Nothing says Easter like the heavenly spiced fragrance of Hot Cross Buns baking in the oven & you can’t go wrong with this very easy, No Knead Hot Cross Buns recipe.
Ever made your own Hot Cross Buns at Easter?
Think it’s difficult?
Well, think again, because you are about to make No Knead Hot Cross Buns like a boss ????
And if you are already a bit of a Hot Cross bun boss, give my more traditional Vegan Hot Cross Buns a try!
If you have made my Easy No Knead Focaccia Bread then you will know just how good no knead bread can be. That recipe is so popular and everyone who tries it loves it.
Same goes for my No Knead Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread..Um, you can see why that’s popular….
They were both adapted from this No Knead Hot Cross Buns recipe and they are all as easy as each other.
Making the Hot Cross Bun dough is basically the same with the addition of some dried fruit, spices and nuts and you get amazing Hot Cross Buns at the end of it as a reward.
I think that’s worth a teensy weensy bit of (hardly any) effort don’t you?
I mean c’mon!? Anyone can do this.
How to make No Knead Hot Cross Buns
There are just a few steps involved in the making of these No Knead Hot Cross Buns and most of them will be you stepping away during all of the hands off time where you do not have to do a single thing.
FOR INGREDIENTS & FULL INSTRUCTIONS, SEE THE RECIPE CARD AT THE END OF THIS POST
Let’s break it down:
Step 1 (optional)
Toast your nuts (this is optional – you don’t have to use the nuts)
Step 2
Throw everything in one bowl and mix with a wooden spoon
Step 3
Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel and walk away and don’t come back for 4 – 8 hours.
See! Told you it was easy.
It will be fine for anything between those times. You do not need to babysit it.
Step 4
Come back. turn out onto a clean floured surface and cut into 10 even pieces then shape into balls and put on a baking sheet then cover with the towel again.
Make a drink and go put your feet up for 30 minutes….
Oh my goodness … this is hard work….????
Step 5
Mix up the flour and water in a small bowl, add to a piping bag and pipe crosses on the top of each bun, then bake.
Step 6
Brush with the glaze then cool.
I’ll forgive you if you eat one at this stage.
The smell in your house while they bake will be unbelievable and when they are done, the No Knead Hot Cross Buns will be golden, shiny, soft and fluffy.
And you?
You will be pleased as punch with yourself and fighting the urge to eat the whole batch warm and slathered in my Easy Vegan Butter. That’s it in the pics above and if you haven’t made it yet this is the perfect opportunity. It takes no time at all and is the perfect accompaniment.
I hope you have a lovely Easter, full of happy baking.
For more Easter recipes, check out these great options:
And if you love this recipe, please do checkout my cookbook, and subscribe to my email list for a fabulous FREE eCookbook featuring my top 10 recipes. Being on the list means you will be first to see my new recipes and you’ll be kept in the loop on all things new and exciting too!
As with all of my baking recipes where precision is key to excellent results, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, rather than using cup measurements. I love this one because it is very reasonably priced and it has a tare function which is really handy. It means you can place any bowl on the scale and reset to zero so it doesn’t include the weight in it’s calculation, plus you can reset to zero when adding multiple ingredients to the same bowl which saves on washing up!
No Knead Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
For the buns
- 50g | 1/3 cup whole hazelnuts (OPTIONAL) , roughly chopped into large pieces, (optional but they add great texture and flavour)
- 500g / 3¾ cups plus 4½ teaspoons all purpose white flour , in the UK use flour labelled strong or bread flour
- 2.5 teaspoons instant or quick yeast , sometimes labelled fast yeast
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamon (OPTIONAL but adds a nice flavour)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 265g / 1½ cups mixed dried fruit , such as golden raisins, sultanas, cranberries, chopped dried apricot.
