These glossy mounds of Spring joyfulness are a Good Friday delight! Lemon and poppyseed hot cross buns are my vibrant twist on a traditional spiced hot cross bun. They have all the palm-sized, fluffy, just-baked qualities of a regular bun and are just as simple to make. Try out this family-friendly Easter baking holiday activity that finishes with a sweet treat to eat!
Make further use of your new poppyseed stash with these savoury onion and poppyseed buns. These bagel-like bialy have all the satisfying chew of a bagel but come without a hole. Perfect for sandwich filling!
Easter baking ideas
After Christmas, Easter is the second most food-focused holiday in my calendar. Arguably the most fun and a perfect opportunity for getting the kids in the kitchen.
Over the years I have collected a basket full of Easter baking ideas to do with my two. My favourite is a family tradition started generations ago- baking kulich, a Russian Easter bread.
Actually, the recipe is not too dissimilar to a giant hot cross bun! It’s a sweet and pillow-soft loaf of brioche bread frosted with melted white chocolate. I’ve tweaked my grandma’s recipe and swap the original currants and raisins for milk chocolate chips.
A more recently established tradition is our own Easter brunch, which used to occur after the much-anticipated egg hunt around the garden. These days with two children on the verge of adulthood, it’s the brunch part that is much anticipated! Featuring lots of eggs, buns and pastries, pick your favourites from my Easter brunch collection.
And although it’s not baking, a tradition I have found hard to let go of is colouring Easter eggs. This humble craft activity yields the most beautiful works of natural art and the memories of my children’s tiny, stained fingers wrapped around delicate eggs, will be everlasting.
Hot cross buns recipe
Easter is one of my favourite times of year. I love the appearance of spring flowers, spring lambs and spring leeks, cooking holiday roasts and celebratory baking, for example hot cross buns.
Except I don’t really like hot cross buns! And that’s how this lemon and poppyseed glazed hot cross bun recipe came about.
In case you are not familiar, hot cross buns pop up everywhere at Easter int the UK. These dough delights are riddled with currants, raisins or mixed peel and heavily spiced.
While some people adore a heady spice mix, I find the combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger cloying and heavy. And a bit too Christmassy for Easter!
In love with the tradition, but not the bun, I made some changes. My dough is blessed with warm vanilla, lemon zest and faintly nutty poppyseeds, which add texture.
Additionally, I have flavoured the glaze. Usually, a simple sugar and water syrup, or egg wash, mine is a sticky and glossy mix of honey, vanilla, lemon juice and icing sugar. Producing a perfectly balanced and uplifting bun.
Essentially, I took the flavours of Eastern Europe and wrapped them up in the quintessentially British package.
The trademark cross remains the same, so there is no mistaking this bun’s rooted identity.
Recipe tips and notes
- My reimagined hot cross buns are a blend of English and Eastern European traditions, making them a sentimental bake indeed. I hope you’ll join me in sharing my appreciation of these two cultures.
- The delicately fragranced buns are scented with simple vanilla and lemon zest, but feel free to add orange zest too if you like it.
- The cross can be tricky to get right. The mixture must be thin enough to pipe, but not so runny that it pales into the bun itself. The best consistency is one that needs a little squeezy encouragement from the piping bag.
- There’s no need for a nozzle. Just snip the corner off the bag.
- Glaze the buns generously when they come out of the oven. Glaze them while they’re hot so plenty of the sweet mixture is absorbed into the dough. Add several coats for a thick, shiny, and irresistible finish.
Serving suggestions
Lemon and poppyseed hot cross buns are a dream served warm and fresh from the oven, and hard to resist! Is that why they make one extra in a baker’s dozen?
Or serve them toasted with lashings of real butter and a pot of tea. I drink mine with milk, which is not very Russian of me. But accompanied by a lace tablecloth, dainty glass of hot black tea and a sugar cube would paint a romantic picture of the Orthodox world.
Storage and leftovers
Hot cross buns do not improve with age. In fact, they should be eaten on the day they are baked as they tend to dry out quickly. However, if it is physically impossible to stuff another into yourself or coerce anyone else to, tie them up tight in a bag and keep at room temperature for one more day.
Day old buns will need toasting under the grill. It is not advisable to use a toaster due to the glaze. I put mine in my do-it-all air fryer for 1 minute to warm through.
More Easter baking
- Carrot Sheet Cake with Pistachio Frosting
- Rhubarb Slab Pie
- Chocolate Strawberry Mousse Cake
- Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Cream Cheese Icing
Lemon Poppyseed Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
- 7g/1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 220ml/1 cup warm whole milk 43-46℃/110-115℉
- 1 egg large
- 60g/¼ cup butter melted
- 50g/¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 large lemon zest only
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tbsp poppyseeds
- 400g/3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour
For the crosses
- 4 tbsp flour
- 3 tbsp milk or water
For the glaze
- 100g/¾ cup icing sugar
- ½ lemon juice only
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp runny honey
Instructions
- In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm milk. Let it sit for a couple of minutes to get bubbly/frothy. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine 1 egg, melted butter, brown sugar, salt, yeasted milk and 240g/2 cups of flour. Mix until well combined. Add the rest of the flour, lemon zest and the poppyseeds and knead with a dough hook attachment for about 5-7 minutes. Take the dough out of the bowl and rub the bowl with vegetable oil, then return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let it rise for 1 hour to 1.5 hours in a warm place until it doubles in volume. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Take the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal parts. (You might want to weigh them to ensure they are all the same but eyeballing is also fine.) Roll into balls and place into a well-buttered 23x33cm/9×13 inch baking pan. Cover with a tea towel and let them rise one more time for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the paste for the crosses. Combine the flour with the milk or water in a small bowl, mix until smooth, then pour into a piping bag or a small sandwich bag.
- Once the buns have risen the second time, pipe the crosses. With scissors snip a small opening in your piping bag and pipe crosses on the buns. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes or until golden and sound hollow when you tap on the surface of a bun.
- While the buns are in the oven combine the icing sugar with the lemon juice and mix until the sugar dissolves, then add the honey and vanilla.
- Take the buns out of the oven and carefully turn then over on a cooling rack. Glaze immediately while still hot. This way they will absorb the sugar glaze. Making sure you put several coats of glaze on them.
Sara says
My children recently learned the Hot Cross Buns nursery rhyme and they’ve been begging me to make some. But I’ve never made or eaten them myself and lo and behold your recipe popped up on my Pinterest feed! With 5-ish more weeks until Pascha, I’ve added these to my neverending Pascha baking list! They look incredible!
Julia Frey (Vikalinka) says
I hope you and your children enjoy these, Sara. Happy Easter!