Wholewheat Hot Cross Buns

Recipe by Cook's Hideout

These wholewheat hot cross buns are soft, fluffy and oh-so delicious. These rich and sweet buns are topped with a thick layer of icing. These are great with some tea or coffee.

Ingredients

• ½ cup Currants or Golden Raisins
• 1 cup White Wholewheat flour
• 1 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp Light or Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 tbsp Nonfat Dry Milk
• ¾ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup Lukewarm Water
• 3 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp Egg Replacer powder whisked with 3tbsp water (1 large Egg)
• 4 tbsp Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup confectioners sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• of salt
• 2 tbsp milk
• for THE ICING:

Method

1. Combine currants or raisins with 1tbsp water in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl of a bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the ingredients, except for the currants/ raisins. Mix and knead until a soft, smooth dough forms. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover and set aside to rise until the dough is quite puffy, about 1~2 hours.
3. Lightly grease a 9"x2" cake pan.
4. Gently deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly greased work surface. Knead in the currants/ raisins into the dough. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll them into round balls.
5. Place the balls, smooth side up and about ¼" apart in the greased cake pan. Cover and set aside to rise for 1~1½ hours, or until they are nicely puffy and touching one another.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Uncover and bake the buns until they are light golden brown on top, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven.
7. Let the buns cool 15 minutes or so before icing. Don't wait for too long, icing won't stick to the buns.
8. Combine all the ingredients for the icing in a small bowl.
9. Using a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with a snipped off corner, pipe icing over slightly warm rolls in the traditional cross pattern. Let them cool and serve.

View the recipe instructions at Cook's Hideout