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Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns are sweet yeast buns with raisins or currants, glazed with egg wash and sugar, baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve yeast and one tablespoonful sugar in lukewarm milk.

  2. Add one and one-half cups flour to make a sponge.

  3. Beat until smooth, cover and let rise until light in a warm place, free from draft, about one hour.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Add butter and sugar creamed, egg well-beaten, raisins or currants (floured), rest of flour or enough to make a moderately soft dough, and salt.

  2. Turn on board, knead lightly, place in greased bowl.

  3. Cover and set aside in a warm place until double in bulk, about two hours.

  4. Shape with hands into medium-sized round buns, place in well-greased shallow pans about two inches apart.

  5. Cover and let rise again, about one hour, or until light.

Glaze, bake and finish

  1. Glaze with egg diluted with water.

  2. With a sharp knife cut a cross on top of each.

  3. Bake twenty minutes.

  4. Just before removing from oven, brush with sugar moistened with water.

  5. While hot, fill the cross with plain frosting.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

793Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
136 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments sugars in the sponge, producing gas that makes the buns rise.
Egg
Adds richness and structure, and its glaze gives the crust a glossy brown finish.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds softness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, adds sweetness, and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before shaping and baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light texture. Under-proofed buns stay dense and may not spring in the oven, while over-proofed dough can collapse.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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