Bake Like a Pro: Delicious Hot Cross Buns with Tangzhong Method for Easter

This is a bonus hot cross bun recipe for the Easter long weekend! So many of you joined in on making my soft bakery style hot cross buns but I thought I'd make a recipe for those of you that don't want to shape them. May I present, the epic hot cross bun bread loaf!

What makes this hot cross bun loaf so soft? This hot cross bun loaf has a tangzhong base, that wonderful water roux step that promises the softest, fluffiest buns with incredible lasting power. By that I mean the buns could stay fresh for days, that is if you don't eat them first but if you're like me, they never last very long.

Spice Up Your Life And Soak Your Fruit! This loaf also has lots of lovely spices in it. There's a range of spices from cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice and alcohol soaked raisins. I usually use rum to soak my raisins but this time it was whisky. Use Cointreau if you like orange flavours or whatever tipple tickles your fancy.

What type of flour? This recipe works brilliantly with regular plain all purpose flour too because bread flour is a rare commodity these days. You can also use wholemeal flour but I wouldn't recommend using all wholemeal flour. I find subbing in 1/4 of the regular flour with wholemeal gives a nice result.

Options: I've heard readers make dried cherry hot cross buns, apricot hot cross buns and chocolate hot cross buns! The sky is the limit and you can use whatever fruit or chocolate you have to hand.

Can I make it in the Thermomix? You sure can! Here is the Thermomix recipe for hot cross bun loaf.

This Hot Cross Bun Loaf came about in a funny way. I wanted to make some hot cross buns for this Easter weekend but I decided that if I was going to use that precious flour, that I should at least get a new recipe and blog post out of it. I had intended to make hot cross buns but then a Dear Reader Mandi B emailed me some pics of a hot cross bun loaf so I knew that I had to make one of these. The icing on the bun was that it save me time too!

Also I have to share something rather exciting that happened. On April 1st (April Fools day!) the lovely Annabel Crabb shared that she had made my bakery style hot cross buns and she had mentioned that they were very successful! That created a tidal wave of lovely new followers as people made the hot cross buns. It was such a nice surprise in the middle of a very agitating week! I had no idea she even knew who I was, let alone would try one of my recipes and it made a hard week very pleasant indeed!

So tell me Dear Reader, how is your Easter weekend going? What is your favourite Easter treat?

Soft & Light Hot Cross Bun Loaf!

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour rising time

Cooking time: 40 minutes

• 1 cup/150g sultanas
• 1/2 cup/125ml rum or whisky
• 20g/0.7ozs flour (plain all purpose or bread)
• 125ml/4flozs. water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 400g/14oz flour
• 3 teaspoons instant dried yeast
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• 2 eggs
• 50g/1.7ozs butter, cubed

For the Cross

• 20g/0.7ozs. flour
• 1.5 tablespoons water

For the Glaze

• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup boiling water
• 1/2 teaspoon gelatine powder

Step 1 - Soak the sultanas in rum or whisky overnight if you have the time. If you want to heat them in a hurry gently warm up the rum or whisky and soak for 20 minutes. Leave to cool at room temperature.

Step 2 - Make the tangzhong or water roux. Whisk the 20g of the flour and water in a small saucepan and heat to 65C/149F. Then add the salt, milk and honey and stir until it reaches 45C/113F.

Step 3 - In the bowl of a mixer add the flour, yeast, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice and then add the tangzhong mixture. Knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Then add the eggs and butter and knead for another 5 minutes or until you get the window pane effect.

Step 4 - Grease a large bowl and scoop the mixture into it and cover. Allow to rise for 45 minutes (this is a fast rising dough). Grease a large loaf tin (mine is 19.5cm x 10cm x 11cm or 7.6 x 3.9 x 4.3 inches) and line the base and sides with parchment.

Step 5 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Drain the sultanas well. Mix them into the dough and place in the prepared tin making sure that the dough reaches about 1.5cm below the edge giving it space to rise and get a nice dome shape. You don't need to prove this dough very long (10 minutes is all it needs) so just do the cross. Mix the flour and water together and place in a small piping bag and pipe crosses on top of the dough.

Step 6 - Once it has risen for a total of 10 minutes, bake it for 40 minutes turning it around halfway through.

Step 7 - 5 minutes before it comes out of the oven, mix the sugar, gelatine powder and boiling water together. Brush over the hot bread. Allow to cool in tin for 15 minutes and then gently lift it out of tin.