Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 12 buns
- 20g/0.7ozs. flour
- 125ml/4flozs. water
- 60g/2ozs. butter, cubed
- 85g/3ozs. honey
- 50g/1.7oz white sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla paste
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 250ml/8.8flozs. milk
- 560g/20ozs. bread flour (plus 30g more if needed)
- 30g/1ozs. cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
- Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
- 150g/5ozs. chocolate orange chocolate, grated
For Crosses
- 30g/1oz flour
- 10g/0.3oz cocoa powder
- 3.5 tablespoons water
For Glaze
- 2 tablespoons apricot jam
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Step 1 - First make the tangzhong roux. Place the 20g/0.7ozs of flour and water in a small saucepan and whisk to get rid of any lumps. Heat on low to medium heat to reach 65C/149F and stir so that it forms a smooth paste. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter until it melts and then add the honey, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and cinnamon and whisk well. Then add the milk and whisk.
Step 2 - In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook add the tangzhong mixture and the flour, sift in the cocoa powder and add the yeast and mix with a spatula just until it starts to form a dough. Knead on low speed until you get an elastic mixture where you can pull it apart with floured fingers and it won't break. It can take up to 15 minutes. Add in the orange zest and grated chocolate and knead to incorporate.
Step 3 - Place the mixture in a large, greased bowl and cover and allow to triple in size (around 1 hour). Then knead in the chocolate chips. At this point I usually weigh the dough and then divide it into 12 so I get the weight of each bun. You can of course eyeball it too. My buns were 113g/4ozs each.
Step 4 - Line a 30x20x3cm/12x8x1.5inch baking tray with parchment. It's time to shape the buns. Shaping the buns is important and the trickiest part of it but if you've gotten it to the window pane stage your dough should be the correct consistency. Your dough should be slightly sticky but not wet. To shape the buns, cup your hand and roll the bun clockwise on the surface using the tension of the surface to shape it into a round bun without any cracks on top (this can take up to a minute depending on the consistency of your dough). If it is sticking too much to your hands, lightly grease your hands with oil (adding more flour at this stage will produce drier buns).
Step 5 - Place each bun in the tray. Preheat oven to 180C/350F and allow the hot cross buns puff up and touch (around 10 minutes in a warm area). Mix the flour, cocoa powder and water together to form a pipeable batter. Place in a piping bag and snip off the end to half a centimetre. Pipe crosses on top of each bun. Bake for 30 minutes.
Step 6 - While the buns are baking make the apricot glaze. Mix the apricot jam, hot water and cinnamon together to form a smooth glaze. Brush the glaze over the buns as soon as they are hot out of the oven. Cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm with butter or Nutella.