chocolate hot cross buns

chocolate hot cross buns

• 30 Mar 2026

I am a traditionalist when it comes to hot cross buns. I only eat them at Easter time and I'm definitely a dried fruit hot cross bun girl. However my next door neighbour does not eat fruit in any form so I decided to step outside my comfort zone to bake some chocolate hot cross buns.

Who else to turn to for my recipe other than the baking goddess herself, Natalie Paull. Last year when her chocolate hot cross buns recipe appeared in Delicious magazine I made a batch which were declared delicious, so this year I made another batch.

You'll need to begin the recipe a day ahead and you’ll need a piping bag or a small zip-lock bag for the cross. Although these are best eaten the day they're baked, the buns are still good the next day.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 buns, adapted from here. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Natalie Paul Chocolate hot cross buns - makes 8
Ingredients
1½ tbs dark cocoa powder
1¼ tbs milk, boiled
1 small orange
100ml water, tepid
1 tsp instant dried yeast
35g light brown sugar
300g strong (baker’s) flour
3 tsp mixed spice powder
45g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
Cooking oil spray, to grease
160g dark (70%) chocolate, chopped (I used 125g)

Glaze
50g caster sugar
2 tsp golden syrup
½ vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped (substitute 1 tsp vanilla-bean paste)
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Cross
¼ cup (35g) plain flour
¼ cup (25g) dark cocoa powder
1 tsp icing sugar mixture
2 tsp vegetable oil

Method
Mix cocoa powder and boiled milk in a small bowl until a thick rough paste forms. Trim and discard the stem ends of the orange, then roughly chop the trimmed orange and puree in a food processor until almost smooth. Set aside 100g of orange puree.

Pour tepid water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add yeast, 10g brown sugar and 100g flour.  Whisk by hand until a smooth paste. Place remaining flour and brown sugar on top, then add orange puree, spices, 1 tsp fine salt, chilled butter and the cocoa paste. Stand for 30 minutes.

Attach dough hook to mixer and knead on low for 15 minutes. Add chocolate and knead for a further 5 minutes. It should be soft, smooth and not wet – add 1-2 tbs more flour if it is. Scrape into a plastic tub or large bowl lightly sprayed with cooking oil spray. Rest at room temperature for 40 minutes, or until puffed. Lift dough up by one side and shake to lengthen. Fold dough over on itself and place back in the tub. Turn dough 90⁰ and repeat the shake and fold – this activates the gluten in the dough. Press plastic wrap on top, cover and chill overnight.

The next morning, place the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface. Portion into 8 x 100g portions. Roll each into a tight ball and place in a 2 x 3 formation, with the extra two on the side, on a shallow baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and leave to prove in a warm place for 1 hour, or until puffed, almost touching and bounces back lazily when poked lightly.

Meanwhile, for the glaze, place all ingredients with 1½ tbs water in a small saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes, until slightly thickened and syrupy. Set aside to cool.

For the cross, place all ingredients in a medium bowl with ¼ cup (60ml) water and ¼ tsp fine salt. Whisk until combined and smooth, adding more water if the paste is too thick to pipe. Transfer cross paste to a piping bag and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan-forced. Cut a 5mm tip off the piping bag and pipe crosses over the top of buns. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 190°C and bake for another 10 minutes or until firm and bouncy when pressed. Remove the buns from the oven and brush with glaze. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes: adjust the cross mixture with 1-2 tsp extra water if it’s too thick or stiff to pipe. You’ll have more paste than you need, but the exact amount would be hard to pipe easily. Another way of checking buns are cooked is using a kitchen thermometer. The internal temperature will be 90⁰C.

Although these are best eaten the day they're baked, the buns are still good the next day and the butter is not negotiable.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian