To celebrate Easter I made Hot Cross Buns from the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook. Prior to this I had not eaten nor made them before so it was a brand new experience for me. Traditional buns are made from a yeasted dough with currants and cinnamon icing. Thomas Keller’s recipe uses a brioche dough and incorporates cranberries for a bit of tart contrast and cardamom is in the icing for a more pronounced spice flavor.
There is quite a bit of inactive time for this recipe, approximately 2.5-3 hours which makes it difficult to do all in one day. I made the dough the night before and for the second proof, I put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, at 6:30am, I rolled out of bed and went straight to the fridge to get the dough to shape them into individual buns. Only the anticipation of fresh-baked bread could will me to get up that early.
A few notes about preparing the dough:
After plumping the currants and cranberries, make sure to dry them really well so they don’t bleed when kneaded into the brioche dough. Also it seems like there is a lot but after they proofed and baked, there was a perfect amount in every bite.
I had a little bit of trouble getting the dough balls really smooth when shaping them. The currants and cranberries got in the way a bit but I tried to pinch the pockets shut as best as possible. Other than that, the dough was really easy to work with especially because it was cold.
I proofed the buns for 1.5 hours and baked for 25 minutes.
Golden brown hot cross buns!
I wish they had poofed a bit more so they’d have a rounder shape. I would brush the egg wash more generously on the sides of the buns so they get a bit more color.
For the icing, I made 3/4 of the recipe quantity and had a little bit left. The consistency will appear really thick, like paste. I thinned it out very slightly with 1/2 teaspoon water and it was perfect. Anymore and it would have been too loose and spread too much.
The buns were delicious fresh. They were more fluffy than I had expected from brioche. The icing was just the right amount of sweetness and complemented the buns which weren’t very sweet. The cardamom is strong. You’ll know just from smelling it and I ground it fresh from whole cardamom pods. I think it worked well and made the icing a little more special than if it were just cinnamon. Delicious!
Happy Easter!