Guilt-Free Healthy Hot Cross Buns

It is that time of the year again, Easter! Can you believe it?!? Easter means one thing for me: Hot Cross Buns! (Although supermarkets have been selling them since Australia Day!) I love hot cross buns, especially the chocolate ones. However, store-bought ones are often too sweet and contain preservatives that are not good for our bodies.

As a result, I have been on the hunt for healthy hot cross bun recipes. Most recipes I came across contain too much sweetener, oil/butter and/or refined flour. Hence, I have tweaked a few recipes that I like to come up with my very own guilt-free hot cross buns. These buns are not only packed with fibre and good fat but are super delicious and nutritious (and it only uses 1 tsp of coconut sugar for the whole loaf!). And are just over 250 of good calories each! 🙂

I hope you enjoy this recipe and don’t feel guilty eating these yummy hot cross buns 🙂 As always, let me know what you think of this recipe.

Makes 8 medium sized hot cross buns

For those of you counting calories and macros, please use the table below as a guide.

	Carbohydrates (g)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)	Calories
Per bun	37.4	7.9	9.2	263.7

Ingredients

For the Buns

• 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour;
• 2 tbsp cacao powder (you can also use cocoa powder);
• 7g yeast;
• 1 egg (or 1 flax egg if you are vegan);
• 1/2 cup milk (you can use any type of milk, I used high protein dairy milk);
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted;
• 1 tsp coconut sugar;
• 1/4 cup Australian sultanas;
• 1/4 cup green sultanas (you can replace this with normal sultanas, currants or cranberries);
• 50g dates, chopped roughly;
• 1/8 cacao nibs;
• 1 tsp mixed spices;
• 1 tsp cinnamon; and
• 1/2 tsp salt.

For the Crosses

• 1/4 flour (you can use any type of flour); and
• 2-3 tbsp water.

For the Glaze

• 1 tbsp coconut sugar; and
• 1 tbsp water.

Method

1. Warm the milk up to luke warm (do not boil it as it will kill the yeast) and add the yeast and coconut sugar to the milk. Stir until the coconut sugar melts. Cover and place in a warm place for 15 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly;

   

   

2. In a large bowl, sieve the flour, cacao powder, spices and salt;
3. In another bowl, mix the egg and melted coconut oil together and add this to bubbly milk-yeast mixture. Stir well and then, pour this mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture;
4. Add the dried fruit and cacao nibs to the bowl and combine to form a dough;

   

5. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot for approximately 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size;

   

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius;
7. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and punch out the air. Kneed the dough and then cut into 8 equal size pieces;

   

8. Roll into balls and places in a baking tin with sufficient room for the balls to expand. Cover and place the baking tray in a warm spot for 15 minutes or until the balls have slightly risen;

   

9. Mix the flour and water together for the crosses in a bowl and pour into a zip lock bag and cut the corner off and set aside;
10. Using the back of a knife, trace crosses down the buns and then pipe the mixing down the lines;

    

11. Place the buns in the oven for approximately 25 minutes to bake or until slightly darker than golden brown;

    

12. For the glaze, mix the coconut sugar and water in a bowl;
13. Once the buns are baked and removed from the oven, immediately paste the glaze over the buns;

    

14. Serve warm with butter, peanut butter or my homemade chia seed cherry jam. It is also good on its own; and
15. Store in an airtight container for up to three days outside or up to a week in the fridge.

Happy Easter and happy baking,

Suba

Xx