At this time of year it's hard to walk past the Easter buns at the supermarket without being tempted to buy a packet and eat all 12 in one day. The problem is commercial Easter buns contain a long list of highly processed ingredients that have very few nutrients.
Since I had my niece over for the school holidays today and the weather outside is cold and grey, I thought we could bake together and make our own healthy hot cross buns. These buns are made with good sources of quality fat from coconut oil instead of butter, fibre and protein from the oats and wholemeal flour, contain natural sugars from maple syrup and are rich with protective antioxidants from dark chocolate. You have the option of making them quite plain with sultanas or chop up dark chocolate chunks or use both! These buns are very dense, more like a scone bun as they are made with wholemeal flour and not white flour. You can use plain white flour if you prefer but it's not quite so healthy.
They're really easy and don't need any yeast and are fun to make with kids on holidays! You can also keep in a container fresh or freeze them for emergency cuppa drop-ins by popping them in the microwave and adding some butter.
Ingredients:
3 cups wholemeal self raising flour or wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sultanas (optional)
50g dark chocolate 70%-85% chopped in chunks
50g dark chocolate melted (to Serve)
2 tbs maple syrup
2 eggs (1 for glazing)
1/4 cup coconut oil melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of milk of choice (I used regular soy milk in this recipe)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder if using plain flour and stir to combine
3. Add vanilla extract, 1 egg, coconut oil (melt in microwave), maple syrup, milk and chocolate chunks and/or sultanas
4. Take a handful of dough mixture and make into balls and place on baking tray with baking paper
5. Whisk the other egg and use a pastry brush to glaze the tops of each bun
6. Bake in oven for 12-15 mins or until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 mins
7. Melt chocolate in microwave in heat proof sandwich bag, cut corner and pipe crosses onto tops of buns to serve so the bun is still warm and the chocolate is gooey. You can also use a piping bag if you have one but I made my own with the sandwich bag option.
Enjoy and Happy Easter!
Suzanne
Lifestylist Health & Fitness