Hot Cross Bun Muffins

            Autumn has to be one of my favourite seasons. It’s no longer crazy hot outside, but still a nice enough temperature to want to get out of the house and be outside. I also love storms, the rain and weather that isn’t a simple sun in the sky. It all just seems so amazing to me.

            It also happens to be the season when my birthday is! I had an amazing birthday last weekend with family and friends, and I decided I wanted to make myself a birthday treat! I love fruit and spices in baking and since it’s so close to Easter, I thought, why not add in an Easter theme? So I decided to make myself Birthday Hot Cross Bun Muffins.

These actually work just as well when you just form them into a ball and place them on a greased baking tray, if you don’t feel like making them in muffin tins.

Hot Cross Bun Muffins

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: 8 – 10 medium buns

Time: prep – 20 minutes

Cooking – 20 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 cup almond meal

- 1 cup arrowroot flour

- 2/3 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- ½ tsp nutmeg

- ½ tsp clove

- ½ tsp ginger

- pinch salt

- 2/3 cup sultanas (could also use dark dairy free chocolate here instead)

- 3 flax eggs (1 tbsp flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp of water, left to set for a few minutes)

- ½ cup coconut oil, melted

- 1/3 cup coconut nectar (or chosen liquid sweetener)

Topping:

- 2 tbsp coconut oil, not melted

- 4 tbsp coconut nectar

- 4 tbsp of banana flour or buckwheat flour

(*If you were making chocolate cross buns you can add in a tbsp of cacao powder)

Method:

- Pop the oven onto 170c and line a muffin try with liners or grease with coconut oil. If you don’t want to have them in muffin tins you can simply bake them spread out on a greased baking tray, they do tend to crack on top as they cook because they have a lot more room to move.

- Combine all the dry ingredients except the sultanas, together really well in one bowl and in a separate bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients. Now just pour the dry in with the wet and mix until you have a smooth mix. I put mine into a mixer for a few minutes to ensure the flax egg and all the other ingredients were really well incorporated. Then stir through your sultanas (or dark chocolate chunks), distributing then evenly.

- Form the dough into balls and place them into your muffin tins or onto your baking tray, and then place them into the oven. Bake these for about ten minutes before removing them to pipe on the topping.

- While the buns are in for their first ten minutes of baking, you can put together the icing. Firstly combine the coconut nectar and the flour to form a liquid paste, now add in the coconut oil.

* I have found that the coconut oil needs to be soft but still white and not completely melted. If you use completely melted coconut oil it will split from the coconut nectar and flour when you go to mix it in.

- You can either pipe the topping on to get a neat cross or you can use a knife and spread it on for a more rustic look, then pop them back in the oven for another ten minutes to finish cooking and give the topping a warm golden colour.

- After being in the oven for 20 minutes altogether, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a while on the trays before transferring them to a cooling rack. Or if your anything like me, just eat them warm straight from the oven!

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations.

‘My mind is tranquil. I allow peace into my life’ -Leon Nacson