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Sourdough hot cross buns on parchment paper

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns with Fresh Milled Flour

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Enjoy these traditional English hot cross buns with spices and dried fruits to celebrate the end of Lent! Sourdough provides a natural leavening that keeps these buns soft and fluffy, while fresh milled flour gives it a wonderfully complex flavor.

  • Total Time: 9 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: 12 buns

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup raisins, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup candied orange peel, chopped – best if you make your own!
  • 1 orange for zest and juice (about 1/4 cup of juice)
  • 450g hard red wheat
  • 50g sugar
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • 100g sourdough starter – active, from fridge, or fresh discard
  • 250g (1 cup) whole milk, slightly warmed
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk

For Decoration:

  • 40g soft white wheat
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup apricot jam (or orange syrup from making candied orange peels), warmed

Instructions

  1. Zest and juice the orange. Heat up the juice, then soak raisins, dried cranberries, candied orange peel, and zest in the juice for at least 1 hour. Stirring occasionally can help speed along this process.
  2. Whisk together flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Mix the sourdough starter, milk, butter, egg, and yolk in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until no large dry clumps remain. Then knead with a dough hook attachment for five minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.
  5. Add the soaked fruit to the dough and mix in, either with the dough hook or a wooden spoon, until evenly distributed.
  6. Shape the dough into roughly a ball shape – it will be sticky. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 8 hours.
  7. Optional: For easier shaping, put the dough in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or up to overnight.
  8. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and gently shape into balls. For soft and fluffy buns, do not overwork the dough – no stretching or folding, just get it into a roughly ball-like shape.
  9. Place dough balls into a 9×13” casserole dish. Allow to rise for another hour (longer if dough is coming from fridge), until puffy.
  10. When the dough is nearly ready, preheat oven to 400°F and mix the flour and water to form a paste for the crosses. Transfer the paste to a bag and cut a small hole in the corner, about 1/8-1/4.” 
  11. Pipe crosses by piping across each row and down each column.
  12. Bake 15-20 minutes, until turning golden. The buns should have an internal temperature of 180°-190°F.
  13. While still warm, glaze with warmed apricot jam (or orange syrup reserved from making candied orange peels). Allow to cool a bit in the casserole dish before removing.
  14. Buns are best served warm with a slathering of butter, but are delicious plain and room temperature as well.

Notes

  • Shaping the buns: I prefer to shape dough into a rough square on the counter, then use a bench scraper to divide it into 12 pieces. To shape the buns, I gently roll them in my hands into ball shapes, then place them in the casserole dish.
  • Buns are best fresh, but will keep 3-4 days in an airtight container.

Find it online: https://ahousefuloflove.com/2026/03/18/sourdough-hot-cross-buns-with-fresh-milled-flour/

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