A sweet little upgrade to an Easter Classic, the Hot Cross Bun!

I love walking into a shop or bakery and smelling the sweet spicy scent of Hot Cross Buns, it brings back great memories of my childhood but the only downside of them for me are the raisins and currents. Because Easter is only a month away I wanted to give my twist on the Classic Hot Cross Bun but filling them with chocolate chips instead all topped with a white chocolate cross!

With a sugary glaze, they are perfect fresh from the oven for all the family and to add some more calories to the mix, enjoy with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream - beautiful!

To make 15 hot cross buns you will need:

3 Packets of Instant Dry Yeast

2 Cups of warm milk

1/2 Cup of Granulated sugar

1 teaspoon of SaltA

4 1/2 Cups of Plain Flour

60g of Unsalted Butter

1 large Egg

150g of Chocolate Chips - any chocolate of your choice (a mix of white and milk would be amazing)

For the sticky glaze you will need:

1/3 cup of Granulated Sugar

3 tablespoons of boiling water

For the White Chocolate Crosses you will need:

50g of White Chocolate

For the buns (hun) mix together the yeast, milk and the sugar, make sure it's all combined well and leave to one side for about 20/25 minutes. Melt the 60g of unsalted butter and leave to one side, you don't want to add this to the mixture straight away because hot butter and egg doesn't mix! Grab a big mixing bowl and add in the flour and salt and give it a mix. Once your butter has slightly cooled, add this to your flour and salt along with the egg and the yeasty mixture (that doesn't sound pleasant, apologies).

Once it is all combined throw in your chocolate chips of choice and knead for a few minutes. Cover your mixture with clingfilm and leave to raise for 2 hours giving you plenty of time to do the dishes or shake your booty to some Dua Lipa (loving her single Be the One right now).

 After catching your breath, go back to your mixture and it should of increased in size - almost by double! Heat your oven to 180 degrees and line your tin with greaseproof paper. 

Turn out your mixture and give it another gentle knead. Then start making some balls and place them neatly in your tray, I went for 3 rows of 5. While your oven is heating up leave the buns to one side to give them another 5 minutes to raise. Pop them in the oven for 22 minutes, now I know it's very precise but this is the exact time mine took to get lovely and golden brown. While your buns are in the oven cooking away get your glaze all ready as you will want to brush this over the buns as soon as they come out of the oven. To make the glaze you simply just add the boiling water to your sugar and mix, I added too much sugar which can be seen as my glaze wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be - but I will know for next time!

Like I said before, once your buns are out of the oven quickly brush over as many layers of the sticky glaze as you'd like - I went for three thick layers (why not?!).

Now it's not a Hot Cross Bun without the famous cross and as I am a slight lover of chocolate (slight - yeah right) I decided to use white chocolate! Either melt your chocolate in the microwave or over some boiling water and transfer into a piping bag or sandwich bag and create your crosses - someone has a very shaky hand as you can see on mine but overall I'm pretty blooming' chuffed with them! 

 A lovely twist on the traditional Easter Classic, the Hot Cross Bun! Enjoy!