- 1 lemon Zested
- 1 orange Zested
- 80mls | 1/3 cup coconut oil or vegan butter , it MUST be at room temperature and not hot when added to the other ingredients
- 240mls | 1 cup unsweetened milk of choice
- 180mls / ¾ cup water
For the crosses
- 5 tablespoons all purpose white flour
- Enough water to make a thick pipe-able paste
For the glaze
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons boiling water
Instructions
IF USING HAZELNUTS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Pour the raw hazelnuts onto a baking tray and roast for about 10 mins. Shake the pan after 5 mins and keep an eye on them as they can burn fast. Remove them from the oven and let cool.
FOR THE HOT CROSS BUNS
- In a large bowl, add the flour, yeast, spices, salt and sugar and mix together well. Then add the fruit, cooled nuts and zest.
- Add the coconut oil or butter to the milk, stir, then pour into the bowl with the other ingredients. Then add the water and stir really well with a spoon until everything is combined and there is no dry flour visible. It will be a sticky lumpy looking mess. That's normal.
- Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel that has been run under the tap to wet and then wrung out.
- Leave on your kitchen work surface for anything from 4 - 8 hours. When you check on it it should be puffed up around double or a little larger than double and be full of small bubbles. My kitchen is about 18°C or 64F and the dough is ready from 4 hours but I can easily leave it up to 8. If your kitchen is significantly colder than mine, then leave it for a minimum of 6 hours but up to 8 hours. If your kitchen is a lot warmer than mine then it will speed things up a bit. It might be ready after about 2 hours. I wouldn't leave it any longer than 4.
- After the 4- 8 hours have elapsed and the dough has doubled and is puffy. dust a clean, dry, work surface with some flour and turn out the dough onto it making sure you scrape the bowl out well. Try not to tear the dough as it will damage the structure that has developed. It will be sticky but that is normal.
- Dust the top of the dough with some flour and make it as round and even as you can, then cut into 10 pieces Try to do it evenly but don't worry if they are slightly different in size.
- Once portioned out, shape each piece into a smooth ball using floured hands. I do this by having the ball of dough on the surface in front of me and using my hands to pull down all around, squeezing it tight underneath. Place the buns gently on a lightly floured, or parchment lined baking sheet. Leave some space around each one so they have room to grow.
- Cover with the damp dish towel from earlier and leave for a further 30 minutes then preheat the oven to 400•F
- After 30 minutes has passed, make the flour and water paste for the crosses. Just add enough water to the 5 tablespoons of flour to make a thick pipe-able paste. Remove the towel from the buns, fill a piping bag or piping syringe with the paste and pipe a cross shape on each bun.
- Place the buns in the preheated oven and bake for around 20 minutes. They should be starting to turn a golden brown and if you tap one on it's bottom it should sound hollow.
- Remove from the oven and immediately mix up the glaze. 2 tablespoons of sugar with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Stir until the sugar dissolves then brush the top of each bun generously.
- Transfer to a cooling rack but be sure to eat one while it's still warm!
Notes
If you did, be a ☆ and let me know what you think by rating it and commenting below. Tag me on Instagram too. I am @avirtualvegan and my hashtag is #avirtualvegan ________________________________________________________
Nutrition
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Maria says
April 1, 2018 at 10:36 amhello, I just wanted to add that I had the dough resting covered under a closed window in my kitchen from midnight to 8 am next day, the dough had doubled in size and had bubble so it was perfect. So this can be done overnight if is still 8 hours and there is a cool kitchen where the dough can rest. It was way better than waking up 3 hours before breakfast or heating up day old buns. they were fluffy, soft, and delicious!
Maria says
April 1, 2018 at 10:24 amI made this last night and baked them this morning. They were soooo goood!!! I doubled the recipe and still was great. I had to change almonds for hazelnuts and crystallized fruit for dried fruit, it would have been better with dried fruit, but besides that they were easy to make and delicious! Have you tried this with gluten free flour? I would try this next time for the ones in my family that are gluten free. Thanks for making our Easter Sunday breakfast so special. I had bough store made hot cross buns but felt bad about not having the real thing when I found your recipe and saw that I did not need to be in the kitchen for hours for this to work.
