This is perfect to bake for your Easter celebrations or over the holidays.
Hot Cross Bun Pull-Apart Recipe
Prep: 25 minutes
Rise: 2 hours
Cook: 30 minutes
Serves: 10
Ingredients
- 4 ¼ cups (640g) plain flour (bread flour if available)
- 3 tsp McKenzie’s Bakers Yeast
- ½ cup (110g) caster sugar
- 2 tsp McKenzie’s Mixed Spice
- 2 tsp McKenzie’s Ground Cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 50g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 ½ cups full cream milk (warmed in the microwave for 45 seconds)
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (210g) sultanas or chocolate chips
- Zest of 2 oranges
- Extra ¼ cup plain flour (if needed for sticky dough)
Syrup
- ¾ cup butter
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Method
- Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Attach a dough hook in the mixer and add butter, milk, egg, sultanas, and orange zest to the flour. Mix until a smooth elastic dough forms about 5 minutes. If the dough is sticky and doesn’t come away from the side of the bowl, add another ¼ cup flour.
- First rise: Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot to rise until doubled in size. Note: this can take anywhere between 1 hour to 1 ½ hours depending on how warm it is.
- Grease a large Bundt pan with melted butter.
- Remove plastic wrap from the bowl and punch down the dough to deflate.
- Dust the work surface with flour and knead for one minute, then cut the dough into pieces and roll it into golf size balls.
- Make the syrup by melting the butter and whisking in the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
- Roll each ball of dough into the syrup and line them up randomly in the bundt tin.
- Second rise: let dough in bundt tin sit for another 30 minutes to allow the dough to rise again.
- In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 180°C. Place the bundt pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for just a few minutes before turning the ring onto a plate to serve.
Tip: Best eaten warm and on the day. Simply pull off bits of hot cross bun from the ring and enjoy. The pull-apart can also be enjoyed the next day by warming in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time.
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