Can I Add Salt To The Hot Cross Bun Dough?

Our answer

Nigella's Hot Cross Buns (from FEAST) are spiced with clove, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and include a high proportion of dried fruits. These give the buns a fair amount of flavour and sweetness and you can use either salted or unsalted butter, as you prefer, when you make the buns.

We do appreciate that adding salt is very much a matter of personal taste and if you do want to add some salt then this is fine. For this amount of flour we would suggest using 3/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt and using unsalted butter. Salt tends to inhibit yeast slightly, so you may find that you need to let the buns prove for longer at step 7 of the recipe. The buns are ready to bake when they have almost doubled in size. If you press the side of one of the buns with your finger, it should leave a small indent in the dough and not spring back.