Lemon Hot Cross Buns

Combine 2 ½ cups flour, sugar, yeast, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, honey, lemon juice, water, lemon zest and butter cubes. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until butter has melted. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool 5 minutes.

Pour milk mixture into the flour mixture. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes or until moistened. Increase speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and gently beat in remaining flour until dough is soft and holds together. Dough will be sticky. Continue beating at medium speed for 5 more minutes.

Scrape dough from bowl and place in a well-oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise for 1 hour or until doubled.

When dough has doubled, punch it down and turn onto a floured surface. Knead for only a minute. Separate the dough into 20 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and set each onto a jellyroll pan lined with parchment paper. Cover and let buns rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Brush buns with egg white when ready.

Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes or until buns are golden brown on top. Remove pan from the oven and let buns cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare glaze by combining all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mixing to combine. You may have to adjust the amount of milk to get a good piping consistency.

Pour glaze into a zip top with a corner snipped off, or put it into a piping bag. Pipe an “x” over the top of the slightly warm buns.