Easter Hot Cross Bun Spelt Rolls (when Cinnamon Rolls meet Hot Cross Buns)
This recipe for Easter Hot Cross Bun Spelt Rolls first featured on The Culinary Jumble.
What do you call a cross between a cinnamon roll and a hot cross bun?
Well, that’s a very good question. One that had me pondering a fair while. What do you call a delightful combo of these two amazing breads?
Well, Easter Hot Cross Bun Rolls. Yep. That’s them. I know, I know. It’s not very inspiring. In fact, it’s a little boring. However, sometimes when you’re a food blogger, you need to say things just how they are. That way, people know exactly what they are getting.
So why the mishmash? Why not just old-fashioned hot cross buns, Mary Berry style? Because I didn’t want to. That’s why.
Well, actually, let’s be honest here. As much as I like the coiffeured one, she does have this stiff, formal approach to baking. I guess that’s part of her charm. She’s traditional with a capital T. However, me? I am lazy with a capital L (and then some) and personally, couldn’t be bothered to fanny about putting a cross on them.
And you can’t have hot cross buns without a cross, now can you? Although naming them would have been fun: Hot and buns but no cross? Don’t get cross with these hot buns?
Alongside of not wanting crosses, I also really fancied a filling, but I didn’t want cinnamon buns either. I wanted all the flavour of a hot cross bun but just in roll form.
So, here’s the end result. Rolls made pretty much following Mary Berry’s recipe (with added saffron and a couple of tweeks) but with my own filling. And they were good.
Super soft buns with a lemon butter filling and a slather of syrup on top. Oh, and again, Spelt Kitchen style and not MB’s – she heats up her syrup before brushing it over. Now to me, that’s one extra pan to wash and nothing more.
The ingredients below made around 18 buns but you could easily halve the ingredients and make fewer, it you preferred.
If you are looking for Easter recipes, you might like these:
Carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting
Easter Hot Cross Bun Spelt Rolls
Ingredients
Dough (see note 1)
- 300ml (1¼ cups) milk
- 40g (⅛ cup) butter
- 1 egg
- zest of one lemon
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- pinch of saffron
- 500g (4 cups + 2 tbs) spelt flour (see note 2)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 14g (4 tsp) dried yeast (see note 3)
- 75g (⅓ cup) sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
Filling
- 50g (¼ cup) butter (melted)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 100g (3½ oz) sultanas
Topping
- 2 tablespoons golden or medium light syrup
Instructions
Bread Machine:
- Add the milk, butter, egg, lemon zest, lemon juice, and saffron to your bread machine pan. Then add the remaining dough ingredients. Take care to keep the yeast and salt separate as much as possible. Set your machine to make dough.
- On a very well-floured surface (the dough will be very sticky) work in just as much flour as you need to make a soft, pliable, but still a little tacky, dough.
Stand Mixer:
- Mix the milk, butter, egg, lemon zest, lemon juice and saffron together in your stand mixer bowl. If the butter is straight out of the fridge, it won't combine with the other wet ingredients too much, but that's okay.
- Then add the remaining dough ingredients.The dough should be sticky, but if you need more flour, just add a little at a time. Be careful: too much flour will result in dry bread.
- Switch to a dough hook (if you have one) and allow the mixer to knead the dough for around 10 minutes, just until soft. The dough will still feel a little tacky to the touch, but will be able to slowly drop off the hook.
- Cover the dough and leave to proof (until it has doubled in size - usually about an hour).
- When the dough is ready, knock it back, and on a floured surface, form into a rough ball.
Both Methods:
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle (around 40x50cm) with one of the shorter sides facing you. The dough is very elastic and will bounce back (this is a good sign).
Assembly:
- Mix the butter, lemon juice and brown sugar together.
- Spread the filling evenly across the dough with a knife (there will not be enough to fill every inch of the dough but you don't need it to).
- Sprinkle the sultanas over the dough.
- With the shorter side in front of you carefully roll the dough, making sure you pull it tight as you go.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the dough roll into slices (you should get 12 buns, depending on how big your slices are).
- Pinch any edges together and use your hands to shape them into circles (they will already be round, but might need a little more shaping).
- Place them on the baking tray or in a dish quite close together.
- Cover and let rest for around 20-30 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200℃ / 400℉.
- Bake in the oven for around 20-22 minutes. Make sure they are cooked but don't over-bake them.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.
- While still warm, brush over the syrup or honey. Enjoy!
Notes
- I have made the dough using both a stand mixer and bread machine.
- You can use spelt or regular flour for this recipe (just use the same amount).
- In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid to proof and also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe dry active yeast is the most similar to our dried yeast.
