Zest-and-spice hot cross buns, Signature

Steph Blackwell’s Zest-and-Spice Hot Cross Buns

The handshake card

• Baker: Steph Blackwell
• UK series: Series 10 (2019)
• Week/theme: Week 7, Festival
• Challenge: Signature
• Handshake fact: Steph received a Hollywood handshake for her zest-and-spice hot cross buns.
• Yield: 24 buns
• Difficulty: Easy
• Official timing: 45 minutes hands-on, plus rising and proving; 20 minutes baking
• Source: Steph’s Zest & Spice Hot Cross Buns, The Great British Bake Off
• Evidence: Master index entry #33; research sources [S1], [S2], [S3].

Why it earned the handshake

Steph’s official recipe loads a familiar Easter bun with orange and lemon zest, sultanas, cranberries, mixed peel, cinnamon, and mixed spice. The recipe also makes its own butter from cream, then finishes the buns with a whole-spice sugar syrup. The result is festive without relying on decoration alone: the fragrance is built into the dough and the glaze.

Ingredients

Dough

• 520ml whole milk
• 900g strong white bread flour, sifted
• 135g golden caster sugar
• 4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1½ tsp mixed spice
• 2 tsp salt
• 20g fast-action dried yeast
• 2 eggs
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g sultanas
• 80g dried cranberries
• 100g mixed peel
• Finely grated zest of 2 small unwaxed oranges
• Finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

Homemade butter

• 300ml double cream
• Pinch of salt, optional

Glaze and crosses

• 35g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp liquid glucose or golden syrup
• 1 star anise
• 3 cloves
• ½ cinnamon stick
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 100g plain flour
• Water as needed for the cross paste

You will also need lined baking trays and a piping bag or paper cone for the crosses.

Method

1. Warm the milk until hand hot. Put the flour, sugar, cinnamon, mixed spice, salt, and yeast into a stand mixer, keeping the salt and yeast apart. Make a well, add the milk and eggs, and mix with the dough hook.
2. Add the softened butter gradually and mix for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Add the dried fruit and citrus zests, mix for another 3–5 minutes, then cover the sticky dough and leave it somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled.
3. While the dough rises, whisk the cream for about 4 minutes until the liquid separates from the butter. Gather the solid butter into muslin, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, add salt if desired, and wrap it in greaseproof paper.
4. Knock back the dough, weigh it, and divide it into 24 equal pieces of about 80–85g. Roll each piece under a cupped hand into a neat bun. Arrange on the trays, cover, and prove for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
5. For the glaze, heat the sugar, glucose or syrup, and 2 tbsp water until the sugar dissolves. Add the whole spices and nutmeg, boil for about 3 minutes until slightly syrupy, then cool.
6. Heat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan/415°F/Gas 6–7. Mix the plain flour with about 100ml water to make a smooth paste. Pipe a cross over each bun.
7. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until golden. Brush liberally with the spiced syrup, transfer to a wire rack, and serve with the homemade butter.

Baker’s tips

• Keep salt and yeast separate at the start so the yeast is not inhibited before mixing.
• The dough is deliberately sticky; use time and a light touch rather than adding extra flour.
• Squeeze the homemade butter thoroughly so excess liquid does not dilute the finished spread.
• Brush the syrup on while the buns are hot so it clings to the crust.

Make-ahead

The buns are best fresh, but the spiced syrup can be made ahead. The shaped buns can be covered and chilled for a slow overnight proof; allow them to finish rising before baking.