Delicious brioche style hot cross buns stuffed with spices, raisins and apple. Glaze with crab apple jelly or other yummy jelly and sprinkle over a generous helping of cinnamon and sugar! Buns are best served hot out of the oven with butter. If you like citrus peel in your buns, add 1/3 of a cup to this recipe when adding the other fruit.
APPLE & CINNAMON HOT CROSS BUNS
INGREDIENTS
200mls milk, warm but not hot
100g caster sugar
8g dry active yeast
550g plain flour
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons all spice
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup currants or raisins
1 medium sized apple, cut into small cubes
2 eggs
80g butter, melted
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Crab apple jelly or other fruit jelly to glaze
METHOD
In a small bowl, mix together the milk, caster sugar and yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes or until yeast begins to foam.
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the flour, spices, salt, raisins and apple. Add the eggs, melted butter and yeast mixture and combine using either your hands or a dough hook. Knead the dough for a further 5 minutes or until dough becomes glossy and smooth. Leave to rest for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Once dough has double in size, cut into 12 even portions, roughly 100g. Shape into balls and place on a lined baking tray. Cover loosely with clingfilm or a damp tea towel and leave to prove for a further 2 hours.
Heat oven to 220ºC.
In a small bowl, mix together the 6 tablespoons of flour, vanilla and 4 - 5 tablespoons of water until smooth. Spoon into a piping bag with a small nozzle (or cut a hole in the corner of a snaplock bag) and pipe buns with mixture.
Reduce the oven temperature to 200ºC and place buns in the oven to cook for 12 - 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Once buns have cooled, glaze with fruit jelly, dust with cinnamon and sugar and then glaze again.
Tip: To keep them fresh, pop into the freezer once completely cool and pull out as needed.