Honey Butter Hot Cross Buns

Spiced Buttered Honey Hot Cross Buns

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An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella

Makes 16

For the buns

• 2 tablespoons instant dried yeast

• 1/2 cup honey (I used Stefano's river blossom honey)

• 1.5 cups lukewarm milk

• 4.5 cups plain flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 50g butter melted

• 1 egg lightly beaten

• 1 teaspoon speculoos spices*

• 2.5 cups of chocolate chips or 1 1/2 cups dried sultanas/raisins

For glaze:

• 1/4 cup honey

• 1/4 cup hot water

• 1 teaspoon gelatine or 1/2 gelatine leaf soaked in cold water

For crosses:

• 75grams/2.6 ozs white chocolate or white fondant

• Serve with honey butter (recipe below)

*You can make your own speculoos spices-the recipe is here or just use ground cinnamon

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Step 1 - Mix yeast, sugar and warm milk in a bowl and stir to remove any lumps. Set aside for 15 minutes until it becomes frothy.

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Step 2 - In a large bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, sift flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and mix in the yeast mixture, butter, egg, cinnamon and one third of the chocolate chips or raisins.

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Step 3 - Knead dough for 5 minutes if using a mixer or 8 minutes by hand until elastic and place in a greased bowl covered with cling wrap in a warm area (or sit your bowl in a larger bowl of warm water). Leave for 1 hour to 1.5 hours until doubled in size.

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Step 4 - Using your fist, punch down the dough and add the remaining chocolate chips or raisins. Knead lightly and divide into 16 balls. Place close together on a lined or greased baking tray. Cover with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Step 5 - Bake for 20-25 minutes until done. While it is baking, get the glaze ready. For the glaze, simply mix all three ingredients together shortly before the time is up on the buns.

Step 6 - When buns are ready, brush with glaze. I like to do this quite generously and glaze the sides too but this does make them quite sticky to handle.

Step 7 - I rolled out some white fondant and cut it into strips to put crosses on top. Or you can melt white chocolate and pipe it as a cross on top.

Step 8 - To make honey butter, place 100g/3.5ozs of softened butter in a bowl with 3-4 tablespoons runny honey. Using a fork or knife, combine the two (if the butter is soft, it will be easy, if not, wait for it to soften) and butter the inside of the warm buns.

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