Biscoff Hot Cross Buns
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 45 minutes plus 1 hour 15 minutes rising time
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Ingredients Needed
- 600g/21ozs plain all purpose or bread flour + 25g/1oz
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs water
- 1 cup/20ml/8.8flozs milk
- 1/4 cup/80g/2.8ozs honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (can use 3.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice)
- 50g/1.7ozs butter, cubes, softened
- 150g/5ozs white chocolate bits (not melts)
Flour crosses
- 40g/1.41ozs. plain flour
- 50ml/1.7flozs water
For Filling
- 200g/7ozs Biscoff spread
Toffee Dip
- 220g/7.7ozs white sugar
- 85g/3ozs water
- 45g/1.6ozs liquid glucose
Step-By-Step Cooking Instructions
Making the Tangzhong Roux
Step 1 - Make the tangzhong or water roux (the secret to the softest hot cross buns!). Take the 25g/1oz of flour and whisk with 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan until smooth. Heat on medium heat and stir until it thickens to become a roux. You want it to reach 65ºC/149ºF (about 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and whisk the milk in two lots, honey, eggs and salt.
Making the Dough
Step 2 - Place the 600g/21oz flour, yeast, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and whisk well to combine.
Step 3 - Add the tangzhong mixture to the flour mix and knead for a couple of minutes until elastic. At first it will seem too sticky but after 2-3 minutes if it is still too sticky add a bit more flour. Then add the butter cubes one at a time and knead for another 8-9 minutes. The dough needs to be elastic and stretchy and you should be able to pull it apart between your floured fingers and see through it without it breaking which is called the window pane effect. Roll the dough into a ball making sure that there are no cracks on top of the ball and allow it to rise in a warm place until triple its size. This can take anything from 40-60 minutes depending on the ambient temperature.
Shaping and Baking
Step 4 - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Mix the cross ingredients together to make a pipeable paste and place in a small piping bag and cut a small hole at the end.
Shaping them into rounds, first shape into a ball by rounding out the edges and tucking the dough underneath. This creates a smooth top with only cracks underneath
Troubleshooting: your dough will be sticky but try not to add too much flour. A little is fine because flour varies from supplier to batch but adding too much will affect the texture of the buns. Instead, add a little flour and then lightly oil your hands just before shaping them.
Then cup your hand over the ball of dough and gently roll on benchtop in a circular motion. This will "buff" out cracks and tighten and smooth your dough ball
Step 5 - Line a 33x23cm/13x9.2inch baking tray with high sides with parchment. Punch down the dough and knead in the white chocolate chips. Flour your hands and a surface and shape 12 buns. The total weight of my dough was 1.35kgs/3lbs so I made buns around 113g/4ozs each (I recommend weighing the dough so that the buns are the same size). Place on the parchment lined tray and allow to rise for 5-10 minutes (these don't need a super long second rise, just as long as they puff up a bit). Pipe crosses on top and then bake for 30 minutes.
Filling and Finishing
Step 6 - Cool buns for 30 minutes and then separate the hot cross buns with a knife. Place the Biscoff spread in a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Stick the fat end of a chopstick into the bottom of each bun and then pipe Biscoff inside each bun making sure to fill them up. I am a weirdo that weighs each one to make sure that they have at least a couple of teaspoons of filling and weigh around 10g/0.3oz more.
Step 7 - Make the toffee. Place the sugar, water and glucose syrup in a heavy bottomed saucepan and dissolve the sugar. Clip a sugar thermometer to the side of the pan. Boil until it gets the hard crack stage at 146°-155°C/ 295°-310°F and turns a light golden colour. Take off the heat.
Step 8 - Pick up each HCB with a pair of tongs (be careful, the toffee is very hot!) and dip the top of each bun in the toffee and place on a tray. Repeat with the rest straight away (the toffee will start to firm up as it cools).
Personal Note
I always make HCB's every year so I have lots of other Hot Cross Bun Recipes you might like. If you like fruit in your hot X buns try these Apple & Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns or Sticky Date Hot Cross Buns. If you're more into rich orange chocolate flavours then try these Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns. If you want to have a bit of fun make this GIANT Hot Cross Bun Scroll or this pink icing topped Finger Bun Hot Cross Bun recipe!
I like these Hot Cross Buns for dessert although they're perfect for any time of the day. Once we've finished dinner I go and watch tv and have my hot cross bun. Sometimes I toast it, sometimes I just warm it, especially if it's very fresh. And sometimes the consumption of said HCB is accompanied by trashy tv and most recently it has been Married At First Sight.
When Monica and I had our weekend away we stayed at this gorgeous property with lush, rolling hills. The accommodation was adjacent to the main house but was still private as all the windows faced away from the house and we had a separate entrance. The guy there greeted us and we settled in and by the time we were all relaxed it was time to eat dinner.
I decided to introduce her to the wonderful world of Married at First sight. We both love trashy tv and this would be perfect fodder for our minds and tummies. I turned on the tv and tried to cast the show onto it but it wasn't working. It kept asking me for a password and I kept searching for it on the TV. We tried this a dozen times to no avail. I'm not hugely technical but I think Monica is even less so, so we weren't any good together.
Then there was a knock at the door. We had the electronic blind down so monica answered it. The blind went up comically slowly and standing there was the owner of the Airbnb. "Are you needing a code?" he asked. Apparently the code had been coming up on their screen and interrupting his football viewing party!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had an embarassing situation like this?