Happy Easter! I’ve always seen people make Hot Cross Buns during Easter and wanted to try them but haven’t had a chance before now. I found these Chocolate Hot Cross Buns and thought it would be nice for a first try, even if I’m not following a traditional recipe. I’ve been following Fragolelimone on Instagram for a while and have really wanted to try one of the bread recipes so that’s who I am using.

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m always wary of bread recipes because I get nervous about the proofing time, or I have issues proofing or kneading too much/not enough. It’s actually very easy to make this, especially since I used my stand mixer. I didn’t love that this recipe doesn’t specify how long to proof but my first proof was about an hour. I did have to turn on the oven for a few minutes to warm things up since it was a little cool in the house.

Once it had risen in size, I split the dough and put them in a small casserole dish for the second proof. I actually forgot about it so it probably sat too long (apparently that’s a thing), but it definitely doubled.

The flour/water mixture for the cross was really thin so we ended up using about 30g of flour and about half of the 50ml water. It still could have been a little thicker, but it turned out okay. I checked on the buns around 20 minutes but they weren’t quite golden yet so we let it go for another 5 minutes. When they were fully done I brushed them with the syrup mixture.

I tried to let them cool as long as possible, but they were still warm when I bit into it. I would highly recommend this as the chocolate chips were warm and I really enjoyed eating this. My husband also enjoyed it but said, “I don’t think they’re good enough to write a song about.” haha

It was easy to make, though you’ll want to factor in a little time since there’s several proofing times. We didn’t grow up eating these during Easter but I like the tradition of it and I would definitely make these again; though I think I’ll try a traditional version next time.

Baking Ease	10
Time Spent	9
Taste	10
Visual	10

Recipe Used: FragoleLimone