A Virtual Vegan says
April 2, 2018 at 9:43 pmThat’s great Maria. I’m so glad you enjoyed them. The great thing about the recipe is that the add-ins are pretty flexible. My son likes them with chocolate chips instead of the fruit!
I haven’t tried them with gluten-free flour. I have a feeling they wouldn’t work that well because they need that gluten development. With some adaptions though they would probably be ok. I haven’t really ventured into gluten free bread baking though so it would be a case of trial and error on my part!
Celine says
March 31, 2018 at 8:03 amNever tried hot cross buns before, so I can’t compare from the originals, but I just made those ones: and I love it!!!!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 31, 2018 at 8:58 amLove that these are your first ever Hot Cross Buns and that you loved them! Thank you for stopping by to let me know!
Noah says
March 30, 2018 at 10:37 amI was wandering if you could make the buns the night before and bake them for 30 minutes in the morning. However, I don’t know if the buns could wait that long to be baked. My plan was to start at 14.00 hours and then make buns around 22.00 hours and (if possible) to bake them the day after around 8 a.m.
I hope you could help me
A Virtual Vegan says
March 31, 2018 at 9:06 amI think if you leave them that long they will over prove and you won’t get a good finished result. You can slow the whole process down by rising the dough or the shaped buns in the fridge rather than on the counter top but even then once they were shaped it might be too long. You could probably get away with making the dough at 14.00 then putting it in the fridge until the next morning then continuing from there to shape and bake. If the dough is cold, once shaped they will take a little longer to rise because the yeast will be sleepy until the dough warms up again. Not too much longer though.
Fran says
March 29, 2018 at 7:20 amJust took a batch of these out of the oven. They are a amazing!! I just ate one and burned my tongue because they looked so good and I couldn’t wait.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 29, 2018 at 9:00 amHa Fran, that’s funny. So glad you like them. I end up eating them while hot too. So good! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave feedback. It’s much appreciated!
Annie says
March 28, 2018 at 8:24 pmHi, can I substitute a little of the flour for cocoa and add choc chips instead of fruit? It looks like it should work. And who doesn’t love choc chip hot cross buns?
A Virtual Vegan says
March 28, 2018 at 10:10 pmI haven’t tried doing this so am not sure how well it would work.There is a chance that the cocoa would impede the yeast development but I guess it depends how much is added. Some extra yeast or sugar might be necessary to give it a boost, or it might just need a little extra time. I would need to try it to know for sure. If you were to just switch the fruit for chocolate chips and not add cocoa it would definitely be ok though. I guess it depends whether you want to risk it or not. I will add chocolate hot cross buns to my list for next Easter though!
Annie says
March 28, 2018 at 10:29 pmThanks. I might give it a try this weekend, but only adding a tablespoon of cocoa just for colour. I’ll let you know if they work?
help says
March 28, 2018 at 6:53 pmHow much water do i put in the mixture?!!! it doesnt say…
A Virtual Vegan says
March 28, 2018 at 7:55 pmOh my goodness…I’m sorry. 180mls or 3/4 cup. It’s added now!
Nikki says
June 25, 2017 at 5:13 amSunday 6/25/17
OMGosh I am in heaven this morning. Just downed one hot out the oven and it was delicious!!! I made this recipe minus the orange peel I didn’t have any oranges on hand, swapped the nuts for dates because in my home country we use raisins and dates and omitted the cranberries. This is my go-to for hot cross buns.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!
A Virtual Vegan says
June 25, 2017 at 11:02 amThat’s awesome Nikki! I am so glad you enjoyed them. I don’t blame you for eating one right from the oven. They are pretty hard to resist! Thanks so much for stopping to leave feedback. I appreciate it!
Beth says
April 15, 2017 at 12:39 pmThey were delicious although I did not get the right consistency, more like a scone than a bun. So much better than store bought..
