Easter is right around the corner, and if there’s one cookie that defines the season, it’s the humble hot cross bun. Every year, thousands of you ask for our tried-and-tested recipes, but getting the perfect balance between soft, fluffy dough and fragrant spices can still be a challenge when baking from scratch.
So, who better to guide you than Paul Hollywood? The baker behind our ever-popular classic hot cross bread shares his best tips and techniques to help you master this Easter essential, so you can produce bread that rises beautifully and is bake-worthy every time.
Looking for more inspiration? Explore our favorite Easter cakes, fun recipes to make with kids, and easy ways to use up leftovers, plus ideas for throwing a great Easter celebration.
The origins of hot cross buns
The history of hot cross buns dates back to the 14th century, it is believed by monk Thomas Rocliffe who created the first cross buns which he distributed to the poor on Good Friday. Word spread very well and by the 19th century, hot cross buns were being eaten widely across the country to mark the end of Lent.
Paul’s seven expert tricks for making perfect hot cross buns
1. Knead the dough to increase its elasticity
“The first thing you do is make a basic dough. Knead it until you can pull it out a little and it looks elastic enough.
2. Check whether the dough texture is correct
“The best thing to do is hold the stretched dough up to the light – you should be able to read the newspaper through the dough. You also need to look for the webbing – that’s the strands of gluten stuck together. If you have webbing in the dough, you know it’s right. The thinner you can get it, the better.”
3. Mix by hand or bread maker
“The dough hook on the mixer will be quicker, but mixing the dough by hand will give you a good idea of what the dough will look like. Then, if you’re short on time and don’t have a mixer, you can still make it. Plus, if you mix it by hand, you’ll remember what the dough tastes like when it’s ready.”
“Cinnamon works really well, and a little nutmeg. I always use fresh fruit. The original recipe used fresh fruit, only recently have we started using dried fruit. Apples, oranges, tangerines, lemon and orange zest, and cinnamon work really well together.”
Try our chocolate & spice hot cross buns, spiced hot cross buns, and hot cross bun rings with spiced honey butter.
5. Try non-traditional flavors
“Morello cherries and chocolate are a great combination for a non-traditional touch.”
Next, discover chili cheese hot cross buns, chocolate & tropical fruit hot cross buns, and triple chocolate hot cross buns for more unusual flavor inspiration.
6. Use leftovers to make pudding
“You can make a great summer pudding with hot cross buns. Alternatively, you can toast them and make a delicious bread and butter pudding. What I would do is put some white chocolate chips in there too, then slice up some hot cross buns and add orange zest.”
Try our bread & butter pudding and then our hot chocolate bread & butter pudding or our hot bread lemon pudding.
7. Choose your toppings
“Marzipan makes great crosses for a little decoration, or you can use sweet paste or just the traditional flour and water.”
Find more hot cross bun topping ideas.
More Easter recipes and tips…
Paul’s tips for decorating Easter cakes
25 unusual desserts and cakes you need to try in the run-up to Easter
The ultimate Easter Sunday lunch
13 no-bake Easter treats
30 best Easter dinner ideas
Visit our Easter page
Do you have any hot cross bun instructions that never fail? Let us know in the comments section below…
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.