Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

I love making hot cross buns! This year I made a batch of my lovely Cranberry and Orange buns but I wanted to also make some that my allergic son could also eat. So I used that as my basic recipe, and changed it to make it dairy free.
Needless to say my son LOVED them, and I must admit I did too!
If you've never made hot cross buns before, honestly they are quite easy, but they just take a bit of time due to the two lots of proving that are necessary for a light, fluffy bun.

Anyway, do have a go!

Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

For the Buns:

300 ml milk - I used soya for my son

500 g strong white flour

75 g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet fast-action yeast

50 g butter - melted - I used Stork block - non dairy

1 free range egg, beaten

100 g dark chocolate chips - dairy free

2 oranges, zest of both 

1 tsp mixed spice

sunflower oil for greasing the bowl

For the Cross:

75 g plain flour

5 tbsp water

For the Glaze:

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

METHOD:

1. Bring the milk to the boil and then take it off the heat, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool down until it reaches hand temperature.

2. Zest the oranges into a small bowl. 

3. Mix the flour, spices, salt, sugar, yeast, butter and egg together in a bowl and then slowly add the warm milk, mixing until it forms a soft, sticky dough.

4. Knead the dough for about 5 mins or until is is smooth and elastic. I used the dough hook on my Kenwood mixer for this stage.

5. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

6. Tip the dough out of the bowl onto the bench top and knead it to remove any air bubbles. Flatten it out into a rectangular shape and sprinkle the chocolate chips and orange zest onto the dough. Fold the dough over to incorporate the toppings, and knead so they are well combined.

7. Divide the dough into 12 even sized pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface - you shouldn't need much flour at this stage. Also, it's okay to knead these pieces a bit more to shape them. Arrange them onto a tray lined with baking parchment, leaving enough room so that they just touch when they expand and rise (about 1-2cm apart depending on their size).

8. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

9. Set aside to prove for another hour. At this stage I placed the tray into a clean plastic shopping bag rather than covering in cling film.

10. For the cross, mix the flour with 5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, so that you get the right consistency for a thick paste. Spoon the paste into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and trim off the bottom of the bag - a small opening is all you need. Pipe along each row of buns in one direction only, then come back and do the opposite direction to make crosses, all in one go. Don't do individual buns, it will look messy and take so much longer.

10. Bake for 20-25 mins on the middle shelf in the oven, or until golden brown.

11. Mix the caster sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves, and then when they buns are straight out of the oven brush them liberally with the glaze so the tops are all covered.

12. Gently rip the buns apart to eat and enjoy!

Ready for the oven!

Glazed with the sugar syrup straight out of the oven.