These savoury hotcross buns are a delicious twist on the classic Easter favourite. Made with cheddar, parmesan, chives and jalapenos, they are soft and fluffy thanks to the tangzhong method that keeps the buns extra light and fresh for longer. Perfect served warm as a dinner roll for Easter lunch. If you love cheesy bread with a little kick, these savoury hot cross buns are a must bake!
About These Savoury HotCross Buns
These savoury hot cross buns are the perfect dinner roll for your Easter lunch. Serve them alongside a delicious roast meat or vegetables! These are a delicious, light and fluffy dinner roll flavoured with cheese, chives and jalapenos.
This savoury hot cross bun recipe is based on my very popular bakery style hot cross bun using the magical ingredient: tangzhong or water roux base.
This little step that involves cooking water and flour together for a couple of minutes makes a huge difference in the end result for your hot cross buns! They are super soft and downy and stay fresh for longer! What's not to love? I've received messages from readers who tell me that they no longer buy hot cross buns after making mine!
I mixed these with a mix of cheddar/tasty cheese, chives and parmesan cheese as well as jalapenos. I tested out three types of jalapenos: fresh, pickled jalapenos and candied jalapenos and I like the candied jalapenos the most closely followed by pickled jalapenos.
You can buy candied jalapenos (called "cowboy candy") or you can make them which is actually really easy (candied jalapeno recipe here). All you need to do is slice jalapenos and cook in a simple sugar syrup! If you don't like spicy food you can make these with just cheese or make them with diced ham and cheese!
Video How To Make HotCross Buns
Video: How to Make HotCross Buns
Ingredients For HotCross Buns
Flour - I like to make hot cross buns using bread flour. Look for a bread flour of around 12% protein. The higher the protein level the puffier the buns will be. Plain all purpose flour can also work (see tips below).
Smoked paprika - Found in the spice aisle. Smoked paprika is ideal as it has a stronger, smoky aroma.
Garlic powder - Also found in the spice aisle. Store in the freezer to prevent clumping.
Milk - Full cream or skim milk works here.
Honey - Regular honey or maple syrup, golden syrup works here.
Egg - Large egg.
Salt - Fine salt
Yeast - Instant dried yeast.
Oil - Use any oil spray to grease the bowl and counter and to help roll the buns.
Cheese - Grated tasty or Cheddar cheese parmesan cheese
1 - Look for bread flour to make your hot cross buns as it will make your buns puffier due to the higher protein/gluten content. If your flour has around 12% protein that is great (it's hard to find higher in Australia easily). But if you've only got plain all purpose flour, that's fine too.
Roux texture
2 - This roux is easiest made with a thermometer but you can also eyeball when your roux is ready. When it looks like this, the roux is ready. The mixture should not have any liquid in it and should be a gluey, thick custard consistency.
3 - Make sure to freeze the cheese so that it kneads in better to the dough. The cold cheese makes the dough a bit firmer.
4 - The dough will be sticky but flour varies from supplier to batch but adding too much will affect the texture of the buns. I use 600g of flour and then mix it all up. Within the first minute of kneading you can see whether you will need to add the extra 50g/1.7oz of flour and if it too sticky, add it in at this time.
5 - When kneading, lightly oil your hands just before shaping the buns. This will prevent them sticking to the surface and they will be easier to handle.
6 - I placed the dough balls in a 32 x 23 x 6cm or 12.8 x 9.2 x 2.4inch baking dish next to each other but not really touching. This allows space for the dough balls to rise up and not spread out as much. If you don't have a baking dish and free form it, the dough can spread a little to become rounder (which some people like).
7 - Let the bread rest for 15 minutes before cutting into them to allow the bread structure to set (it can become a gummy in texture otherwise).
Step 1 TANGZHONG ROUX - Make the tangzhong or water roux. 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 65C/149F (around 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk in two lots until smooth. Add the honey and whisk until the honey disperses. Whisk in the egg and salt.
Step 2 KNEAD - Place the 600g/21oz flour and yeast in a large mixer bowl and whisk to combine. Add the tangzhong mixture to the flour mix and mix with a spatula. Knead with the dough hook for 1 minute. If the dough is too sticky, add some of the extra flour. Knead until elastic, around 10-15 minutes. The dough needs to be elastic and stretchy but not break and you should be able to pull it apart between your fingers and see through it without it breaking (called the windowpane effect).
Windowpane effect
Step 3 RISE - Scrape the dough onto a greased surface. Grease a bowl (I use the same mixer bowl) and roll the dough into a ball making sure that there are no cracks on top of the ball and place it in the bowl allow it to rise in a warm place until triple its size. I sit it within another bowl full of hot water. This bulk rise can take 40-60 minutes. Place the grated cheeses in the freezer.
Step 4 CROSS - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Mix the cross ingredients together to make a pipeable paste and place in a small piping bag cutting a small hole at the end.
Adding jalapenos in the centre
Cupping action
Step 5 SHAPING - Line a 32 x 23 x 6cm or 12.8 x 9.2 x 2.4inch baking dish with high sides with parchment. Punch down the dough and knead in the cheeses and the chives. Flour your hands and a surface and shape 12 buns around 110g/3.9ozs each (I weighed the dough just to keep it consistent). Shape into a circle and place the chopped jalapenos in the centre of the bun and roll into a ball without any cracks on the surface by cupping the dough and kneading it against the bench. If the dough is too sticky try greasing your hands with oil spray - that should prevent the dough from sticking to your hands too much.
Step 6 SECOND RISE - Place on the parchment (I could fit 12 buns onto one tray and then another 2 on another) and do not give these a long rise, as long as they puff up a bit that is perfect. Glaze with beaten egg and then pipe crosses on top and then bake for 28-30 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Mix butter with chives to make chive butter and serve with buns.
Personal Note
Laura inspired this recipe as she was looking for a savoury hot cross bun recipe that she could serve at Easter lunch instead of dinner rolls. She said that she saw my bacon and egg HCBs but wanted something savoury baked into the buns. She often gives me great cooking ideas and we also really enjoy our food adventures.
The other night Laura and I headed to one of our favourite places: the Lakemba Ramadan night markets. As we drove up it looked oddly quiet. "Hmm there are lots of parking spots," she mused aloud. "That's weird, are we very early?" I responded. And then we saw the sign saying that Ramadan nights was cancelled. Disappointed and having come all the way, we parked and regrouped.
I found a place in a nearby suburb that was on my list for serving delicious looking Middle Eastern food. When we reached there it looked a bit different from what we had seen on Tiktok. There was no menu of delicious soups or lamb topped hummus, it was basically like a takeaway chicken shop. And because it was Ramadan before sundown they were just selling chicken and chips.
Dejected, we decided to walk back to the car for a regroup to find a third option. It was then that poor Laura almost got hit by a woman driving who sped up towards her and we just wanted to get out of there. By now we were absolutely famished, I needed to pee and we were also thirsty. We had another place in mind so we drove towards it but then stumbled upon a road side sign advertising sandwiches 1 minute away. We took a detour there where there were fantastic sandwiches, a bathroom to use and dogs to pat. Because sometimes you need to pivot and go to Plan C and sometimes that works out!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a friend that you go on food adventures with? Have you ever tried savoury hot cross buns?
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