Jamaican Easter Bun Recipe

It’s that time of year when kits are flying high in the sky in Jamaica, and we are making Easter buns without stout, yeast, or eggs. With all the essence of a tasty spice bun, this Jamaican Easter bun recipe is the best you will ever try. Save the recipe because you no doubt come back to it year after year.

How do Jamaicans celebrate Easter

Jamaicans have multiple ways to celebrate Easter, from a blend of religious devotion and vibrant cultural traditions. The three most popular traditions are flying kites, the eating of fried fish and eating easter bun and cheese. The recipe shared below is for the spice bun Jamaicans eat during Easter. Though it’s no longer a tradition to bake your own bun at Easter, due to commercial production, we have shared the recipe below for you who wants to make your own at home.

What is the Jamaican Easter bun tradition

The Jamaican Easter bun tradition, said to have originated in English Easter hot cross bun traditions, involves eating a fruit-laden, spiced bun with cheese. Though there is no evidence that the hot cross bun and the Jamaican easter bun are related, many believe the Jamaican Easter bun is rooted in 17th-Century British colonisation. And because they are “similar baked goods made with spices and dried fruit” and eaten on Easter. Even though bun and cheese are eaten year-round in Jamaica, the raisin-filled, spiced bun is mainly eaten during Easter.

Jamaica easter bun ingredients

A Jamaican Easter bun is a spice bun made with a variety of ingredients, including flour, brown sugar, stout/malt drink, raisins, butter, eggs, yeast, and honey. The ingredients vary from household to household in Jamaica. The recipe could be alcoholic or non-alcoholic, with or without eggs or with or without yeast. Below, I list the ingredients I use for the Jamaican Easter bun.

• Flour: I used all-purpose flour for this recipe, but I’ve also used cake flour in the past, and others recommend bread flour. The flour does affect the texture of the final Easter bun, but as long as you use baking flour, the bun will turn out well.
• Baking powder: We all know what baking powder does, so don’t leave it out.
• Spices: Vanilla extract, cinnamon powder, mixed spice, and you can’t make a Jamaican spice bun without fresh nutmeg. If you are unable to get fresh nutmeg, use the powder. I used fresh grated ginger because I wanted to add a little kick to my bun, but use ground ginger if you prefer.
• Salt: Just a little will do.
• Brown sugar: For the sweetness and it must be brown sugar.
• Dried fruit: Use a mixture of different raisins to add more flavour to the bun. I only had black raisins, but I also like using red raisins. Get mixed fruit that does not have raisins in it.
• Glace cherry: The glace cherry is for garnish and a little to add to the wet mixture.

• Malta: I wanted a non-alcoholic version of the Jamaican Easter bun, so I made it using Malta drink instead of Guinness or Dragon Stout. Malta drinks are sweet, so consider that when adding sugar to the recipe.
• Molasses: The molasses adds to the Easter bun’s sweetness and colour. For the colour, you could use browning instead.
• Honey: For flavour and colour.
• Jam: Jam is not a necessary ingredient, but it does add something that is obviously missing if it is not used.
• Vegetable oil: We are using vegetable oil as a substitute for eggs.
• Butter: Butter because we are baking.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Prep the wet ingredients: Add all the wet ingredients, except the vanilla extract, to a small pot along with the dried fruits and brown sugar. If you are using fresh ginger as I do, add it to the pot. Place over medium heat until the butter melts. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then set aside until the liquid mixture is back to room temperature.
2. Prep the dry ingredients: Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix until combined, then set aside

3. Combine wet and dry: Once the liquid mixture cools and returns to room temperature, gradually mix in the dry ingredients you prepared earlier. Don’t overmix the batter. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle more mixed fruit, raisins, or cherries on the top so that the Easter bun looks pretty and appetising once baked.
4. Bake: Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 1 hour, 10 minutes.
5. Glaze: With a little butter and a little honey, make a glaze to top the finished Easter bun. Right after the Easter bun finishes baking, brush the glaze over the top. The heat from the finished bun will melt the butter and honey.

Jamaican easter bun recipe without stout

Guinness or Dragon Stout is most commonly used in the Jamaican Easter bun recipe. Stout is an alcoholic beverage, and you may want to make your Jamaican Easter bun without it. You can use several substitutes for stout. One option is malted beverages, such as Supermalt, because they contain barley, just like stout. Malta drink is the best substitute if you wish to make the Jamaican Easter bun without stout, which is what I use in the recipe below. Other substitutes for stouts are milk or water. If you are using either of these two, you have to use Browning to give the bun colour.

Jamaican Easter bun Easter buns made with yeast do not contain stout. If you wish to make the Easter bun without stout, the yeast version is another option. But the yeast Easter bun takes longer to prepare. The easy Easter bun recipe below contains no yeast or eggs, and it stays non-alcoholic because we make it without stout.

More recipe you must try!

• Jamaican fruit cake
• Sorrel drink
• Rum punch

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