Hot Cross Buns...gluten free!
I'm feeling happy...
Spring is here.
The sun in shining.
Easter is nearly here...
I want to be able to give you lots of healthy sweet treats to set you up for the holiday but it's been a little tricky since I haven't been able to eat anything sweet ...but hey i'm working around it! I made a birthday cake for a friend last weekend and spent the whole time running across the house with spoonfuls of batter asking my mum to taste taste... needless to day she was a willing participant! :-)
I have two more Easter recipes for you this week.... today we have gluten free hot cross buns and coming up I have a little quirky twist on the classic but you'll have to wait a couple of days for that one ;-)
I warn you now these buns do take a little while to make (yeast bread always does) and so it's more unusual for me to have a recipe of this nature with so many ingredients and steps to the process, plus I never usually have much success with gluten free bread recipes.
However I love hot cross buns and when I saw this post by Quirky Cooking on Facebook (as a teaser to the actual blog post) I wanted to create a vegan version. I had a chat with Jo and she gave me some idea to test for her, I opted for chia seeds as a substitute and it worked a treat. My mum and her fiends enjoyed them for the next few days. Though as Jo says in her original recipe, these buns are best eaten fresh which is pretty easy since you can keep the batter in the fridge for up to 5 days and just bake what you need in one go.
Thank you Quirky Cooking for the inspiration, the recipe and the help in creating a vegan version.
P.s go check her out she has some amazing things going on on her blog and a great community on her Facebook page- particularly for those with allergies of all kinds.
Recipe: Hot Cross Buns...gluten free!
Ingredients:
Buns
- 150g brown rice flour
- 110g sorghum flour
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 Tbsp instant yeast
- 190g arrowroot or tapioca starch
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 40g coconut sugar or Rapadura
- 1 Tbsp psyllium husk
- 200g coconut milk or almond milk
- 2 Tbs ground chia seeds mixed with 6 Tbs warm water.
- 150g water
- 40g light oil
- 200g sultanas/raisins
Crosses
- 50g gluten free plain flour
- 50g water
Glaze
- 2 tbs sugar free marmalade
- 1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Method:
Mix ground chia with warm water and set aside.
Place brown rice into mixing bowl with orange zest. Add yeast, arrowroot/tapioca starch, salt, cinnamon, mixed spice, sugar, and psyllium husk, and mix well.
Add chia mix, milk, water, oil, sultanas and mix well to form a wet dough. Pour mixture into a large container, place lid on, and leave to rise for 2 hours.
Once mixture is risen, container can either be put into the fridge to be used the next day (best results, as flavours intensify and mixture thickens), or you can make the buns straight away. You can use half the dough one day and the other half another day if you like, as they are best eaten hot out of the oven, or within 24 hours.
When ready to bake:
Mix the flour and water for the crosses in a small bowl with a fork until smooth, then pour into a small piping bag, or a ziploc bag (seal, and cut a very small corner off the bag). Set aside.
Using paper muffin cups or a silicone muffin tray, take the dough out of the fridge and scoop out heaped tablespoonfuls, and using a spoon and butter knife, drop a large spoonful into each muffin cup. Muffin cups should be 3/4 full.
Cover muffin tray loosely with a plastic bag (so that plastic does not touch dough) and leave to rise for 1 hour, or until dough has barely risen to the top of the muffin cup. Towards end of rising time, preheat oven to 200C. Pipe crosses onto buns.
Once oven is hot, place tray inside on middle shelf, and cook for 20 mins, or until lightly browned and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Glaze:
Melt the jam and mix in the spice. Generously glaze the top and sized of the buns.
Store cooled buns in an airtight container at room temp for up to 2 days, but best eaten on day of baking.
Great texture for a gluten free bun!
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