This may be hard for you to hear. I normally try to stick to my lane and avoid the heavy topics, but I can’t stay silent about this any longer. I’ve learned about a falsehood that is perpetuated year after year, and it stops here.

Every spring hot cross buns start popping up in bakeries and grocery stores. You know the ones, they are lightly spiced with bits of fruit and an icing cross (or some other pattern) on top.

LIES! There is no icing. That cross pattern is nothing more than flour and water. The sweetness comes from a glaze on top of the bun, if anything the pattern is the least delicious part.

Once the shock of this wears off, I hope you will be able to see that this is actually good news. It means that you can make these without needing to make icing, and in fact you can leave out the design altogether and these will still be delicious treats to enjoy year-round.

I highly recommend serving them warm, buttered, and with a cup of tea.

Makes: 1 dozen buns

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp quick rise yeast
• 3 cups flour (plus up to half a cup extra)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped dried fruit of your choice (see note)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Toppings:
  • If you are going to do the cross pattern on top, 3 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp jam or jelly (just something seedless that will go with the fruit you chose)

Directions:

1. Lightly grease an 8×13 baking dish or line it with parchment and set aside
2. Heat up milk (3/4 cup) until steaming but not boiling
3. Add butter (1/2 cup) to milk and set aside to allow the butter to melt and the milk to cool
4. Once the milk mixture has cooled to room temperature, add yeast (1 tsp)
5. Stir together in a medium bowl flour (3 cups), cinnamon (1 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp) and salt (1 tsp)
6. Add chopped dried fruit (1 cup) to dry ingredients
7. In a stand mixer combine milk mixture, eggs (2), brown sugar (1/2 cup), and vanilla (1 tsp)
8. Add the flour mixture and use the dough hook to knead for about 5 minutes – if the dough is too wet add the extra half cup of flour
9. Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl, cover and set in a warm place until it has doubled in size
10. Punch the dough down, separate into 12 balls and arrange them in the prepared baking dish, cover with a dish towel and set aside for another 45 minutes to 1 hour until they have puffed up again
11. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
12. If you intend to join the conspiracy, combine equal parts flour and water and whisk them together into a paste, adjusting as needed until you have a usable consistency, and create the patterns using a pastry bag (see note)
13. Bake for 20-25 minutes
14. As soon as you remove them from the oven, brush with jam or jelly

Notes:

• The best part of baking at home is that it is infinitely customizable. I used dates here, but you can use whatever you want. Nuts are fine too if you prefer. And if you don’t like “inclusions” in your breads you can just leave this out.
• Don’t happen to own a pastry bag? Me neither. A small plastic sandwich bag works just as well, just cut the very corner off.