Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns with Wild Honey

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Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns—Pillowy soft dough, studded with wine-poached figs with a pleasantly present aroma of Greek oregano, topped with a spiced cross and glazed in wild honey.

Skip to Recipe | Good to Knows

Hi!

Coming in this week, Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns!

This pillowy soft dough is complemented by flavorful wine-poached figs and the aromatic scent of Greek oregano; yes, you heard me correct, Greek oregano! I was gifted this incredibly fragrant bushel of dried Greek oregano by a friend on her last trip home to Greece — pre-pandemic — and have been looking to use it on a sweet application for some time now. This being hot-cross bun season and all, I felt this was the perfect time to experiment.

I love cheese boards; the perfect merriment of savory, sweet, and salty. I took inspiration from one of my favs, which consists of herby goat cheese slathered in fig preserve, a drizzle of honey, and glasses upon glasses of wine. I feel I created the essence of a hot-cross bun (fruit, aromatics, sweetness) while adding my own twist to this seasonal classic.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I am right now. I may or may have eaten two while writing today. If you'd like to learn more about hot-cross buns, click here for an article detailing their history and origin!

If you do make these Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns, and I hope you do, I’d love to share that moment with you. Tag me on Instagram @foxandcrane and use my hashtag #foxandcrane so I may see your baking adventures. 

xo -Jase

…Good to Knows…

Proofing
I love the overnight, cool proofing for this recipe. I feel the time in the refrigerator allows for better flavor development. However, this recipe can be done all in one day if you are pressed for time. Allow the dough to double fully in the first rise, then proceed to de-gassing and shaping. For the second rise, after shaping, you may need to cut the proofing time by half. Then continue with the baking instructions below.

Wine poached figs
I love the flavors of figs and red wine together; truly a match made in the food-heaven. If you are not a believer or don’t wish to use wine, replace the wine with equal amounts of water.

Kneading in the inclusions
I don’t hand knead the inclusions into my dough as most do; I am somewhat lazy HA! and use my mixer for that step. If you are more comfortable folding in the final bits by hand, by all means, please do so, or if your mixer is getting too hot and may need to rest and you don’t want to place any more strain on the motor. For this, place dough onto a lightly floured work surface, flatting it out, topping the dough with the figs and oregano. Fold in the corners and begin to kneed; this is a soft, slightly sticky dough and will take a couple of minutes — approx 3-5 mins — to fully incorporate the inclusions.

If you do bake these, I’d love to share that moment with you. Tag me on Instagram @foxandcrane and use my hashtag #foxandcrane so I may see your baking adventures. 

…Additional Tidbits…

Why I specify “wild honey”
I love honey; there’s nothing more flavorful than honey freshly bottled from the beehives! In this recipe, as with all my recipes that include honey, I use wild raw honey, locally sourced in my area that I buy from our Greenmarkets. I am mentioning this as not all honey is created equal, raw honey is only strained before it's bottled, which means it retains most of the beneficial nutrients, antioxidants, and flavors that are naturally contained from the bees. Alternatively, regular honey and/or store-bought may undergo a variety of processing, which may remove beneficial nutrients like pollen and reduce its level of antioxidants as well as adding fillers, such as high-fructose corn syrups and other, unwanted additives/preservatives.

For a full list of recipes, check out the Recipe Index

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Batch Size: 12 buns

Developed by: Jase Kingsland-Shim

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Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns with Wild Honey

Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Buns—Pillowy soft dough, studded with wine-poached figs with a pleasantly present aroma of Greek oregano, topped with a spiced cross and glazed in wild honey.

Ingredients

Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Bun Dough

• 510g bread flour
• 8g kosher salt
• 200g dried mission figs
• 480ml red wine, I used a merlot
• 240ml whole milk
• 60ml wild honey
• 7g active yeast or 1 packet
• 2 large brown eggs, at room temperature
• 85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 6g Greek oregano

Egg Wash

• 1 large brown egg
• 15ml whole milk

Spiced Cross

• 65g bread flour
• 3g ground cinnamon
• 10ml vanilla extract
• 45ml water
• pinch of kosher salt

