Chocolate Chunk Hot Cross Buns

It’s Easter and there’s plenty of traditional food that could be made from all over the world. The hot cross bun is pretty much always a must at this time of year, especially for us British. They’re sweet and sticky… usually containing a variety of spices and dried fruit, but can vary with a lot of different flavours and ingredients. Who doesn’t love chocolate? We do! It’s everywhere at the moment… so why not make them with chocolate instead?

They are the sort of food… a bit like a crumpet, fantastic toasted, slathering on the butter so it oozes out when you bite into it. Not exactly for the health conscious! But what’s wrong with a little treat now and then? Or you can just have them cold (the fruit ones)… but in my opinion that is so wrong.

With a lot of foods, we love to make things from scratch. Although it can be easier to buy tortillas, pasta, breads, salsas, condiments and so on… where’s the fun in that?! OK, we do agree even we are often pushed for time so getting them already made is sometimes faster but we usually do it from scratch when we can. The main reason behind this is that the flavour is usually unmatched. It’s pretty much ALWAYS gonna taste better if you make it yourself and also you know EXACTLY what has gone into it.

A while ago we discovered a Belgian chocolate version which Sasha naturally preferred because of the lack of dried fruit… although she has come around to them a bit more over time. Since then we’ve vowed to recreate them. The chocolate version is perfectly acceptable cold… in fact we didn’t try it toasted so can’t really comment on it. We attempted to create our own... the first attempt being utterly disastrous... a bit like rocks… they didn’t rise properly and weren’t fluffy enough inside. The second attempt worked ok-ish... but we tweaked it a bit further to make it perfect... third time is the charm.

These are based on a recipe by Nigella Lawson, adjusted and played with to refine it to what we think is just divine… and we will definitely be repeating this in future.

Chocolate Chunk Hot Cross Buns

Makes 16

Ingredients

For the dough

400 g bread flour

150 ml milk

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

50 g butter

1 egg

1 clove

2 cardamom pods

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground ginger

Zest of 1 orange

7 g fast action dried yeast

100 g dark chocolate chunked up into chips (70% cocoa)

For the crosses

3 tbsp plain flour

½ tbsp. caster sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

For the sugar glaze

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp orange juice

a beaten egg for egg wash

Method

1. Heat a saucepan with the cloves, cardamom pods, milk, and butter and leave to cool and infuse.

2. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and when the milk is just lukewarm remove the whole spices and beat in an egg. Mix with the dry ingredients. Combine and knead until soft and elastic - this is easiest in a food mixer.

3. Leave to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size. 

4. Preheat oven to 190^oC (fan, hotter for conventional) with a pan of water in the bottom, similar to the technique used for baking brioche buns for burgers. The pan of water is imperative to ensure a soft textured bun.

5. Knock back the dough. Divide into 16 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place on a non-stick tray - close to each other but not touching. Score a cross in the top of each one and leave to prove until doubled in size (~1hr).

6. Brush with egg wash and then decorate with the cross mixture; it is easiest to pipe this on. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

7. Heat together the sugar and juice for the glaze and brush the buns with it as soon as they come out of the oven. Allow to cool on a wire rack. 

 

Adapted from Nigella Lawson - Feast