Vegan Hot Cross Buns: Matcha, white chocolate and coconut

Yesterday I made made my usual traditional hot cross buns and also experimented with vegan matcha hot cross buns.  I learnt not to use old matcha and if you want to add white chocolate it has to be decent chunks, not chopped thin melts.  Despite these glitches, the HCBs turned out rather well.  They were soft with a matcha aroma - that I recently saw described as "turf" - and the chunky crosses that we love.

You can see in the below photo collage of the steps in making the hot cross buns that the dough was a green that gave me hope of some colour but in the above photo you can see by the time it baked it was a dark green.  

You can also see in the above picture that this is not a simple recipe.  I put the dough together the night before, in the morning I chop the dough into pieces that I roll into balls, set aside to rise, pipe the crosses before they go into the oven and glaze them when they come out piping hot.  It is worth the work but it is enough to just bake one or two batches each Easter.  

I have a tradition of spending Good Friday baking hot cross buns.  Coming from a Catholic family, it is a quiet day for me of withdrawing from the world.  Despite no longer being a practicing Catholic, I still consider it one of the holiest days on the calendar where sorry and hope co-exist.  A big baking project is the perfect way to slow down life.  

I made the matcha hot cross bun batch for Sylvia who had requested this flavour combination.  (The coconut was interesting but quite subtle).  My favourite hot cross buns are the traditional ones with dried fruit, but I like to use cranberries and dried stone fruit.  So I also made a batch of those ones yesterday.  I have had so many sweet treats lately (hello Cake Picnic) that I have held off on the HCBs and only had one before Good Friday.  
 

It was so good to have hot cross buns hot out of the oven yesterday.  I was reading an article on the best way to eat hot cross buns and was surprised that the options were unheated, toasted or microwaved, with unheated being seen as the worst way.  I don't like the crisp charred edges of toasted hot cross buns not the drying effect of the microwave.  

In my family we always had hot cross buns heated in the oven and I still prefer this.  The smell of spiced warm buns is amazing!  My mum now used the air fryer.  The very best way to eat a hot cross bun is when it is warm and just baked.  This is one of the best reasons to bake your own.  It is the best!

There is a lot of waiting around while baking hot cross buns.  Some of it is useful for cleaning up the kitchen but I spent some of it going down some online rabbit holes about Easter.  It was a nice change from all the depressing news.

Here are a few highlights of my reading.  (I have shared some links to Easter stories below):

• Discovering Norway's obsession with crime fiction at Easter (Påskekrim) that has led to "grisly decorations like chalk body drawings on pavements and cute baby chicks holding bloody knives",
• Reading an Australian ex-pat in the America scratching her head about the holiday-loving USA's lack of enthusiasm for Easter, 
• Laughing at humour about outrageous hot cross buns flavours including mugshot photos of said buns, and 
• Hearing the animal rights activists' ethical alternative to rolling your Easter egg down a hill at the annual Preston event in the UK.
• Delighting in a New Zealand article that muses on the perpetual tension down under of celebrating a spring festival in the midst of autumn and suggests the feijoa is a suitable seasonal food for "a holiday in search of a culinary tradition".

It was also great fun to read some novelty hot cross bun flavours such as fairy bread, rhubarb and custard, tiramisu, and iced vovos.  I was glad to be part of the hot cross bun craziness this year!  Maybe next year I will try making these hot cross buns again but with fresh matcha!

Fun Easter links:

The Easter crime wave sweeping Norway in BBC, 30 March 2026.

Why Easter in America is my first expat culture shock in Australian Financial Review, 2 April 2026

Albanese To Address Nation About Alarming New ‘Doritos Cheesy Jalapeño Hot Cross Buns’ (spoof), in The Shovel, 2 April 2026 

Rat race: inside Sydney’s Royal Easter Show rodent judging – where the winners are decided by a whisker,  in the Guardian, 3 April 2026

Easter has a soundtrack just like Christmas, so why do we never hear it? in The Conversation, 2 April 2026.

Hot Cross Crimes: The Supermarket Easter Buns No One Asked For, in Broadsheet, 26 March 2026.

Easter egg rollers should use potatoes, Peta says, BBC, 31 March 2026.

Why the feijoa is the true taste of Easter in New Zealand, The Spin Off, 3 April 2026.

More vegan sweet yeasted bakes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Doughnuts - baked, vegan, overnight, sourdough (v)  
Hot Cross Buns - wholemeal and yeasted (v)
Overnight sourdough cranberry nut rolls (v)
Overnight Sourdough Hot Cross Buns (no knead) (v)  
Rhubarb and raspberry no knead focaccia (v)

Overnight sourdough hot cross buns
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Makes 6-8

125g ripe starter (100% hydration)
50g vegan margarine, room temperature 
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 and a half bananas)
3/8 cup soy milk, room temperature
1/4 cup aquafaba
3 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
60g vegan white chocolate chopped (more?)
40g desiccated coconut
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1//2 tsp dried ginger
225g white bread flour

Crosses:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour (or a little more)

Glaze:
2 tsp water
1 tbsp caster sugar
good shake of mixed spice 

Measure out the starter (mine is best when it is rising and had lots of little bubbles and smells lovely and is still a bit thick in texture) and stir in the margarine, then add banana and soy milk.  (It is ideal the mixture is room temperature.)

Add remaining ingredients and stir well.  Leave for 30 minutes.  Knead in the bowl for 15 seconds.  It will be very soft still but you should be able to knead it and wipe most of the mixture off your hands.  Cover well with clingwrap or beeswax and leave overnight - about 8-10 hours until well risen.

When dough is risen, scrape out onto a well floured surface.  Cut into 6-8 pieces (depending on the size of your tin - I had 6 largish buns in a medium rectangular baking tin.).  I use a metal pastry cutter (dipped in flour for each cut) but a large sharp knife will do.  

Gently roll each piece into a ball.  Do this by putting the corners as tightly as possible around the bun (without squishing the bun) so the floured bottom of the bun is like a little blanket around the bun.  Toss in flour as though it is very fragile just using finger tips so it is not sticky.  Then use your hands to shape into a smooth ball, continually very gently pulling the dough to the bottom of the bun and lightly rolling in more flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.

Line a a baking tray or medium roasting dish medium dish with baking paper (and/or grease) and arrange balls in it quite close to each other so they are just touching but not really snug against each other.  Cover buns with beeswax or clingfilm or a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 30 to 2 hours.  Heat oven to 220 C while buns rise (or 30 minutes before you are ready to put in the oven).

Mix flour and water together to make the mixture for the crosses once buns ready for oven.  It should be thick enough to be almost stretchy and drop off the spoon in soft clumps.  Pipe crosses onto the buns.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Turn buns around for even baking and reduce oven to 180 C and bake for another 25 minute or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped.

Five minutes before buns come out of oven or just as they come out, mix glaze ingredients together and microwave for about about 15-30 seconds on high or until the mixture boils.  Remove buns from oven.  Transfer to a wire rack.  I have found it this easier if the baking paper has some overhang so you can use it to pick the buns up (even easier with another person who can pick up the other two corners to help you lift it).

Brush buns with prepared glaze and see if you can wait for them to cool before you sample one.  They are good for 2 to 3 days or can be frozen.  I reheat my buns from room temperature for 10-12 minutes at 180 C. 

On the Stereo:
For all our days that tear the heart: Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler