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What a timely post! I’ve been wanting to give Hot Cross Buns a try, and now I’m finally going to do it! I do have a few questions. Could I add the zest of 1 lemon to the dough? If I bake them the day before Easter, will they still be good to serve for the holiday? I’m guessing an overnight proof would make them too tangy. Thoughts
Zest of a lemon (or orange) sounds super.
I agree it would be good to keep the process short for the tang.
I think the buns will reheat well and feel just as soft the next day. You can even leave a little browning in reserve for that re-heat.
Alternately, you can have the 200g starter ripening during the day before Easter, and mix the dough in the evening. If you don’t put the dough somewhere warm like I did (lit oven), it will need 8-12 hours / overnight to expand. Then you’d just have the shaping, final proofing, cross piping, and glazing on Easter. (…yeah, I’d finish everything the day before lol)
I want to have them for Easter morning. I am thinking of doing starter Friday PM and let sit overnight. Saturday late morning, make the dough. Let sit for 5+hours. When ready, shape into balls and put in pan. Cover and refrigerate. Get up Sunday AM and let warm up while preheat oven. Bake and enjoy. Since I have never made, what do you think. Is risk that sourdough tang may be more there?? Thank you for feedback.
How about a double fed sweet levain as an alternative option? The night before build 100g and allow to fully mature. The day of give the mature levain a small quick feed before moving onto the dough.
For example…
1st Build: 8-10 hours
2nd Build: Day of Baking/or making the dough - 2 hours
This should make a sweeter levain for an enriched bread.
Wonderful hot cross buns…i didn’t do a great job with the crosses went too wide and too runny but still impressive buns taste great thanks for sharing!!
With that extra overnight, the buns will be more tangy.
How about par-baking? Bake them up to about 185-190F. Let cool, cover, finish baking in the morning.
@Abe Does building up to 200g starter in two stages/feeds make a difference in sweetness compared to a one-stage build? I was pleased with how quickly the 200g starter leavened this dough, though admittedly the dough only has 1 egg, and much less butter or sugar compared with brioche or cinnamon roll dough.
Not sweet per se @Fermentada, rather less tangy. There is another way to make a sweet levain and that would be to catch it very young. We’re talking about 20% risen. Believe it or not even though it would seem too early to use according to traditional practices of when to use a levain they have strong leavening power and have great flavour but with less, or no, tang. The last time I used a sweet levain the dough rose so much it stuck to the top of the Pullman lid and had a difficult time opening it.
Gotcha. I probably should experiment with treating my starter more like a bake-once-a-week home baker. Most of the time, my starter is refreshed around 4-8 times a week, divided between three or four bake days, so I only get sourness differences from dough fermentation length/temp.
I think both ways can play a significant role Melissa. Sometimes I ignore the starter and concentrate solely on the dough but that’s more when starter is just treated like seed, using a very small percentage of starter and all the flavour comes from the dough stage. When building a levain, like a poolish or a biga, I think the end goal starts from the levain stage. The maturity and percentage of the pre-ferment will have a much more significant role in the final dough. A starter used everyday can be treated both ways.
Hey Alexandrea68, those are some beautiful looking hot cross buns!
Fwiw, refrigerating the dough overnight did affect the taste for the better. A long, slow, cold fermentation is almost always preferred for flavor enhancement. Often, it is done during bulk fermentation, but either way … 
I like your second photo with the bunny and beans. 
“How about a double fed sweet levain as an alternative option? The night before build 100g and allow to fully mature. The day of give the mature levain a small quick feed before moving onto the dough.”
You could just bias for a homofermentative starter. Or, even better, just make a biga using bakers yeast. It is virtually the same thing as an immature, unripen natural starter.
Simply a suggestion of tweaking a recipe to suit one’s needs. One could also make it yeast water. Many options. I went with keeping the initial recipe and using a sweet levain without having to change ingredients.
Thanks Otis, you are absolutely right. Refrigerating the dough overnight is always better and a good way to develop the taste. What I should have said was that it did not cause too much tanginess at all 
@alexandra68 Beautiful bake! I love the bun and bunny photo too. Thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe. It’s good to know the overnight refrigeration didn’t increase the tang too much. Sometimes I want more of the wheat and spices to come though.
@Abe and @Otis Yeast water and yeast biga are great options too.
