I love hot cross buns, but It occurred to me that a savoury version may be good. I picked some wild garlic while on a dog walk the other day and wanted to use it for something special. I decided to make them using other local ingredients from the south west of England so I used cheddar and some spring onions from a local farm. I cant wait to make them again as they where some of the nicest buns I have ever made. I really like wild garlic and in these buns it creates a lovely garlic bread type taste. it was one of those recipes where I kind of threw stuff together. they seem to be the best recipes don’t they?. hot cross buns are sweet buns that are served on good Friday, so I was worried about messing with a classic but I think that its good to evolve recipes (I recently got told off for using challah to make French toast so I don’t want to offend any one). these would be good at any time of the year so feel free to leave the crosses off.
dough
- 3 1/2 cups strong white flour
- 1 sachet fast acting yeast
- 150ml milk
- 150ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of wild garlic finally chopped in a food processor
- 1 spring onion finely chopped
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar
- 2 tbsp. crispy onions
in a bowl add the flour, salt and yeast on the opposite side of the bowl, then add the milk, water and mix then add the garlic, cheddar, spring onion and crispy onions and mix until a soft bun manageable dough is formed (you may want to add some more flour or water- some flours absorb better than others)
let rise for 1 to 2 hours until doubled in size then tip out onto a floured surface and cut into 8 then roll into balls and place on a lined baking sheet and leave to prove again for 1 hour. (I let it prove in a warm oven (not turned on that has the door left open)
mix some flour and water so you have a thick paste and tip into a piping bag with a small opening. brush the buns with a beaten egg mixed with 1 tbsp. milk. then pipe on the crossed.
preheat the oven to 200c
bake for 25 minutes.
These look so delicious! x
Izzy
Thank you xx
Having a go as we have a garden full of wild garlic. Where does the brown sugar come in to the recipe please?
I added it with the flour x
These look so good Aimee – I definitely need to pick the wild garlic that is in abundance here and make these! I love the pictures.
Thank you Angela I saw some in London at borough market today and they where charging loads for it I think I could make a fortune by going out and picking it where I live and selling it up here lol xx
Savory hot cross buns sound so delicious, these look simply divine!
Thank you Laura so glad you like them x
I need to make this!! Like, real soon. I’m all for savoury, not much of a sweets person, so this speaks tender to my ear and my stomach ahahahah. We don’t have wild garlic here that I know but I’ve found it frozen and think I might give that a try…
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Thank you I love savoury stuff too, you could maybe try ramps I think they are the same thing ? X
Yes, same thing, we also don’t have that here in the Lisbon area where I live, I think they can be found up North in Gerês, but not sure either. I’m realy considering the frozen variety, because I’m not averse to using frozen veggies eheh.
https://bloglairdutemps.blogspot.pt/
I love them as well. I recently experimented with them a lot, as my kid is crazy about them. <3
They are so fun to make I remember your recipe a few months back xxx
Aimee, these are absolutely gorgeous! Wild garlic is a wonderful ingredient and I love how it fills the woodlands with garlicky goodness. Personally, I love seeing how people interpret age old recipes and create wonderfully new alternatives for people to experiment with and try for themselves (whether they be associated with religious connotations or not). After all, isn’t this how any recipe was initially created prior to any form of association? By playing with the ingredients that was available and identifying what flavours worked best.
As always, beautiful photos!
Thank you Yasmin so glad you like it. I love wild garlic and I am always thinking or more ways to use it x
I dearly wish hot cross buns were more popular on this side of the pond as we are all big big fans of them. This savory version looks fabulous! I love the earthy yet fresh taste of wild garlic!! Hopefully it will be springing up here soon as there is no suitable replacement I have found available for purchase until it hits farmers markets! I am very excited to give your version a try!! All of your recipes are so beautiful and delicious!! Can I ask what you mean by “strong” flour? Thats not a term I have heard before.
It’s a shame they are not more easy to find , over here we call bread flour strong flour lol we have weird names for things xx
I would love to make these, I live in the UK though, what are the measurements in grams / uk tbs etc? Thank you
I live in the uk too but have got lazy and just use my measuring cups rather than weighing, if you google the flour measurement then you should be able to find the conversion xxx