Sourdough Hot Crossed Buns Baked with Steam

Sourdough Hot Crossed Buns Baked with Steam keeps the shopping list focused on 100% Sourdough Starter, Dry Active Yeast, and + 1 ½ tablespoons Whole milk. It serves 12 people.

Count on 2 hours of prep, 25 minutes of cooking, 12 hours of resting, about 3 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

Sponge

• ⅓ cup 100% Sourdough Starter
• 1 teaspoon Dry Active Yeast
• ¾ cup + 1 ½ tablespoons Whole milk
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• ¾ cup All Purpose Flour

Final Dough

• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• ¼ cup Sugar
• 1 ea Blood Orange zested
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 6 ½ tablespoon Butter softened
• 1 Egg
• ½ teaspoon Allspice
• 1 cup Currants

Total Dough

• ⅓ cup 100% Fresh Starter
• 1 teaspoon Dry Active Yeast
• ¾ cup + 1 ½ tablespoons Whole milk
• ⅓ cup Sugar
• 3¾ cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 6 ½ tablespoons Butter
• 1 Egg
• ½ teaspoon Allspice
• 1 Blood Orange
• 1 cup Currants

For the Crosses

• ¼ cup Butter melted
• 2 ½ tablespoons Milk
• ½ tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• ¾ cup Sugar
• ¼ e Egg beaten
• 1 cup All Purpose Flour

Simple Syrup

• ½ cup Sugar
• ½ cup Water

How the cooking goes

Prepare Starter

1. This recipe calls for a 100% hydration starter, which is your standard equal parts flour and water. Feed your starter 12 hours before or with enough time that it has doubled by the time you wish to mix the sponge.

Make the Sponge

1. Heat the milk to around 95F in a pot or the microwave.
2. In a medium bowl combine all the ingredients for the sponge then mix with your hands. (You can mix with a spoon but it is so wet that it will be more difficult.).
3. Cover with plastic wrap then set in a warm spot until visibly bubbly. It should take about 30 minutes.

Mix the Dough

1. You usually scale the remaining ingredients while the sponge is sitting.
2. In the bowl of a electric mixer, zest the orange into the sugar and mix together with your fingertips or with the back of a spoon. Add the flour, salt, butter, and allspice to the bowl. Finally add the egg and sponge.
3. Mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until the mix looks even.
4. Switch to the dough hook then mix on medium speed until a rough window pane can be pulled. This means the dough will not look perfectly smooth but will have pulled together and made one cohesive dough around the hook. Pinch off a piece and gently pull the sides apart, rotate and pull again, making a square shape. The dough should not tear; you should be able to see through some of the dough like a window pane but then there will be pieces of dough that look rough. This is what you want.
5. Add the currants then mix in on low until well disbursed throughout the dough.
6. Scrape the dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for 30 minutes in a warm place. Fold the dough by grabbing one side, pull it upwards out of the bowl then then fold it over ⅓ of the dough. Rotate the bowl 180 degrees and repeat with the opposite side. Rotate a quarter turn and repeat the same folding technique. Rotate the bowl 180 degrees and make the final fold. You should have a nice tight square packet of dough.
7. Marvel at your skills. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double. Mine took about an additional hour. While the is finishing its bulk proof, oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray or butter. You used butter because why not?!
8. When the dough has doubled and feel light and aery when touched, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. It barely needs any flour!
9. Divide into 12 equal portions. You can eyeball this or weigh them. They should be about 97g each. Place each about equidistant apart in the prepared dish.
10. Cover with plastic wrap and place back in the warm spot to double. This took about an hour for mine. While the dough final proofs make the cross top and the simple syrup.

Make the Simple syrup

1. Combine sugar and water in a small sauce pot, stirring to combine. Heat over a moderate flame, stirring now and then, until it reaches a rolling boil. Take it off the heat and cool.
2. This can be made weeks in advance if you wish. This makes more than you need for the recipe, so save it and use it in cocktails or coffee. It can be difficult to make a smaller batch of simple because it will boil before the sugar has dissolved.

Make the Cross Topping

1. In a sauce pot, melt the butter. Add the sugar and cook until bubbly and smooth. Add remaining ingredients and stir together well. You will get a paste that looks a bit like choux dough. Allow to cool slightly then move it onto a piping bag.
2. Warm the oven to 440F.
3. When the buns are ready to bake, pipe the crosses on the dough. Pipe all the lines in one direction, allowing the cross dough to dip down between the bun. Cut the cross dough with scissors when you reach the end of a row. Rotate 90 degrees (a quarter turn) and repeat in the other direction.
4. Use the scissors to cut the cross dough between each bun, so each bun has its own individual cross. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, rotate and then reduce the oven temperature to 350F. Continue baking for an additional 10-15 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 185F when inserted into the center of one of the middle buns. If you do not have a thermometer, you can insert a cake tester or cake tester into the center and it should come out with clinging crumbs but no streaks of dough!
5. Brush the hot buns with simple syrup.
6. Technically they should cool, but who has the patience? You say dig right on in.

After it comes off the heat

Wait until the loaf is cool before slicing. Wrap it at room temperature, and freeze slices you will not eat in a couple of days.

If you want another plate from Sourdough, open Sourdough Raisin Bread with a Slow Rise and Cherry Sourdough Bread with a Slow Rise.