When the  first hot cross buns were being swapped for Christmas decorations on the supermarket shelves I had a moment of confusion thinking it was March and I’d missed a quarter of the year already! Of course it was only the 3rd of January, but as usual I thought “I’ll make my own buns this year”…..only I usually don’t! 

This year of course was going to be different, no more more lining up at Baker’s Delight on Easter Thursday.  But here we are, less than one week until Easter, and I haven’t even put in my order with the Ferraro Rocher Bunny, let alone thought about making hot cross buns. I did however get to thinking about making gluten free hot cross buns after I asked a gluten intolerant  friend how many places she could get gfhcb’s in our town. I will translate her answer for you – none!

Most of the recipes I found online involved making a gluten free flour mix which I had neither the time nor the inclination to do, but I finally found a recipe from a commercial gluten flour website. It was basically combine the wet ingredients, combine the dry ingredients, then mix them together, form the buns, let them rise, then bake. My kind of recipe!!

So this was my first effort. They started off promisingly enough, little rolls of dough ready for rising, I was optimistic. There was the small problem that I ran out of baking paper, but never mind I floured the tray as you do when making scones. Actually I floured it twice because the first time I used ordinary flour which sort of defeated the purpose of making gluten free buns

I popped out for the allotted hour so I wouldn’t keep prodding at them while they did their rising bit…hmmm, not quite what I expected when I got home full of anticipation, hot cross biscuit!

I thought I would cook it anyway. I wanted to see what they tasted like and who knows maybe I will have created something new!

Ok, maybe not! It didn’t taste too bad albeit a bit chewy.

Second try, at 5:00am the next morning, I decided to put a little less milk, and even though the author of the recipe said you could pop the yeast straight into the flour mixture, I warmed the milk and let the yeast froth in it for a bit.

So this was my next effort. This time I hung around and watched to make sure there was no merging of buns. Much better!

In fact  I was pretty chuffed when they came out of the oven!

My only problem was that I hadn’t made a deep enough cut when I left them to rise, so there wasn’t a neat little cross furrow to put the icing into. I also have a suspicion that neat pouring of the icing into the cross furrow may not be as easy as it sounds. However I’m pretty happy with my second effort – gluten free, cross free hot cross buns!!

I tested them on group of girls where I work, some said they weren’t sweet enough, some said they were just right. They were fine for me but I think a little extra honey wouldn’t go astray if you have a sweeter tooth. Someone suggested dried apricots which sounded ok. Interestingly enough no-one actually realised they were gluten free!

Overall a really easy recipe – 2 and a half hours from beginning to ready to eat. Maybe a bit longer if you actually put the crosses on. I will certainly try them again but I would  be interested if anyone had an alternative recipe.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe on the gfJules Gluten Free Flour website. Jules has dairy and sugar free options in her recipe. I have not used them here.

PS Since publishing this blog I decided that you really can’t have a hot cross bun without a cross, so I had a little play and have come up with Cream Cheese Crosses. Simply added some icing sugar and lemon juice to cream cheese to taste, cut a cross in the bun with a sharp knife and spoon the icing into the cross.

GLUTEN FREE HOT CROSS BUNS

INGREDIENTS

Buns:

• 2 Eggs, Room Temperature
• 1/3 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 3 Tbs. Melted Coconut Oil or Light Olive Oil
• 6 Tbs.  Honey ( I used Rice Malt Syrup)
• 1/2 Tsp. Orange Or Lemon Extract
• 2 Cups all purpose gluten free flour
• 2 Tbs. Flaxseed Meal (I used almond meal)
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 2 Tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (Or Mixture Of Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger And Cloves) I used half a teaspoon of each
• 1/2 Tsp. Allspice
• 1 Tbs. Freshly Grated Orange Or Lemon Zest (Or Use Dried Orange Or Lemon Peel)
• 1 packet of yeast
• 1 cup Baking Raisins (Or Regular Raisins, Boiled In Water, Then Well Drained) I used currants

Egg wash: 

• 1 Large Egg + 1 Tbs. Water

Icing:

• 1 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
• 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 Tbs. Milk,
• 1 Tsp. Freshly Grated Orange Or Lemon Zest
• 1/4 Tsp. Orange Or Lemon Extract

METHOD

• In a large mixing bowl, stir the eggs, sour cream, milk, oil, agave and extract.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Slowly stir into the large mixing bowl, using a paddle attachment on a stand mixer, or mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.
• Beat for 2 minutes until all ingredients are integrated well, then stir in the raisins.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Scoop batter onto parchment using an ice cream scoop or large spoon. They should form approximately 10 smooth buns (wet a rubber spatula to smooth tops, if necessary). Cut a cross slightly into the top of each bun using a sharp knife, rocking back and forth to slightly separate into four sections. (I actually found this really difficult, I kept tearing at the dough rather than cutting)
• Set aside to rise in a warm area for 1 hour (on top of a preheating oven, or in an oven preheated to 200F, then turned off, is a good place to rise the buns).  Once risen, brush buns with egg wash.
• Preheat oven to 190C or 170C (fan-forced).
• Bake buns for 20 minutes.  Remove to cool.
• Whisk together the icing ingredients, taking care not to add too much liquid or the icing will drip all the way off the buns.  Once the buns are fully cooled, slowly spoon icing in a line across each cut of the cross on the top of the buns.
• Makes 10 buns.