Giant Vegan Chai Spiced Hot Cross Bun

Celebrate this Easter with a Giant Hot Cross Bun! This vegan recipe makes a delicious enriched dough that has a good rise and slight chewiness you would expect from a good Hot Cross Bun.

If you already have a chai spice mix lying around, by all means go ahead and use it, but I like making my blends from scratch using whole spices where possible. The aromas and flavours from a freshly made spice blend are amazing and I highly recommend trying it if possible.

My Chai Blend

There are many different combinations of spices you can use to make a chai blend, but this is my preferred one to cook with.

To make this blend, you will need:

• 20g Cinnamon Sticks

• 5 (roughly 5g) Whole Star Anise

• 1 Tbsp (roughly 5g) Cardamom Pods

• 1 Tsp (roughly 3g) Whole Cloves

• 1 Tsp (roughly 2g) Black Peppercorns

• 1 Whole Nutmeg

• 30g Fresh Ginger, frozen/ 1 Tbsp (roughly 6g) Ground Ginger

• A Spice Grinder

The cardamom provides a hint of citrus, the nutmeg and ginger give an aromatic tang, the cloves and peppercorns make a satisfying, lingering warmth while the cinnamon and star anise sweeten and mellow.

To make this Chai Blend

1) To avoid damaging your spice grinder, help it out by breaking down the cinnamon and nutmeg into manageable chunks. A rolling pin is your best friend here! Wrap the spices in an old tea towel and gently bash them into big crumbs.

2) Put the cinnamon and nutmeg in the grinder and whizz into a powder, then add the remaining dry spices (everything except for the fresh ginger!).

3) Blitz this into a fine powder, then sieve it to catch any remaining big lumps. Re-grind these lumps because I don't like waste - (if using ground ginger, add it now and mix through well). This dry powder can be stored in an airtight container.

4) If using fresh ginger like me, do not grate it until you are about to put it in the recipe. Freezing the root first will make grating it easier. I find that freshly grated ginger brings a lightness to the spice mix and contributes a better aromatic quality than ginger that has been dried and ground, but if you do not have fresh ginger then dried ground ginger will be fine.

Things You Will Need

Large Mixing Bowl

Spatula/ Dough Scraper

Wooden Spoon

20cm Round Springform Cake Tin

Ramekins

Piping Bag/ Sandwich Bag/ Greaseproof Paper

Pastry Brush

Ingredients

10g Chia Seeds + 50g Water

250g Warm Water

15g Dried Yeast

500g Bread Flour

80g Brown Sugar

Big pinch of Salt

10g Dry Chai Spice Blend + 25g Fresh Ginger

50g Olive Oil

80g Pecans

60g Stem Ginger (about 3 lumps)

60g Raisins

For the Cross:

50g Plain Flour

1/2 Tsp Turmeric

Big Pinch Salt

Big Pinch Brown Sugar

50g Water

For the Glaze:

Syrup from the Stem Ginger Jar

1) In a small bowl or ramekin, stir the chia seeds and water together and leave it to sit for at least 15 minutes until the seeds soak up all the water and become gelatinous goo. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast and warm water and leave it to sit for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, dry chai blend, salt and sugar.

2) Add the dry ingredients to the yeast water and give it a brief stir so that it resembles chunky crumbs. Now add the chia seeds and olive oil and give it a good mix to combine.

When it comes together in a ball, turn it out on to a worksurface and knead it well. It will be a bit difficult to manage, but bear with it. Try to use quick kneading motions and keep your fingers together to reduce the risk of it sticking too much. Shape the dough into a ball, place it back in the mixing bowl, cover with cling film and leave it to at least double in size. I make mine in the evening and leave it to rise overnight, but if you don't have the luxury of time then leaving it somewhere warm for 2 hours should do the trick.

3) Prepare your nuts, ginger and raisins. Roast the pecans in the oven on a medium heat for 15 minutes or so, then roughly chop them. Cut the stem ginger into small cubes, roughly chop the raisins and grate the frozen ginger.

4) Your dough has risen enough when it makes long, stretchy, fibrous strands when you pull it away from the sides of the bowl.

Tip the dough onto the worktop and knock the large air bubbles out of it. One at a time add the prepared ingredients to the dough and knead it well to evenly distribute the chunks.

Lightly oil the edges of the springform tin and arrange the dough in it. Cover the dough and leave it to rise somewhere warm for 2-3 hours or until it has doubled in size.

5) Preheat the oven to 180°C, then bake the bread for 20 minutes. While it is in the oven, make the mixture for the cross by combining all the listed ingredients and giving it a good stir to make a paste. Put this in a piping bag, or create a make-shift piping bag by rolling some greaseproof paper into a cone. Alternatively, fill a small square sandwich bag with the cross mixture and snip off one corner when you want to use it.

6) After 20 minutes, the bread will be golden brown with a light crust. With your piping bag, squeeze two chunky lines to make a large cross on the bread and put it back in the oven. Turn the oven down to 160°C and leave the bread to cook for another 10 minutes. Using a pastry brush and the ginger syrup from the candied stem ginger, liberally glaze the top of the giant bun, then return it to the oven for a further 10 minutes.

7) Remove the bread from the oven and leave it to cool slightly before removing it from the tin. Place it on a serving plate and leave it to cool before slicing.

This is tasty enough and moist enough to be eaten as a slice on its own, but it also toasts as well as any other Hot Cross Bun. I recommend scorching a slice of this on a griddle and serving with maple butter (which despite the name is just whipped maple syrup and 100% vegan!).

Happy Easter!