the milk/butter and whisk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, then gradually add the milk mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon to form a sticky dough.
- Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes (the dough should spring back when you press your finger in). Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Set aside in a warm place to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size.
- Adding the fruit and shaping the dough
- Once your dough is ready, punch back the dough to knock out any air bubbles, knead for around a minute. Flatten the dough and add a hand full of fruit into the centre, bring up the side and then knead. Repeat until all the fruit has been mixed into the dough.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape each piece into a smooth ball (see video). Transfer to a lined baking sheet, leaving a 3-5cm gap between each one. Cover with the damp tea towel and leave to prove for about 20 minutes.
- Pipe the crosses
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 6, 200c, 400F.
- Mix 100g of plain flour with about 6-10 tbsp of water to make a thick paste. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe a cross onto each bun. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. The bases will sound hollow when tapped.
- Glazing
- Leave the buns to cool a little while you make the glaze. Heat the apricot jam in a small pan to make a runny glaze, sieve to remove any lumps. Dip a pastry brush into the glaze and brush over the surface of each bun.
Recipe Video
Notes
- If you find the dough to sticky to work with you can always add more flour. Or if it’s too dry, add a little water. It can depend on the type of flour you buy, to the result you achieve when making the dough.
- There are many different options you could use if you don’t like fruit. For example you could make chocolate and cherry. Or add a little bit more cinnamon and add apple.
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