Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone. This month, the wonderful folks at Sourdough Surprises have challenged participants to make sourdough hot cross buns. I had never made hot cross buns before, but I knew they were related to Easter, and it's always great to try out something new.

I took the inspiration for this recipe from Nourishing Joy and thought it was excellent. It was just sweet enough to make you want another bite, but not overly so. I did find the batter very soft and difficult to work with (next time I might retard it overnight like I do with brioche and see if that works better). But then again, my scale was seriously broken so I had to use their dry ingredient measures as opposed to the weight measurements. Maybe that's why

The texture of the bread was good and it was a very easy, very quick (in terms of sourdough) recipe. I will make sure to make this again.

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter (active)
• 3 1/2 cups AP flour
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• pinch of cloves
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup dried fruit (used raisins and cranberries)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• flour, water and oil for crosses
• honey and lemon juice for glazing

Directions

1. 2 days before you intend to bake, refresh your sourdough starter to make sure it's active
2. On baking day, mix starter, flour, zest, sugar, spices, egg, honey, milk and water in a stand mixer. Mix until combined and sticky dough form
3. Meanwhile, soak dried fruit in warm water for 10 minutes. Drain water from fruit and mix with the salt.
4. Mix fruit and salt into the bread and knead for 10 minutes
5. Add butter and knead until fully incorporated. Finished dough will be very soft, shiny and a little sticky.
6. Let dough rise 1 hour in an oiled bowl. Stretch and fold dough on itself a number of times and let rise another hour. 
7. Divide dough into 12 pieces and place into 9x13 baking sheet not quite touching. Let rise 2 hours or until doubled
8. To make the crosses, mix together flour, water and oil until a thick paste forms that you can still pipe. Pipe crosses across your buns.
9. Bake buns at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
10. When you remove buns from the oven, glaze immediately with honey and lemon juice or orange juice. Let cool completely before serving. 

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