Gluten Free Hot Cross Bun Kit

I’ve often heard of people making their own gluten free hot cross buns at Easter time. If you’re a good baker then it’s a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you want fresh out of the oven? Steaming hot gluten-free hot cross buns rather than ones from the shops that have been sitting on the bench for five days and probably in a freezer before that.

But if you’re a totally hopeless baker like I am then baking your own gluten-free hot cross buns is kind of out of the question. So when Happy Tummies approached me and asked if I wanted to try baking with their gluten free hot cross bun kit, you know what I said?

“Let me see if my friend is free to help me with the baking.”

Luckily she was free and we made this kit together a month before Easter to try it out.

What’s inside the Gluten Free Hot Cross Bun Kit

The kit comes with everything you need and what super cute is the instructions are on each packet of ingredients. The main instructions for the whole project are on the bag containing the flour and yeast.

The glaze has its own little instructions and the piping mix to make the crosses has its own as well. So you’re not chasing around trying to find step 15 when you’ve only got a couple of minutes to complete the next step.

The instructions are really helpful and pretty clear. I think we had some help in that we’ve done baking before and are aware of how it works. In a few places it looked a bit ambiguous but we figured out what we needed to do.

The recipe has instructions for using a standing mixer or a thermomix. I don’t own either, so for us it was all womanpower and it turned out perfectly.

In terms of extras, the things you need are milk, butter, apple cider vinegar, and an egg. There’s also instructions on what to use as a substitution in each case. This means you can make it egg free and dairy free which would also of course be vegan.

Making your hot cross buns

Initially the amount of liquid looked like too much, but as we mixed it into the dry mix it was absolutely perfect. You could see after that 10 minutes of resting that the yeast had activated and that sort of glutenous (?) activity was commencing.

You’ll also need a bit of extra flour for the shaping and rolling (I used Orgran plain flour). We took the extra step of shaping and rolling the buns to get that ideal bun shape. I think it’s worthwhile, and it only took us a few extra minutes. It helps you get even sizes too which will give an even bake.

After rolling and shaping we left them to prove. Because it was a frosty day in Melbourne about 18°C I used the proving setting on my oven which runs the oven at 30°C. After 30 minutes of proving they were definitely bigger!

It literally took 30 seconds to mix together the piping mix and it was really easy to get it into the piping bag which surprised me. The crosses piped out well and my husband made his own little weird design. He said it’s a yin and yang (photo at the bottom of the article).

The buns then went into the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes. We decided to give ours an extra two or three minutes. I’m not sure they 100% needed it but we just did it anyway. I also turned the tray around at the last 10 minutes just for a bit of even browning.

I felt like the instructions for the sugar glaze were a little unclear, do I just mix the sugar and water and that’s it? Or should I be boiling it for a while?

However, when I looked up other sugar glaze instructions, it turns out there are many different ways to make it. In some you can basically just dissolve the sugar in hot water and brush it straight on the buns. In other in other recipes the sugar syrup is boiled for a few minutes before being used.

Honestly, I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make. If you’re not comfortable boiling sugar water, which can be a bit dangerous, then skip that and just dissolve it in hot water.

The buns look really good just once the glaze goes on. There’s more than enough glaze for the buns as well, probably twice as much as what you need. We went a bit overboard with it so our hot cross buns have sticky glazed bottoms.

After glazing the hot cross buns are ready to eat!

The taste

Given my baking history and my experience with our new oven, I didn’t have my hopes too high. So you can imagine my happiness when I cut through the bun with my bread knife and it came out absolutely clean.

I’ve seen enough Great British Bake Off to know to knock the bottom of bread and look for a clean knife when cutting. It means your bake is properly cooked.

You can see from the photo that I took of the inside all those perfect little air bubbles.

The texture is so soft and springy, it’s almost like it’s a sourdough. The kit, of course, uses dry yeast so it’s not a sourdough. However, they have used a premium gluten free flour blend by the company Wild Sourdough.

When it comes to gluten free baking, the right flour can make all the difference. When I squish the bun between my fingers it just springs right back up.

All the sultanas stayed juicy in the bake and the cross tastes fine too. It’s not rock hard so I’m happy. I think in my childhood I had some that were so solid I had taken to pulling them off before eating the bun.

And the verdict from my gluten eating friend? She said you cannot tell the difference between these and regular buns.

My husband put it simply and said it’s perfect.

Where to buy a hot cross bun baking kit

This kit is made by the Free From Family Co. which is the brand sold under Happy Tummies. So in this case they are a Happy Tummies exclusive product. They have two versions, traditional (with sultanas) and plain – where you can add your own things like chocolate chips.

The plain kit is a little cheaper so if you’ve got a ton of sultanas at home just get that and save yourself a few bucks.

• Free From Family Co hot cross bun baking kit – traditional
• Free From Family Co hot cross bun baking kit – plain

I don’t think I’ve seen any other gluten free hot cross bun kit available in Australia but let me know of any in the comments!

Product details

Gluten free: Legit GF, not detected.
Vegetarian / vegan: Vegan option when using dairy-free milk and egg replacer.
Allergens: Nil. May contain: Nil.
Serving size: 10 buns.

Prefer to buy your hot cross buns? Check out this round up I did of GF hot cross buns back in 2022. Or see my most recent review of Well and Good’s traditional hot cross buns.

Thanks for reading this far, as promised, here’s the photo of my husband’s yin and yang hot cross bun. I’m sure this is sacreligious somehow.