VEGAN Hot Cross Buns

VEGAN Hot Cross Buns – a delicious plant-based version of the Good Friday staple – a spiced sweet bread with currants and raisins.

Last year, I told you about my weird food-obsessed family ritual on Good Fridays. I know, we are probably the only ones who have food comas on this hallowed day, but hey, we’ve established that I come from a very weird family. We think ourselves unique, others calls us weird and who’s to tell who’s right?

Normally, around Easter, I’d think of new and improved ways to make an Easter egg – like this coconut and jelly egg that I made last year, or this sweet ricotta and vermicelli egg the year before.

But this year, I decided to try my hand at another Easter favorite – well, a Good Friday one to be precise. The delectable Hot Cross Bun.

We always got our Hot Cross Buns every Good Friday from the same bakery. They make the best ones and it just wasn’t Good Friday without them. We’d pick up a bag on our way to Church, in the Indian summer heat and begin munching on it in the car. This year, I wanted to make some myself, but plant-based instead. Vegan Hot Cross Buns – ah! new beginnings are always so thrilling.

I did make one small change to the traditional recipe though – I never enjoyed the flour paste cross on the buns – they were too hard, and I always picked them off before eating. So I swapped the flour paste cross with a delicious icing instead. Makes the bread softer and doesn’t mess with the softness.

It’s been a while since I baked any bread, come to think of it, this is the first bread that I’m baking in our new home! Aww, that makes these buns extra special!!!!

There is something to be said of bread making. It really is extremely therapeutic. As your hands work the flour, all your worries seem to melt away in the silence that surrounds you.

There are few chores that calms you the way bread does.

The past few weeks have been mayhem and my mind has been in perpetual turmoil. I was in dire need of this emotional respite and for the few hours that I spent kneading, proofing, shaping and baking this bread, all was right with the world.

While the bread proofed, I made myself a cup of tea, rummaged a few cookies from the snack cupboard and found me a quiet corner (my favorite nook in the house) and with a book in hand, stole a few moments of blissful ignorance of all the things that worried me.

My problems didn’t resolve itself by the time the VEGAN Hot Cross Buns came out of the oven, warm and fragrant as they can be, but I found in me a renewed calm and vigor to face my challenges head on.

It’s funny, how sometimes, simply walking away from a problem for a short time helps you see the solution a little bit clearly.

Wishing you all a blessed Good Friday and a very Happy Easter!!

When you make these VEGAN Hot Cross Buns (which I really think you SHOULD!), be sure to SHARE YOUR PHOTOS with me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see what you cook from here!

VEGAN Hot Cross Buns

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

For the buns

• 400 gram bread flour
• 5 gram salt
• 15 gram sugar
• 8 gram instant yeast
• 160 ml water
• 150 ml canned coconut milk
• 50 ml light Olive oil + more for greasing
• 40 gram raisins
• 40 gram currants/dried cranberries
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.25 tsp ground nutmeg
• 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste

For brushing

• 1 tbsp canned coconut milk
• 0.5 tsp water

For the glaze

• 0.25 cup sugar
• 0.25 cup water
• 0.25 tsp cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 star anise (whole)
• 2 -3 cloves (whole)
• 0.25 tsp vanilla bean paste
• pinch of salt

For the icing

• 0.5 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp canned coconut milk

Method

 

Make the dough

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, ground spices and vanilla. Stir well to combine and distribute evenly.
2. In a microwave safe dish, combine water and canned coconut milk. Microwave for 30 secs - 1 minute. Using a candy thermometer check if the temperature reaches 105F.
3. In the meantime, microwave the currants and raisins with a tsp of water until soft and plump.
4. Add olive oil and the hydrated fruits into the lukewarm coconut milk. Pour the liquid into the flour mixture.
5. Knead until the dough is no longer sticky. Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl and your fingers several times during kneading.
6. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled for an hour. I usually place the bowl inside the oven with the oven light turned on.
7. Once the dough is risen, punch it down and weigh it. Divide the weight by 12 and form 12 pieces of dough weighing that amount. (I think mine was 74 gms each)
8. Grease a 9" round cake tin. Shape the individual pieces of dough into smooth balls. Arrange inside the greased cake tin.
9. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled for an hour.

Bake!

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
2. Dilute the canned coconut in water. Brush it on the top of the risen loaf generously.
3. Bake in the preheated oven at 400F/200C for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reads 200F.
4. Place on a wire rack to cool down for 5-10 minutes, then remove from cake tin and let cool completely.

Make the glaze

1. In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the glaze. Bring to a boil over medium heat, while stirring continuously. When it thickens to a syrupy consistency, remove from heat. Let cool.

Make the icing

1. Combine the icing sugar and coconut milk. Stir until a pasty concoction forms. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle.

Assemble

1. Brush the glaze generously on the cooled down buns. Let dry slightly until it's no longer runny.
2. Pipe the icing on the dried glaze to form a cross. It will spread a little, but stop eventually and dry out.

Serve

1. Best eaten on the day it was baked. If storing to be eaten another day, do not add the icing cross. The icing gets soggy with storage. Keeps well at room temperature for 3 days. Can be frozen for longer.