A Virtual Vegan says
April 15, 2017 at 4:07 pmI’m glad they tasted good. Sorry the texture wasn’t quite right though. Did you use all purpose flour or perhaps a different kind? And did you add much flour when you were folding the dough? If you did it can affect the texture. The less flour you use when you do that bit the better. Another thing that could affect it is yeast that is past it’s best. Just a few ideas that might help improve them if you make them another time. :)
Dana says
April 8, 2017 at 10:52 pmIs it possible to use a mixer with a dough hook and letting it rise for an hour instead of overnight?
A Virtual Vegan says
April 9, 2017 at 11:46 amIt is possible and I sometimes do that myself. Everything stays the same except you need to reduce the water to about 330 – 340 mls.
Dana says
April 7, 2017 at 8:35 pmIs it okay to use other types of oil such as vegetable oil instead of coconut oil ?
A Virtual Vegan says
April 7, 2017 at 9:02 pmYes any oil will be fine as a sub, just steer clear of strong tasting ones like extra virgin olive oil.
nicolthepickle says
March 19, 2017 at 9:08 amI was searching pinterest for a no-knead bread for lunch and these came up serendipitously. They were good. I didn’t find them to be quite as nice a texture as regular ones as I love the soft, tight crumb of a regular one.
But for ease of making I would definitely make these again.
I only used 1 tsp of yeast because leaving it overnight is long enough for it to start growing it’s own natural yeast off of the commercial yeast.
Thanks for the recipe.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 19, 2017 at 11:42 amI am so pleased you enjoyed them. No knead bread is never quite as soft and fluffy as a really well kneaded dough but like you say, it’s great when you are pushed for time or need an easy option. Adding only 1 teaspoon of yeast might well have made a difference this time though. When I trialled the recipe I started with around that much and got much better results when I used more. Use a bit more next time you make them and you will probably notice a difference.
nicolthepickle says
March 19, 2017 at 12:51 pmHaha, it drives me nuts when people comment with their opinions and didn’t even follow the recipe. Like I just did. Sorry. I should do it right. :P
This is a little off topic but not entirely Peter Reinhart in his sourdough book talks about starting sourdoughs with the water used to rinse of raisins because they have dried wild yeasts in them. I wonder if it makes a difference to put dried fruit into a 12-24 hour bread.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 19, 2017 at 1:43 pmI love Peter Reinhart’s recipes and have my own sourdough starter. I made mine with a grated apple. I love the idea of using raisins to make a starter. You would need to be really careful about what raisins you used though as I would imagine those with oil and other ingredients in them wouldn’t work too well. I find it increasingly difficult these days to find dried fruit that just has the fruit as an ingredient and not other things like oil and preservatives too.
It probably makes a very slight difference when you add the fruit to a 12-24 bread because of the extra sugar in it but I expect yeast-wise, its pretty negligible. It tends to take a couple of days for any real yeasty action to happen in my experience.
Julie says
March 26, 2016 at 6:07 pmI got the dough ready last night and baked these this morning. They were perfect. My family loved them. Thank you for the recipe.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 26, 2016 at 6:10 pmThank you for taking the time to let me know Julie. I am glad that you and your family enjoyed them. Happy Easter!
Lucie @WIN-WIN FOOD says
March 23, 2016 at 2:20 pmI love that you created a no knead option! Can’t wait to finally try them, can’t believe hot cross buns are not a thing over here. Such a shame
A Virtual Vegan says
March 23, 2016 at 8:45 pmThanks Lucie. I hope you enjoy them…perhaps you can make them a thing wherever you are :O)
Hauke Fox says
March 23, 2016 at 2:10 pmOh woooow, these buns remind me of home!! Will have to let them do my mum though, I dont trust my baking skills a lot ;-)
A Virtual Vegan says
March 23, 2016 at 8:45 pmNow that’s a compliment! Thank you so much. They are so easy to make though that you could attempt them on your own. All the work happens while you sleep…how good is that?
