Vegan Hot Cross Buns for the Feast of Ēostre!

Vegan Dad beat me to this! He posted a recipe this week, after I'd already planned these. I didn't follow his recipe though, because I wanted to use the bread machine. Instead, I adapted this one.

Put the following ingredients into bread machine:



• 2 tbsp. flax seeds, ground in coffee grinder
• 5 tbsp. warm water
• 3/4 cup warm soy milk (I used freshly made soy milk, so it was warm already!)
• 1/2 cup canola oil (this was by accident - it was supposed to be 1/3 cup, but it turned out fine nonetheless!)
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. raw cane sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp mace
• pinch of salt
• grated rind of one large lemon

Place carefully on top of liquid in bread machine:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white bread flour
• 1 cup all purpose white flour

Make a tablespoon sized indentation in the flour and put in it:
• 1 tbsp quick rise yeast

Turn bread machine onto dough setting. If your machine has an 'add' feature, add the fruit when the beeper goes off. Mine apparently doesn't (was a hand-me-down and didn't come with a manual, so it doesn't as far as I know) so I just kneaded in the fruit on a lightly floured counter when it was finished its last rise and the beeper went off.

For the fruit, I used:
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied cherries

I don't think the last two things are traditional in hot cross buns, but I basically just went to the bulk store and picked things that looked tasty. Use whatever fruit you like.

Divide dough into 18 more or less equal pieces (I just kept dividing pieces in half, or bigger pieces into thirds) and roll them into balls.

Place balls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. (Next time I think I might use parchment cause mine stuck a bit despite grease.) If you want pull-aparts, place the balls closer together so the sides will touch when they expand. Cover the balls with a clean towel and let them rise again, until about double in size (about 1.5 hours, but could be less if your kitchen is warm). Preheat the oven for the last 30 minutes of the rise, at 400 F.

Bake for 9 minutes, or until they sound hollow when tapped, and are firm on the outside.

Let cool a bit, and then make frosting:

• 1/4 cup magarine (I use Becel Vegan)
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• icing sugar enough to make a thick paste

Put into the corner of a ziplock bag, squeezing all of the air out. Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag, and pipe on crosses (I was interested to learn that the crosses on hot cross buns are  not originally a Christian symbol!)