Imagine, a classic hot cross bun but reworked into a chocolate version but not just any chocolate version, it’s triple chocolate.
I know that Easter has become much more of a commercial celebration and is already brimming to the top with chocolate, so why not add more chocolate to the occasion? Chocolate is always a good idea.
A few years back over on my YouTube channel, I made double chocolate hot cross buns and they were great but this year, I needed to vamp up the chocolate element and make these the most chocolate packed buns possible.
I’ve stripped my traditional hot cross bun recipe back and added chocolate in every possible element – the welcome additions are cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Each roll is generously studded with a mixture of white, milk and dark chocolate chips – these are the perfect bake for the chocoholic in your life.
If easter and chocolate are you sort of thing, why don’t you give these a try? They’re the perfect way to spend an afternoon and who doesn’t want a tasty treat?
While making these, I made a double batch as they are that good – like honestly they are. I will leave the recipe don below for a batch of 12 hot cross buns, which is ideal but can be halved if needed.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Bun dough:
450g strong white bread flour.
5g salt.
25g cocoa powder.
50g fresh yeast.
15g milk powder.
75g butter, at room temperature.
75g granulated sugar.
1 egg.
175ml water, at blood temperature.
100g white chocolate chips.
100g milk chocolate chips.
100g dark chocolate chips.
Crossing Paste:
A small amount of strong white bread flour.
A small amount of water.
Method:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining a 9×13 Ince cake pan with parchment paper and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and spatula.
To start on the dough, take your mixing bowl and place in the bread flour, salt and cocoa powder, then mix until everything is incorporated.
Then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, milk powder, butter, sugar, egg and water.Mix on a low speed to start with for approx. 2 minutes, followed by a further 4-6 minutes on a high speed – stopping around half way through the high speed, to add in all of the chocolate chips allowing them to become equally distributed throughout the dough.
Take the dough and give it a brief knead on a lightly floured surface, just until its smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, covering with clingfilm, allowing it to prove until its doubled in size (which takes roughly about an hour, in a room which is moderately heated).
Once the dough has doubled in size, you can go ahead and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gasses that have built up in the dough during the proving period. Bring the dough back into a ball shape and process it straight away.
As the dough doesn’t require any time to rest at this stage, you can go ahead and weigh the dough, then divide that amount by 12 and you’ll have the weight for each hot cross bun – scale the dough for each bun and roll into a smooth rounded ball and place into your 9×13 inch tray. Allowing each bun to have a little room around it as these expand while having the second prove – these are supposed to batch up, it’s normal.
Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for a further 45 minutes or until the dough has proved up well.
Now is the ideal time to preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f and now make the crossing paste. Simply place a small amount of flour and water into a bowl and mix until you have paste – transfer the mixture into a piping bag.
Take the clingfilm from on top of the dough and pipe over your crossing paste over, so each bun has a ‘+’.
Place into your preheated oven and bake for around 15-18 minutes (check them at 15 minutes and judge whether they need more or not).
Remove from the oven and brush over with a simple syrup glaze and allow to cool fully and the enjoy them.
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
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