Aimee / Wallflower Kitchen says
March 23, 2016 at 9:16 amI’ve never made hot cross buns but these sound so easy and look SO good, I might just have to this weekend!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 23, 2016 at 9:20 amYes go for it! You don’t know what you’re missing!
The Vegan 8 says
March 23, 2016 at 5:14 amOh wow, I would have freaked too, haha! I have my posts set up through my Aweber email system though so even after I hit publish, I have to go into Aweber and hit send for it to go out to my readers….thank God because I’ve hit publish on accident before too!
These cross buns look quite delicious and soft, just wonderful! I can almost smell them!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 23, 2016 at 9:19 amThank you Brandi! The smell of these buns cooking is just wonderful!
pragatibidkar says
March 23, 2016 at 4:08 amThese look perfect..I love the idea of the shower cap..it is so logical. I hate struggling with the cling wrap every time ???? Thanks for this recipe.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 23, 2016 at 9:18 amThank you so much! I am glad you like the shower cap idea. I have always done it. I’m not sure where I got the idea from but it saves a lot of wasted cling wrap!
dixya @ food, pleasure, and health says
March 22, 2016 at 5:29 pmthese look soon fluffy!!!! i have never made one before but I’m now tempted to.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 22, 2016 at 5:31 pmOh Dixya you really must try making Hot Cross Buns. You can’t beat them fresh from the oven!
Natalie Freed says
March 22, 2016 at 3:44 pmI don’t think I have ever made hot cross buns- even before I was vegan! These are looking so good right now. I think I’m hungry, cause I would devour these! Perfect for Easter!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 22, 2016 at 5:33 pmThanks Natalie. You really should give them a try. You can’t beat homemade hot cross buns. That smell as they are cooking….so good!
Kylee @ Kylee Cooks says
March 22, 2016 at 11:06 amThese look delicious!! I love the different fruits and nuts in them! (I went traditional this year). Maybe next year I’ll try this one
Jenn S. says
March 22, 2016 at 6:41 amOh, I have done that before!! I hit Publish instead of Save Draft once on a post that contained only pictures at the time. LOL! Now, I change the date to something like 3 months ahead as soon as I start a new post…just in case. :)
Now, these Hot Cross Buns look so amazing!!! I want to take a HUGE bite and then just keep eating! :) Well done!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 22, 2016 at 7:45 amIt seems that the accidentally publishing posts happens a lot. I am glad it’s not just me! And thank you. I can guarantee you wouldn’t stop after one bite!
Hedi Hearts says
March 22, 2016 at 4:27 amVegan Easter here I come!!
Vanessa @ VeganFamilyRecipes says
March 22, 2016 at 1:14 amThank goodness for not having to knead these! What a time saver! Pinning :)
A Virtual Vegan says
March 22, 2016 at 7:44 amThanks for pinning Vanessa and yes, the dough does all it’s own work while you sleep. It’s like magic!
Patricia @ Grab a Plate says
March 21, 2016 at 5:05 pmThese look so good! I’ve actually never made them before, but love that your version is a little less time consuming. I think this is my year for Hot Cross Buns — thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 21, 2016 at 9:11 pmThank you Patricia. You haven’t lived until you’ve had a homemade hot cross bun!
Linda @ Veganosity says
March 21, 2016 at 1:31 pmThat’s happened to me before. I thought I clicked preview on an unfinished post and I hit submit. There should be a safety feature that prevents that.
Your hot cross bun recipe is the prettiest I’ve seen. I’m going to make these this week. And your vegan butter.
A Virtual Vegan says
March 21, 2016 at 9:09 pmThere really should be safety feature. Just something that pops up for you to confirm. I was so embarrassed!
And thank you so much. These buns and my butter are the perfect combo. Enjoy!
A Virtual Vegan says
March 21, 2016 at 10:31 amThank you! They are so soft and fluffy. I can’t wait to make them again this weekend!