Melt in your mouth soft and sweet roll dough filled with raisins and candied orange peel with a sweet orange icing forming the signature cross over the top.
Prepare sweet roll dough and allow to finish the first rise cycle.
Punch down the dough and mix in the raisins and candied orange peel.
Divide the dough into 15-20 pieces (you can see the size of the rolls if divided into 20 pieces in the original homemade dinner rolls recipe). Form the dough into balls.
Place the rolls evenly in a greased 9"x13" glass baking dish.
Cover with a light dish towel and allow the rolls to rise until doubled, 1-1 ½ hours.
Whisk together the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of water. Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the rolls with egg mixture.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake the rolls until they are deep brown on the tops and cooked through, 12-15 minutes.
Sweet Orange Icing:
Beat together all of the icing ingredients (or stir together with a spoon).
Transfer the icing to a piping bag. Pipe crosses over the tops of the rolls.
Notes
This hot cross bun recipe is simple enough for beginners and this step-by-step recipe will ease any home baker into the world of bread making. You'll need to set aside a few hours for the preparation of the dough and rise time but believe me, it's worth the wait!Once you've prepared your dough, you'll add in your raisins and candied orange peels, form it into balls and let it rise again before brushing it with an egg wash.Then from here, it's just a matter of baking until golden brown and trying to avoid eating them all.Once they've cooled, use the icing to make the cross. If you do this while the buns are too hot, the icing will just slide off and while they still might taste great, you'll lose the signature cross!