
Double Chocolate Hot Cross Buns came about because I’ve never been a fan of the traditional ones. It’s the mixed peel. Same with fruit cake. There aren’t many foods I’m not keen on, but anything with mixed peel is something I just can’t eat.
So whether you’re also not partial to a regular HCB, or perhaps you love chocolate or you’re just looking for something a bit different, I present to you Double Chocolate Hot Cross Buns. So soft and fluffy, with just the right amount of sweetness in the dough and little busts of chocolate with the choc chips! Perfect for Easter and all year round!
Double Chocolate Hot Cross Bun making process
Double Chocolate HCBs are easy to make, though a little time consuming as you can’t rush bread making. Don’t worry, though, a lot of the time is resting time for the dough so you can go about doing other things while your dough rises. I promise you, the wait is worth it!
First whip up the dough by warming milk and butter in your thermal cooker, then adding yeast, flour, cacao, sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice. After this, the dough needs to prove.
Below you can see the difference before and after proving (Step 3 of the recipe). I haven’t included a specific time for resting your dough, as this will vary greatly and will depend on environmental conditions. Sitting the dough outside on a warm day may see them ready to roll in 20-30 minutes, in colder places you may need to rest the dough in excess of an hour.
Once dough has doubled in size, knead in the chocolate chips, roll into a log shape and cut into 12-16 equal portions.
Roll each portion of dough into a ball, then place on a lined tray. Make sure your buns are just touching on the tray. This will encourage them to push each other up in height while they rise some more.
Leave to prove. Meanwhile, make your cross mixture by mixing flour and water. Pipe on top of the buns, then bake for 20 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven, brush with a sugar glaze.
Try your best to resist digging in while hot, I bet you can’t!
For a decadent treat, enjoy with a Dalgona Coffee!
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Double Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
Buns
- 350 g milk of your choice
- 70 g salted butter
- 2 tsp yeast heaped
- 500 g bakers flour (or white spelt flour)
- 50 g cacao powder
- 50 g sugar
- 2 tsp bread improver optional but recommended
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1.5 tsp mixed spice
- 90 g chocolate chips (up to 200g if you want extra decadent buns!)
Crosses
- 80 g plain or spelt flour (see Notes on how to make choc crosses)
- 85 g water
Glaze
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tbs water
Instructions
Buns
- Place milk and butter in mixer bowl. Heat 2 minutes/37/speed 2/MC on.
- Add yeast, flour, cacao powder, sugar, bread improver, cinnamon and mixed spice. KNEAD/3 minutes/MC on. If you are using sultanas instead of choc chips, add them after 2.5 minutes of the kneading time and continue to knead for the remaining 30 seconds.
- Transfer dough to a silicon mat and wrap, or an oiled bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
- When your dough has doubled in size, line a tray with baking paper.
- Unwrap dough and turn out onto a lightly floured bench. Punch the air out of it, then gently knead in the chocolate chips. Don't take too much time to do this as the chocolate chips may start to melt and get a bit messy. Shape into a log and cut into 12-16 even portions.
- Work each portion of dough into a round bun, placing each one onto the tray as you go, just touching each other. When all buns are shaped and on the tray, place the tray in a warm place and leave to rise to around 1.5 times their original size.
Crosses
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
- Into mixer bowl place flour and water. Mix 10 seconds/speed 3/MC on.
- Transfer mixture into a zip lock bag and seal. Snip off a small piece of one of the corners. Pipe mixture onto the tops of the buns to form your crosses.
- Bake buns for 20 minutes.
Glaze
- Place sugar and water in mixer bowl. Heat 1.5 minutes/70/speed 1/MC on. Using a pastry brush, brush this glaze onto the hot buns while hot.
Notes
- For chocolate crosses, reduce 80g flour to 65g, increase the 85g water to 100g and add 20g cacao powder.
- For Not Cross Buns, simply skip the Crosses.
- For an extra decadent choc HCB, increase choc chips to 200g!
- Nutritional info is calculated with 90g choc chips, making 16 buns.
Nutrition
Please note, nutrition information is calculated via an online recipe nutrition calculator and is a guide only. It is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed 100% accurate. I am not a nutritionist or trained health professional.
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Hi, I'm Bec
I specialise in great tasting vegetarian Thermomix recipes and cater for a wide range of dietary needs. I love sharing here and in my cookbooks my healthy, delicious recipes (of course the odd treat too!) Whether you’re looking to ignite your thermo mojo, or just after some new, really tasty family friendly recipes, there really is something here for everyone
Just wondering why this recipe doesn’t contain egg?
can’t wait to taste these!
They don’t need egg 🙂 I hope you love them!
Another awesome recipe from Bec. My family love this chocolatey spin on hot cross buns. The aroma whilst cooking is mouth watering and the taste is divine. Total yum. And sooo easy to make. Another Thermobexta winner.
Thanks for the great feedback, Vivienne!
So yummy and very easy to make. Very little effort required. Super soft and chocolatey. I upped the choc chips to 200g to make more decadent. We will be making these again next weekend.
So glad they were enjoyed, Jenny and that you’re planning on making them again next weekend! I love the sound of those extra choc chips too!
I’m not normally a fan of chocolate buns but made them for the kids. These are yummy, not too sweet, soft and fluffy, and still great a couple of days later. Can’t wait to make the ‘traditional’ ones next! And maybe more of these ‘for the kids’ ?
Thanks for the great feedback, Julie. I’m so glad you like these chocolate hot cross buns when normally you’re not too keen! I absolutely love the hearts you’ve done on top!
This recipe worked so well & produced yummy chocolate hot cross buns. Will definitely make again
And they looked delicious, Kristi! Your post on Facebook inspired me to create the new more traditional HCB last week x
I loved the texture of these and MUST make sure I don’t wait until next Easter to make them again.