{"id":3997,"date":"2015-03-31T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T23:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ascensionkitchen.com\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2020-04-19T17:29:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T05:29:15","slug":"healthy-hot-cross-buns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ascensionkitchen.com\/healthy-hot-cross-buns\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Hot Cross Buns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Healthy hot cross buns - entirely plant-based and made without gluten or refined sugars. These are jam packed full of fruit and spices and are delicious slathered in coconut butter.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Holy sheeshkabob. Gluten free, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free healthy hot cross buns.<\/p>\n

I don’t normally eat bread, mostly because there are far healthier options (gluten free whole grains like quinoa, cooked simply in a little vege stock – yum!). But it’s Easter. And there are buns galore. And I want one.<\/p>\n

So, disclaimer – as you can see – these buns ain’t no oil painting, they cracked a little on the surface, and, they only taste good the next day if you slice them and toast them up, but they smell like heaven and they taste pretty damn amazing considering they aren’t made with any of your usual suspects.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=\"Healthy Hot Cross Buns: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free. Try it here!\"]<\/p>\n

\"OverheadIt took four goes to get these to a good place. Four. The first time I made it, I started with a standard vegan hot cross bun recipe from the internet and subbed out the regular flour for a store bought all purpose plain GF flour mix.<\/p>\n

They were so terrible – hard as rocks.<\/p>\n

The boys sampled them – laughed at me – then shouted ‘more raisins!’.<\/em><\/p>\n

Round two I changed a few things around and used quite a bit of apple sauce in place of eggs, an old favourite trick when you’re after a plant-based alternative in baking. But, they were also terrible – doughy as all hell and wouldn’t set.<\/p>\n

The boys sampled them again and still kept shouting ‘more fruit!’.<\/em><\/p>\n

Round three was made predominantly with quinoa flour. I thought I was getting all cool adding in a whole grain, protein<\/a> rich flour. Again, terrible. Quinoa has a really strong earthy\/nutty flavour that just didn’t do the recipe any favours.<\/p>\n

And yes, still the boys still wanted more fruit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Round four, I made my own gluten free flour mix – a mixture of brown<\/a><\/span> and white rice flour<\/span><\/a> with tapioca starch.<\/span><\/a> I’m not making a song and dance about the white rice or the tapioca flour as they are refined, but in the context of making a yummy tasting treat I think they’re ok.<\/p>\n

I also cut way back on the apple sauce and went crazy with the amount of spices. The boys were happy this time, no words, just scoffing. That’s a good sign.<\/p>\n

We’re up to a whole cup of raisins now, so if you want to go easy on the sugars cut it down to half or even ¾ cup.<\/p>\n

If I had time I’d make this once more – the recipe is absolutely delish – especially with a lashing of soft coconut butter – but I think next time I will experiment with a leavening agent – I just didn’t have any aluminium free baking powder in the cupboard on hand this time round.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the fruits of my labours these last few days!<\/p>\n

\"AMore freakin' delish Easter recipes<\/h2>\n