With Easter around the corner, it’s high time for us to make vegan hot-cross buns. Just sweet enough, super soft, and really tasty they will be the highlight of your easter breakfast.
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A twist on classic hot-cross buns
As far as I’m concerned, the original hot-cross buns are made with dried fruit and a bit of spice. I added none of those things. I believe some cinnamon could be great, or even some cardamom so feel free to play around with that. Instead of dried fruits, I used an ingredient I think is far more popular – chocolate. You know I like to simplify things and make them better if possible. I think I did just that with these vegan hot-cross buns.
After hot-cross buns are baked and already a bit cooled, chocolate is still warm and melted. It’s amazing to grab a bun and have that melted chocolate in the middle of it.
They are sweet buns, though, so I don’t think they’d be a good fit for horse radish and vegan ham. But I know they are amazing coupled with vegan butter and jam.
Making vegan hot-cross buns your own – Ingredients Q&A
I believe any recipe can be slightly adjusted to fit your preferences and still turn out great. But be wary of big changes as they might cause the final dish to turn out badly. I might even say that the recipe is just not the same anymore so you can’t even blame the person who’s developed the recipe ‘cuz you changed it so much. Now, let’s take a look at the ingredients.
Flour: We’re starting with the most important part of the recipe. I’m using all-purpose flour because it’s what makes these buns so soft. Wholemeal flour would make them denser and less soft but would add more fibre and make them healthier. It would totally change the consistency, though, so if you’re using any other flour but all-purpose, I can’t guarantee you success.
Lemon zest: If you’re using fresh lemon zest, make sure the lemons are bio and that zest is edible. You can also buy lemon zest that’s prepared for desserts.
Agave syrup: I’m using agave syrup for sweetness. You might have realized this before but I don’t use refined sugar at all unless it’s 100% needed. It usually isn’t though. I think you could replace agave with coconut sugar, brown sugar, and even white sugar, but I think it would be wise to add a bit more milk for moisture. The syrup adds moisture so replacing agave with maple or rice syrup would be better.
Coconut oil: you need melted coconut oil so any other oil with no strong taste would work. I’m talking cold-pressed sunflower seed oil, cold-pressed rapeseed oil, avocado oil, etc. Don’t use olive oil, walnut oil, and such as they add a lot of taste.
Oat milk: I always use oat milk because I love it. It’s creamy and has a very neutral taste. Of course you can use any other plant milk you wish.
Chocolate: dark chocolates tend to be vegan by default, but double-check as milk fat or whey powder can be added to practically anything nowadays. I recommend you use chocolate with 70% cocoa. For this recipe that I created for Spar I used Veganz chocolate with coconut base and it worked very well.
If you’re looking for another Easter recipe, take a look at this walnut potica – traditional Slovenian rolled dessert (kinda like babka). If you’re looking for Easter cake, this healthy vegan carrot cake will take your breath away, I’m sure.
Are you recreating any of my recipes? Don’t forget to take a photo and tag me on Instagram @littlekitchenvibes
Vegan Hot-Cross Buns
Ingredients
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- 7 g dried active yeast
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- pinch salt
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 300 ml oat milk
- 50 g coconut oil melted
- 50 ml agave syrup
- 100 g dark chocolate 70%
Hot crosses
- 20 g flour
- 25 ml water
Instructions
- Add the dry ingredients - flour, yeast, lemon zest, salt - to a large bowl and whisk them well.
- Warm up the milk, remove it from the stove and add coconut oil to it so it melts. Add vanilla essence and agave syrup, too. Stir well.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and start kneading. Using your hands, knead for a few minutes until all the ingredients are incorporated well and the dough starts developing elasticity. Then cover it with a wet kitchen cloth and let it proof for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
- Meanwhile, chop chocolate roughly.
- Once the dough has proven (if you poke it with your finger it doesn't spring back up immediately), poke it with a fist, add chocolate chips to it and knead gently to incorporate chocolate into the dough.
- Now get the dough out onto a cleaned working surface. Don't flour the surface.
- Cut the dough into 12 equal parts, each weighing about 80-85g.
- Roll each of the pieces with your hands to form a ball.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it well. Place the balls of dough next to each other in lines - in my case, it was 3x4 balls. Cover them with a wet kitchen cloth and let them proof for 30 minutes.
- For hot crosses mix 20 g flour with 25 g water and mix very well to create a runny and smooth paste. Move that paste to a piping bag with a spoon. Make sure the hole at the end of the piping bag is not too big (about 1 mm). Draw crosses over the tops of proven balls with that piping bag.
- Bake hot-cross buns at 180°C for 20 minutes.
- Once they are baked, let them cool for a few minutes and then serve them while still warm.
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