Quick and Easy Homemade Hot Cross Buns

• Rolls - Look for sweet, egg enriched rolls in your grocery store like King's Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, Brioche rolls, sweet dinner rolls, Hawaiian dinner rolls or Hawaiian sweet buns.
• Orange - Both the zest and freshly squeezed juice is added for optimal orange goodness.
• Butter - Just 2 tablespoons of butter for richness.
• Raisins - I used golden raisins. Although currants are used in traditional hot cross buns recipe, it is sometimes hard to find them in regular grocery stores.
• Sugars - White granulated sugar is used for the orange butter glaze and confectioners sugar for the icing.
• Spices - A combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice for the classic flavors.

Step 1: Make Orange-cinnamon glaze - Stir together warm melted butter, orange juice, finely grated orange zest, ground cinnamon and all spice.

Step 2: Cut each roll one direction (not cutting all the way through), turn 90° and cut in the opposite direction.

Step 3: Stuff the cut opening with raisins and then drizzle orange butter.

Step 4: Bake and finish with icing - Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes and cool until warm.

Step 5: Stir confectioners sugar, vanilla and water or milk to make a very thick glaze. Spoon into a small zip lock bag, snip off a corner and squeeze cross pattern on the baked rolls.

Glaze consistency

Make sure that the hot cross buns icing is a thick consistency, otherwise you might not get a distinctive cross pattern. To check the right consistency, when lifted from the surface with a spoon, it forms a soft peak but doesn’t flow back into the rest of the icing. It should not be too thick that it’s hard to stir, nor too thin that it settles into a flat surface after several seconds, as for the lemon ricotta cookies.

Recipe tips

• Use only sweet rolls and not salty, spicy or savory ones.
• Grate orange zest using a microplane into a fine zest.
• Adjust spices or skip them based on your liking.
• Raisins or currants? Although currants are uses in traditional recipes, it sometime hard to find them in regular grocery stores. Golden raisins are a great substitute.
• Cut the rolls about one inch deep and not all the way through.
• Make sure the butter is warm for a pouring consistency. Drizzle into the cut openings, so the the mixture soaks into the bread.

Storage

If you have any leftovers, then simply store them in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a day or two. Do not refrigerate.

To freeze - Freeze the baked and cooled rolls (without the confectioners sugar icing) for up to a month. Thaw overnight at room temperature, glaze and serve after glaze sets.