hot cross buns gluten and sugar free?

[Moonmobile]

There has been a lot of hot cross bun discussion of late which makes me wish I could have some.

This is probably an impossible request but does anybody have a recipe for gluten and sugar free hot cross buns? It may well be that such a thing does not exist of course... Jo has some spelt ones on her blog - but they are not gluten free worst luck and I'm still not sure if I can tolerate rapadura.

[brazen20au]

i don't have one as my family don't eat them, but the new baking book i bought does have a number of fruit bread recipes in it (GF of course) so let me know if you'd like to see any of them

[I Love Bimby!]

You'll never guess just what arrived in my inbox in the Thermobiz (consultant mag....)

Gluten Free Easter Buns

Ingredients
1 stick cinnamon
1 whole nutmeg
2 cloves
1 vanilla bean
70g millet
50g almonds
60g potato starch
35g glutinous rice flour (made in TM)
90g tapioca starch
2tsp xanthan gum
Pinch Celtic sea salt
40g rapadura sugar
35g almond oil (or nut oil)
2 eggs
130g sparkling mineral water at room temperature
1 sachet of yeast
170g craisins or other dried fruit of choice

Method
Place cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla bean into TM bowl and mill for 1 minute on speed 10.
Add millet and almonds and mill a further 30 seconds on speed 10.
Add all remaining ingredients except craisins and mix together for 8-10 seconds on speed 6.
Add craisins and mix through for 4 seconds on Reverse + speed 4.
Lightly oil a 12 hole muffin pan (silicone preferably) and using an ice cream scoop, dollop dough into
the pan. Allow to rise for at least an hour before baking at 160ºC for 10-15 minutes.
Cool before decorating with Cream cheese glaze (see Tips).

General Tips
To make glaze, place 20g butter, 200g icing sugar, 30g milk and 1tsp vanilla essence into TM bowl and mix
for 1 minute at 50ºC on speed 2.
Thicken the glaze by adding 100g cream cheese and mixing for 10 seconds on speed 4.

[Purplehat]

I'm curious about baking without sugar (and sugar replacements), too. I havn't had a hot cross bun for many years due to the diet restrictions.. and those ones look nice - what would happen if I cooked it without the rapadura? Is it an essential part of the structure of the bun? (I've been wondering about this with biscuits and cakes too.)

[I Love Bimby!]

Maybe you could add some argave syrup, raw honey or similar instead?

I believe it would be mostly a flavour thing using no sweeter would have an effect on... but I could be wrong 

[Moonmobile]

Thank you so much for this recipe! This is great! I used to love hot cross buns and always enjoyed Easter for being able to eat them.

Here is a really interesting article I found on yeast and sugar in bread

http://www.whats4eats.com/blogs/chefbrad/does-sugar-help-bread-yeast-grow

Maybe substituting honey or agave syrup or even ommitting sweeteners altogether could be okay under these conditions. I will give it a go. Although the article I have linked to says a pinch of sugar can't hurt - this is not true for everybody unfortunately! It is not just a question of blood sugar levels. I think I will be looking at some French bread making recipes given the info in the article above. Hot cross buns would probably need sweetener however.

[quirkycooking]

A couple of years ago I made gf df sf hot cross buns for Easter, as we were on a strict diet because of allergies.  I used a gf bread mix, adding the spices and sultanas, and used stevia to sweeten.  I cooked them in muffin tins.  The kids loved them!!!  I also made homemade chocolates (in molds) and dyed Easter eggs.  They thought it was the best Easter they'd ever had!

I was thrilled to see the gf Easter bun recipe in my newsletter - I'm going to make them for my friend who is coeliac (as well as her kids) as she's really sick with morning sickness and not able to cook much.  You could just use a pinch of stevia instead of the Rapadura.

[judydawn]

Nice to see the kids don't have to miss out at Easter time Jo.

[Thermomixer]

Thx for sharing ILB - what toher goodies are in your secret consultants' business newsletter  ?

[quirkycooking]

If we tell you that we'll have to kill you. 

 

[Thermomixer]

..... only with kindness 

[quirkycooking]

Of course!