banana and cinnamon hot cross buns

so i’m sitting in my kitchen and thinking about flavours for these hot cross buns and my mind fills with all the classic tastes of the season… candied fruits, chocolate, citrus…  but then I thought about my favourite cake combinations; chocolate and orange, coffee cake, red velvet cake but my mind kept drifting back to banana.  As you know, I adore banana cake and the more I thought about it, the more I thought how lovely the classic flavours of a banana loaf would work so well in an enriched dough.  I’m really pleased how they turned out. The banana is subtle but beautiful in here and when toasted they are phenomenal! I upped the cinnamon quite a bit and reduced the sugar, as bananas are very sweet.  The dough is excessively sticky because of the moistness of the bananas but I followed and adapted my favourite HCB recipe which asks you to add the fruit ingredients after the first rise of the dough, which means you still have that wonderfully soft and ‘bread-like’ consistency that you want in a bun.

gently heat the milk and then add the butter and leave to cool slightly. Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and butter mixture, then add the egg. Using a wooden spoon, mix well, then bring everything together with your hands until you have a very sticky dough.

flour your hands well and begin to knead the dough in the bowl, then when it’s less tacky tip it out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hr or until doubled in size.

with the dough still in the bowl, tip in the sultanas, walnuts, mashed bananas and cinnamon and knead into the dough, making sure everything is well distributed. Cover with the cling film and leave to rise for 1 hr more.

lightly oil your hands and then divide the dough into 12 even pieces and roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly oiled work surface. Arrange the buns on one or two baking trays lined with parchment, leaving enough space for the dough to expand. Drape with oiled cling film, or a clean tea towel, then set aside to prove for 1 hr more.

heat the oven to 200C fan and make the cross paste by mixing the flour with about 5 tbsp water – add the water 1 tbsp at a time, so you add just enough for a thick paste. Either use a steady hand a spoon or a piping bag and pipe a line along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction to create crosses. Bake for 20 mins on the middle shelf of the oven, until golden brown.

the moment they come out of the oven brush the tops with a little runny honey and set aside to cool

eat and of course, enjoy!