Wild Honey

• 60ml wild honey, warm

Method

Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross Bun Dough

1. As always, weigh out, gather, and prepare all ingredients prior to mixing.
2. Sift the flour and salt into the mixing bowl, set aside.
3. In a small pan, bring wine to a boil, remove from heat, add figs, set aside, and let soak for 20 mins.
4. In a small pan or microwave-safe bowl, heat milk until the temperature reaches 100°f / 38°c — Be careful not to scald or burn the milk.
5. In the bowl of your stand mixer, pour in warmed milk, honey, and stir together until the honey has dissolved. 
6. At this point, if you are using active yeast, sprinkle active yeast over milk mixture, lightly stir and set aside for 10 minutes until it has blossomed; IF you are using instant yeast, proceed to the next step.
7. Place the bowl on the mixer, fitted with the dough hook, add your whisked eggs, and sifted dry ingredients. At low speed, mix dough for 2-3 minutes until all flour has been incorporated, turn mixer up to medium speed and mix for an additional 10 minutes.
8. At the 10 minute mark, you will know the dough is ready by noticing that the dough has become a smooth ball around the dough hook, has removed from the sides of the bowl, and has a tacky yet silky texture — Another way to test the dough is to do the windowpane test; to learn more about that technique, click here.
9. At this point, begin to add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, ensuring that the butter has been incorporated before adding the next piece. This should take about 3-5 minutes.
10. Once the butter has been fully incorporated, turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix for 10-15 minutes. Note: the dough will look separated and very sticky after the butter; this is expected. As the dough continues to mix, it will come back together.
11. Once the dough has become smooth and silky to the touch, perform a window pain test to develop the gluten fully.
12. At this time, drain figs, drying off with a towel, and chopping into ¼ to ½-inch pieces.
13. Add chopped figs and oregano to the mixing bowl. Turn mixer to medium-low speed, and mix until everything is evening disputed, and the dough has come back to a smooth and silky texture.
14. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and hand-knead — ensuring figs are well distributed throughout — and form dough into a ball.
15. Spray mixing bowl with non-stick cooking spray or lightly oil the bowl with cooking oil.
16. Place dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap, and proof in a very warm place for 1-hour.
17. After the dough has proofed for an hour, place the dough into the refrigerator to finish proofing overnight. I like the slow, overnight cool proofing to allow all the flavors to truly have time to mingle with each other before shaping into buns and baking.

ASSEMBLY and SERVE

1. Line a baking dish or baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator and turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. De-gas the dough by punching it several times and shape it into a rectangle.
3. Now weigh the dough on a digital scale, dividing the dough's weight by 12, and that will give you the size of each bun.
4. This recipe should bake you 12 (100g) buns; however, you may opt to have larger or smaller buns, so use this method to find the bun quantity and size of your choice.
5. Cut dough with a bench scraper or knife into 12 (100g) portions. Shape each portion by rolling it tightly into a ball and arrange them evenly, 3 across/4 down, in your prepared baking dish or on your baking tray.
6. Be sure to leave some space between them, but not too much as hot-cross buns should “kiss” while baking.
7. Lightly cover the buns with cling wrap and place them in a very warm spot of your kitchen for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough looks bouncy and springs back when lightly pressed. Proofing time will depend on your kitchens’ temperature/environment.
8. This is the time to preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c, with the oven rack in the center position.
9. For the cross mixture, in a small bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, vanilla, and water. Place in a small piping bag.
10. Once the buns are proofed, remove cling wrap, brush buns with egg wash mixture, pipe cross mixture atop the buns, and bake for 28-33 minutes, until the buns are a rich golden brown, reading approx 200°f / 90°c on a digital thermometer.
11. Upon removing from oven, immediately brush buns with warm honey and allow to slightly cool before treating yourself with one, okay two warm Fig & Oregano Hot-Cross buns — Enjoy!
12. These Fig & Greek Oregano Hot-Cross buns are best served the day of, with some soft salted butter, but may be stored in an airtight container for 1-2 additional days.

Good to Knows:

Proofing

I love the overnight, cool proofing for this recipe. I feel the time in the refrigerator allows for better flavor development. However, this recipe can be done all in one day if you are pressed for time. Allow the dough to double fully in the first rise, then proceed to de-gassing and shaping. For the second rise, after shaping, you may need to cut the proofing time by half. Then continue with the baking instructions below.

Wine poached figs

I love the flavors of figs and red wine together; truly a match made in the food-heaven. If you are not a believer or don’t wish to use wine, replace the wine with equal amounts of water.

Kneading in the inclusions

I don’t hand knead the inclusions into my dough as most do; I am somewhat lazy HA! and use my mixer for that step. If you are more comfortable folding in the final bits by hand, by all means, please do so, or if your mixer is getting too hot and may need to rest and you don’t want to place any more strain on the motor. For this, place dough onto a lightly floured work surface, flatting it out, topping the dough with the figs and oregano. Fold in the corners and begin to kneed; this is a soft, slightly sticky dough and will take a couple of minutes — approx 3-5 mins — to fully incorporate the inclusions.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @foxandcrane on instagram and hashtag #foxandcrane

FOX & CRANE © 2021

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