KP+: Everything Hot Cross Buns
Meet The Hot Cross Bundt!
I’m sure we all have a season where we feel most ourselves. Maybe you groove with Christmas, or perhaps you’re a full-blown summer fanatic (a hard thing to be if you’re living in the UK - I feel for all of you who have to gracefully accept 3-4 days of good weather per year). For me, there’s something about Hot Cross Bun season that really helps me come into my own. Though I lean dried-fruit-sceptical, enveloped in a soft, spiced dough, toasted to perfection and dripping with butter, I get on board.
Admittedly, hot cross bun season is different for everyone. I’ve heard reports of people buying hot cross buns all year round (!) or dashing to the shops just after New Year’s Day to enjoy them.
I personally keep the season short on purpose. Like opening an advent calendar in December, the novelty just makes things taste better. But earlier this week, an internal chime sounded, and I broke the seal for 2024… Would you look at these?
Every year I think about revisiting my recipe, but I make a batch and realise there’s absolutely no reason to. I capital L ‘Love’ my recipe - spiced the whole way through,. It’s in the KP+ archive, and I’ll never share this recipe anywhere else:
How to eat them?
A surprisingly controversial topic! This week, I had a variety of reports and to be honest, I can see the joy in them all: Whether you enjoy them toasted with butter (my hand is up), fresh and squishy, adorned with marmalade, as a bacon butty with HP sauce, with thick pats of cold salty butter, with mature cheddar (toasted or otherwise!), or toasted with butter and marmite (!!!), there will always be a place, right in the centre of my heart, for the OG buns, the Easter mothership. There’s really no way to go wrong.
But if you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you’ll know I can’t resist a crossover (excuse the pun) bake, especially hot crossies. This year, I have a very special recipe for you that would take pride of place at any festive Easter table.
Friends, let me introduce you to a new addition to my HXB wheelhouse… the HOT CROSS BUNDT. Inspired by rich monkey bread baked in a bundt tin, this outrageously sticky number has all the best bits of sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding, and hot cross buns served with custard. What a centrepiece:
The HXB extended family
Before I introduce the newest member to my favourite seasonal family, It would be remiss of me not to introduce the OGs:
Hot Cross Custard Buns
Tender swirls of dough with a spiced custard filling. What’s not to love? Click here for the recipe.
Hot CROISSANT buns
What do I love more… puns or buns? Tbh, I love both equally. Luckily, with this bake, you don’t have to choose. Spiced laminated dough with flecks of raisins and mixed peel and folded to show off all those layers. It’s what hot cross buns would wear to the Met Gala. Click here for the recipe
HXB cookies
The ooiest, gooiest version of HXB out there: Cookies. Fudgy, chewy, sticky. It’s definitely the fun young cousin of the HXB family. Check em out here.
Choc Cross Buns
I developed this recipe for Olive Magazine a few years ago in honour of my sister, who is chocolate-mad. It consists of a rich brioche and a caramel cross. It is not for the faint-hearted and is undoubtedly a ‘start as you mean to go on’ type of bake for Easter egg lovers. Click here for the recipe.
Alright, let’s make the BUNdt.