Gluten-free Dairy-Free Egg-Free Hot Cross Buns for Easter

King Arthur Flour again! This time I tried their Gluten-Free Bread and Pizza Mix (Whole Foods and online) and adapted it for hot cross buns, for a client with lots of food allergies. This mix is remarkably light, fluffy, yeasty, and isn't gritty like a lot of g-free breads. The texture is probably the closest I've found to a dough made with wheat flour; for g-free baking, that's saying a lot. It's also really adaptable to a lot of different types of sweet and savory yeast breads, and serves as a good base with which to get creative. (If you can tolerate dairy and eggs, feel free to use them. However, the buns turned out beautifully with vegan substitutes.)

For 12 classic hot cross buns, you will need:

• 1 box King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Bread and Pizza Mix
• 1 1/3 to 1 3/4 cups milk of choice. (I used rice milk. I found that the smaller amount of milk produced a  slightly denser bun that rose in a more traditional round roll shape. The larger amount of milk produced a softer, more tender, more moist roll that spread a bit in the oven and looked more like a scone. Both were delicious. The choice is yours.)
• 4 tablespoons Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery Sticks, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs equivalent of Ener-G Egg replacer, prepared according to package directions
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange
• 2/3 cup currants. (Currants are classic, but raisins and dried blueberries are lovely, too.)

Citrus Glaze, optional:

• Juice of 1 orange and juice of 1 lemon (about 1/2 cup total, more if you're using especially large fruit)
• 1lb box of confectioners sugar

Directions:

Follow the "Glutenfree Bread" directions on the back of the box. Beat the melted Earth Balance, sugar, egg replacer, milk, and lemon and orange zest together before adding the flour and currants. Follow the directions for the first rise.

Line a thick aluminum half sheet pan with parchment paper. Stir the dough to deflate and, using your hands or a large serving spoon, form 12 dough balls, spaced about 2 inches apart, on the pan. (You may find that you need more than one pan, especially if you use the larger amount a milk for a moister roll that spreads in the oven.) Smooth the tops with wet fingers and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Follow the directions for the second rise.

Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan. If you want to glaze the buns, pour the citrus juice into a large bowl and slowly whisk in the powdered sugar until you reach a consistency you like. I prefer the glaze thin to pour over the buns, so I used about half the box of powdered sugar. If you want a stiff glaze to be able to draw traditional crosses on your buns, you'll need most, if not the whole box of sugar.