Hot Cross Buns

These Hot Cross Buns have all the flavors of traditional rolls but made much easier with store bought rolls. This classic Easter recipe is ideal if you are short on time or intimidated by bread baking. Ready in 30 minutes, including baking time!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword easy hot cross buns, hot cross buns, quick hot cross buns

Prep Time 18

Cook Time 16

Total Time 34

Servings rolls

Calories 60kcal

Author Maria Doss

Ingredients

1 package 12 sweet rolls like Kings Hawaiian or Brioche type rolls
1 to 2 tablespoons golden raisins or currants

Orange-Butter

2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter warm
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
zest of one orange finely grated
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground all spice optional
1 to 2 pinch freshly grated nutmeg optional
1 pinch salt

Glaze

¾ cup confectioners sugar
2 to 3 teaspoons water or milk
⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Prep. Preheat oven to 350°F. Choose a baking pan that can fit one package of rolls. Spray it with cooking spray.
Prep Rolls. Using a sharp knife, cut a 1-inch-deep slit across the top of each roll. Turn the roll 90 degrees and make a second 1-inch-deep cut to form a cross. Gently transfer the rolls to the baking pan. Press raisins or currants into the cuts on top.
Make orange butter. Stir all the orange butter ingredients together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Make sure the butter is warm when mixing — this helps create a smooth, pourable consistency for drizzling.
Drizzle. Using a spoon, drizzle the orange butter evenly into the cuts, allowing it to soak into the bread. Make sure to use all the butter for maximum flavor.
Bake. Bake for 14–16 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the rolls cool until lukewarm.
Make glaze. In a bowl, stir all glaze ingredients until smooth and thick enough for piping a cross. The glaze should form a soft peak when lifted with a spoon and hold its shape without flowing back.
👉 If the glaze is too thick, add a little water; if too thin, add more confectioners’ sugar.
Finish. Transfer the glaze to a zip-top bag and seal. Snip a small corner off, then pipe a line down the center of each row of buns. Repeat in the other direction to form a cross pattern. Let the icing set for about an hour before serving.

Video

Notes

What kind of rolls to use? 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.

Glaze consistency Make sure that the 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.

Grate orange zest using a microplane into a fine zest.

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.

Nutrition