Hot Cross Buns

Easy Hot Cross Buns using this easy dough from my Bagel Recipe. No yeast, no boiling, no fancy mixer. Bake them in the oven or in the air-fryer!

Hot Cross Buns

Serve them Easter morning with some hard boiled eggs and fruit! More sweet brunch additions I love are No-bake Strawberries and Cream Crepe Cake , Honey lemon Bars , and Chocolate Drizzled Coconut Macaroons .

Confession, I have never had a hot cross bun, although I did play it on my recorder in grade school! But I looked at several recipes and noticed the dough was pretty similar to my bagel dough, with the addition of raisins, cinnamon and a glaze on top. I tested them out keeping the sugar on the lighter side, since the glaze on top adds more sweetness and we loved them. I guess you can call them bagel cross buns, if you wish!

How To Make Easy Hot Cross Buns

Tips for perfect hot cross buns:

• Use a silpat or parchment paper sprayed with oil to prevent them from sticking to the baking sheet.
• Bake them on the top rack so they don't brown too much on the bottom.
• Greek yogurt instead of plain is a must, if there's any liquid in the yogurt be sure to drain it. I tested with Fage and Stonyfield Greek, both worked great. Chobani has been giving people sticky dough, so I would stay away from that brand for this recipe.
• If your dough is sticky add more flour or use less yogurt.
• You can easily double or triple this recipe to make more. You can also half or quarter it to make less.
• To make them with self rising flour omit the salt and baking powder.

Tips for dairy-free hot cross buns:

I tested this dairy-free a few different ways with success.

• You can use a thick dairy-free Greek yogurt, Kite Hill (blue label) was the brand I found and tested. This yogurt is not 0 Freestyle Points.
• Use water instead of milk for the glaze.