Buns! Buns! Buns!
Today is day two of the A-Z Challenge so we have the letter ‘B’… hence the buns!
You can’t imagine how many times I have changed this post! ‘B’ could be so many things but as it is nearly Easter I wanted to post a seasonal recipe! 🙂 These took me a whole day to perfect! Seriously I was so fed up of them by the end of the day that I didn’t want to ever see a bun again! Then came the next morning and I sliced one in half for breakfast and it was good! 🙂 Real good! 🙂 So I forgave them all my distress, waiting, tasting, refining, adding, changing, tasting, waiting, removing, scribbling, sleeping! Not your average bun, but delicious nonetheless! 🙂
Tomorrow is Good Friday which is the traditional day for eating hot cross buns! … are you working or not working? Staying home? Last minute shopping? Baking? 🙂 or visiting family? 🙂 Whatever you’re up to, why not make these free from buns!? hot cross buns! These are DEGF (Dairy. Egg. Gluten. Free) as well as being yeast free and refined sugar free! Okay so before you get very excited, these are not your fluffy bread like buns, they are of course due to the free from nature of them denser and more doughy BUT the taste… oh yes! 🙂 The spicy fruity bun taste is there in all its deliciousness! These are easy to throw together despite the long list of ingredients and you can halve them and pop them in the toaster and spread with butter (I must post my vegan butter recipe)! Oh and of course being on Life Diet Health, these are little buns full of healthy goodness so you can eat them without pondering over the effects! 🙂
Gather
- 20g chia seeds
- 90ml cold water
- 1/2 teaspoon vinegar (GF if needed)
- 200ml unsweetened carton coconut milk
- 150g porridge oats blitzed into flour
- 50g coconut sugar blitzed into powder
- 70g coconut flour
- 10g arrowroot
- 50g polenta
- 1 teaspoon (6g) baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used pink Himalayan)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
- 40g coconut oil
- 30g raisins
- 30g dried dates chopped
- Agave or jam for glazing
- For the crosses see note under store & serve
Prepare
- Mix the chia with the water, stir and leave to thicken.
- Add the vinegar to the milk, stir and leave.
- Put the oats, sugar, flour, arrowroot, polenta, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, then mix.
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- Stir the spices in – cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg and ginger.
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- Rub the coconut oil in until there are no lumps left.
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- Add the raisins and dates and mix.
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- Make a hole in the centre and pour in the milk and chia mixes.
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- Stir until combined
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and the mixture starts to form into a natural ball.
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- Divide into ten pieces and roll each into a ball, then flatten slightly to make a bun shape.
- Place on a baking tray
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and bake at Gas Mark 5 (375 f / 160c) for 35-40 minutes. Brush with your choice of glaze while still warm. Leave to cool on the tray for ten minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
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- Decorate with the traditional ‘cross’ for your hot cross bun (see below for ideas).
- Enjoy!
Serve & Store
- These can be eaten just like your usual hot cross buns… but you won’t need to eat two or three (is that just me) as these are much more nourishing and filling.
- Make the crosses out of anything you can find! It is traditional to use pastry so this would work (it needs cooking ten minutes before the buns are done), or if you eat icing you could try that. I first tried coconut flour with water
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but this was very crumbly (but tasty) so instead I used cashew nuts blitzed up with water and a dash of agave.
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- Warm in the microwave and serve with jam.
- Split in half, toast and serve with (vegan) butter or your favourite spread.
- Cut in half and spread with chocolate! 😛 It is Easter!
- Put them in your lunchbox/picnic bag and eat them as they are.
Life Diet Health 
Those buns look so good! And they’re gluten free? It makes my heart sing.
I have a random question for you. I’m in the AtoZChallenge too and I’m trying to set up my home page like yours where the viewer only see’s a snippet of the article and has to click the link to see the whole thing on its own page. But I can’t figure it out! How do you do it??
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Hello Ruby and welcome to Life Diet Health 🙂 Most of my recipes are gluten free 🙂 and generally dairy free, refined sugar free and egg free too!
To answer your question about the home page, the different themes appear differently, but there is a tick box. I’m looking for it! If I find it I will let you know but I’ve just clicked everything and can’t find it! I think it might be a plug in which you have to download!? I’ll keep looking!
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Oh, I like your blog! Gluten free recipes? Thank you!
A to Z introduces me all these neat blogs. 🙂
Laura
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Welcome Laura 🙂 Gluten free, dairy free, egg free, yeast free, sugar free… you can find them all here! 🙂 A-Z is great… hope to see you all the way to Z! 🙂
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Happy Easter! These look like very tasty buns. As a multi-food allergic/intolerant person, I feel your pain at the daily struggle to move back toward a place of health. Have been on the 4 day rotation diet for almost 2 years now and finally feel like I am really beginning to get back to a meaningfully healthy place on a consistent basis. Good luck with the A-Z challenge. And good luck with finding your healthy sweet spot! I will definitely be stopping back…
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They look yummy and I’m sure they are, thanks for the Recipe.
Blessings for Easter, I hope it is special for you – Anne
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Anne thank you! They are indeed yummy! Happy Easter to you too! 🙂
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I can’t stop admiring your dedication to your blog and how many recipes you post! Very productive, indeed! 🙂 Love how these buns look…Mmmm, with some peanut butter and jam… 🙂
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Thank you Milica 🙂 My husband is not so impressed lol… think he’s after some of what he calls ‘real’ food! No meat and dairy in my kitchen! 😛 🙂 I had almond butter and chia berry jam on some, some just with homemade vegan butter! So yummy! 🙂
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Men can be so picky with their food sometimes. I’m really lucky Mladen is not like that, he loves kitchen experiments! 🙂
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☺I wish! Anyway… He liked the coconut of your cupcakes, but not the chocolate! 😦 He’s a full fat milky dairy chocolate eater! I loved both though!☺
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I’m glad at least you liked it! 🙂 Maybe adding full fat coconut milk can make something similar, but I don’t know… It’s been so long since we ate dairy! 😀
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I was amazed he even tried it so liking the coconut part was a bonus! 🙂 I’ll have a little play and see what I can do 🙂
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Good luck, tough job you have, pleasing his taste buds! 😉
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Don’t even go there Milica!!!
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As much as i love buns!! i totally suck at making them!! either it rises horizontally than vertically, or theyre too crusty or they seem doughy in the middle!! looks like me and buns/rolls have some old history we need figure out to work well BUT these OMG!! look heavenly!! i sooooo envy you right now
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Chocolate and buns at mine then Meghana! 😛 🙂 You should be able to make these as there’s no yeast or gluten to make them go all wonky… and they’ll cook too! 🙂
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I remember when I was little I used to have this book about holiday traditions. There was this one page and it had a picture of hot cross buns. They looked so delicious, but yours look even better!
I’m not the greatest cook in the world (unless it’s some form of chicken), but this may be worth a try! Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Hello Kie and welcome to my “little part of the internet” 😛 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! 🙂 These are definitely worth a try and I’m sure you’d be able to make them if you follow the recipe! Glad you like the look of them… I keep trying with my photos! 🙂
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