This year, Easter is a bit different for everyone. We have decided to do something a bit more challenging and make our very own chocolate hot cross buns!
Honestly, making bread has been always tricky for us, for whatever reason, either it didn’t rise properly, or over kneaded. So this time, we learned from our past failed trials and became more cautious regarding every single step, so we can make sure this recipe works, hopefully for everyone.
The commercial recipe won’t work for us since it requires fancy equipment, professional tools, this or that unnecessary additives that family and kids friendly cooking doesn’t require. So here we are sharing this family and kids friendly chocolate hot cross buns recipe that has been trialed successfully, most importantly, straight forward, easy to follow without complicated instructions. The only thing you need (as mentioned in the recipe) if you want to make it even easier would be a standing mixer. The one we use is from Kenwood, which we bought from the catch of the day, it’s like a lifesaver!
Now, please go ahead and enjoy making some delicious chocolate hot cross buns for the foodies you love, let us know how you go, any sharing of thoughts for this recipe would be highly appreciated!
Have fun creating!
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Easy Recipe
Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
A practical family recipe for Chocolate Hot Cross Buns with ingredients, method steps, and serving notes.
Ingredients
Hot Cross Buns
- ¼ cup Unsalted Butter
- 300 ml Milk
- ½ cup Caster Sugar
- 7 g Instant Yeast
- 4 cups Plain Flour
- ⅓ cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste / Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips, personally I prefer to use dark chocolate ones
The Cross
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tbsp Plain Flour
- 50 ml Water
Instructions
- Put the butter in a small pan and melt it over low to medium heat, melt the butter. After it's melted add 150ml milk and the caster sugar. Heat it all up until its warm NOT hot.
- Take the pan off the fire and pour it into a heatproof mixing bowl. Now, combine it with the rest of the milk (150ml) and stir in the yeast. Set the mixture aside for 5 minutes to activate the yeast.
- Sift together the plain flour, cocoa, and cinnamon into the bowl of a standing mixer. Now, stir in the egg, vanilla bean paste Add the egg, vanilla bean paste, and yeast mixture. Now, beat it on the lowest setting with the dough hook for approx. 7 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Please note: you can also mix it by hand.
- Put the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl and turn the dough around so it's evenly covered by the oil. Now cover it with a tea towel and let the dough rise for approx. 1 hour. Since Melbourne is getting into early autumn, we put the dough in a turned-off oven to keep it in a warmer space.
- After the dough has risen put it on a floured surface and mix in the chocolate bits. Don't over-knead it!
- Now, separate the ball in 6 even pieces and cut each of these in half again.
- Grab a large baking dish and line it with baking paper. We always butter the baking dishes before we put in the baking paper so it stays better in place.
- Now, evenly distribute the 12 balls among the baking dish side by side. Cover them with a tea towel and let them rise for at least 1 hour. You can extend it if you like as long as the dough has doubled in size.
- Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius.
- Lightly beat the egg and brush it on top of the buns
- Now, create the mixture for the cross by combining all the ingredients. Put the into a piping bag (if you have one, we didn't as we used an IKEA bag) and pipe the crosses on the buns.
- Bake the buns in the preheated oven for approx. 20-25 minutes.
- Enjoy :)
Estimated nutrition per serving
Approximate values based on the listed ingredients. Actual values vary by product and portion size.
Notes
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