We had run out of wheat, so we had to purchase shop-flour for hot cross buns. I bought *white*, figuring the wholemeal didn’t have twice as many nutrients to match the twice as many dollars being asked for it – both would have lost most of the goodness within 72 hours of being milled anyway.
We (that will be a royal we meaning J13) made up the bun mix, using our usual yeast bread recipe and adding about a quarter of a cup of spices – mostly cinnamon with some nutmeg and cloves – and lots of sultanas too.
5C warm water
1/4 C sugar
2T yeast
Combine and leave until frothy
1/2C olive oil
5C flour
Add and mix in
3C flour
1T salt
spices
Add and mix in
As much more flour as you need to make a good dough, and the sultanas
Knead for 5 minutes or so
Place in a greased bowl, roll the dough around a few times to grease it thoroughly and cover with a damp cloth (we put it in the fridge overnight – it still doubled in size).
Punch down and divide into buns (we made 28, but they were pretty big and could well have been made smaller). Place on a tray and leave to rise again.
Flour
Water
Mix together to a thickish paste and pipe on crosses
Sugar
Warm water
Brush glaze over (this can be done either before or after baking, or omitted altogether) Bake at 180ºC for 15-18 minutes
The same mix makes four large loaves of fruit bread – or you can leave out the spices and fruit and just have plain bread – or throw in some seeds or other goodies.
have pinny, will cook 
Going to have to try this. Haven’t had a Hot Cross Bun in years. My art teacher used to make them.
By: TheDeeZone on March 23, 2008
at 6:32 am
DID try this… very yummy but flat… any hints? … I s’pose it could have something to do with the fact that my yeast expired in 2003??? :o)
Jocelyn
By: Jocelyn on March 25, 2008
at 6:02 pm
Oh no Jocelyn…..did your yeast froth up in the first step? If not, that’ll be your problem. Otherwise…..hmmm not usre – did you leave them to rise long enough? OOOH did I even tell you to do that? Better go back and check the recipe!
By: Rach on March 25, 2008
at 6:06 pm
I haven’t used dry yeast before – it did froth up, but I’m not sure how much is enough… a thin layer on top of the liquid, and bubbles continuously rising through liquid… First rising was about 3 hours in the hot water cupboard, second rising after shaping the buns was about an hour in the oven on low…
By: Jocelyn on March 26, 2008
at 7:15 am
[…] the pizza base, we might use our sourdough bread recipe. Or our yeast bread recipe (omit the sultanas and spices in that recipe link if you don’t want hot cross bun pizza – […]
By: double italian twist « have pinny, will cook on May 6, 2008
at 2:18 pm