Cooking on Wood: Hot Cross Buns

Who doesn't love Hot Cross Buns?

Sweet and sticky dough buns, soft and light, packed with luscious raisins and flavorsome spices. Toast them lightly and serve warm with butter. The ultimate Easter snack!

Many people overlook the heritage of hot cross buns. Easter is a Christian holiday and festive period that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, and the Hot Cross Bun symbolizes this particular story. The infamous cross that lays upon the top of the bun represents the cross on which Jesus was crucified and the spices that flavor the dough are said to be those used to embalm Christ after his death.

So, while you might be celebrating Easter as a Christian holiday or just participating in the delicious goodies during a bank holiday, there are no excuses not to make your own with our simple recipe below. Our simple step-by-step guide will show you how easy it is to make your very own Hot Cross Buns in a dutch oven.

Don't they look scrumptious!

Ingredients:

Buns:

• 310ml warm milk (43 degrees C)
• 60g caster sugar
• 14g yeast
• 600g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 60g butter
• 200g raisins or sultanas
• 2 eggs

The Cross:

• 60g Plain Flour
• 60ml Water

Step One:

In a small bowl, mix the tepid milk, yeast, and sugar (make sure the milk is not too hot as yeast might not activate if combined with milk too hot). Put it aside and let it froth up. 

Step Two:

While waiting for your yeast to rise, add flour, salt, ground cinnamon, and mixed spice into a large bowl. Mix it up, add cubed butter to the dry, and then rub the butter until combined with the flour. It should resemble breadcrumbs. 

Step Three:

Create a well in your flour mixture, crack in two eggs and add the yeast mixture and raisins. Combine your ingredients until it forms into a slightly sticky dough ball, then tip onto a flat floured surface. 

Step Four:

On a lightly floured surface, knead your dough for roughly 6 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. Transfer this back into a greased bowl, then cover over with a damp cloth and leave aside for approximately an hour, or until it has doubled in size.

Step Five: 

Take your risen dough out of the bowl and split it into 8 equal sections. Knead each section into a ball shape briefly (this is only a shaping exercise, so don't knead for too long) and transfer these to your baking parchment-lined dutch oven. If you don't have baking parchment, you can grease the dutch oven with oil or butter to stop it from sticking to the oven while cooking. 

Step Six:

Cover your dutch oven with the oven lid and leave it to double in size. If the oven is in the sun, this will happen quickly (about half an hour) as the oven warms up nicely. In the meantime, light your fire. On this occasion, we used our Flaming Firewood logs. We recommend these when cooking on wood as the smaller, non-uniform size allows you to control the heat output easily and helps you get your well-needed coals faster. 

Step Seven:

Once your dough has risen and the logs have burned to small enough pieces to become coals, move on to decorating your buns with crosses. To create the paste, combine flour and water in a piping bag and draw a cross shape onto your buns.

Step Eight:

Pop your dutch oven in the center of your firepit, so there are coals surrounding the outskirts of the oven. With a shovel, scoop up some coals onto the lid to ensure heat from all sides, just like a normal oven. 

Step Nine:

Let cook for 30 minutes, but check carefully throughout as you want to make sure heat is equally distributed (you might find some sides cook quicker if the coals are bigger or there are more of them on that side). Your hot cross buns should be golden brown when cooked. 

Step Ten:

Now time for the good part - eating!  Cut in half and spread on some butter, and hey presto! - the perfect Easter treat.