Jamaican Easter bun is a delicious treat packed with raisins, cherries, and dried fruits. This recipe does not include yeast and is very easy to make. It has a moist outer layer and soft inside that will make you nostalgic as you reminisce on the Easter holidays.
Why make a Jamaican Easter bun?
There are so many reasons why you should make this Jamaican Easter bun. For starters, it's delicious, nostalgic, a great way to celebrate the Easter holidays, a tasty treat, and homemade.
Delicious
Bun and cheese is a popular snack in Jamaica, especially during the Easter holidays. Whether you are having plain old Easter bun, Easter bun and cheese, or Easter bun and fish, one thing is for sure. It's delicious.
Some Jamaicans replace the cheese with fried fish. Yes, I did say fried fish. It sounded strange when I first learned about it, but it was delicious when I tried it. Something about dried fried fish trapped between slices of sweet Easter bun and the gooey raisins surprised me.
Celebrate the holidays
Not having bun during the Easter holidays is synonymous with not having turkey for Thanksgiving or sorrel and fruitcake during Christmas. This Easter bun recipe is a great way to celebrate the Easter holidays with a more personalized touch.
A tasty treat for family and friends
Whether it's Easter or not, you may make this tasty treat for your family and friends to have at home, put in their snack bag, or even add to a picnic basket.
Homemade is better
Homemade is better because you get to create exactly what you want. If you love raisins, dried fruits, and cherries, add a lot. If you don't fancy them, blend them so you don't bite into them or reduce the amount used in the recipe.
Ingredients needed to make Jamaican Easter bun
The ingredients used to make Jamaican Easter bun are almost always in your pantry, especially if you bake often. Here is a look at what you'll need in order to make this recipe.
brown sugar
granulated sugar
honey
browning
Molasses
vanilla extract
melted butter
egg
all-purpose flour
baking powder
cinnamon
nutmeg
all spice
salt
Dried fruits, cherries, and raisins
cherries (optional to top bun)
Ingredient notes for Jamaican Easter bun
Now that we've covered the list of ingredients needed to make the Easter bun, let's look at how they come together and the part they play.
Sweeteners
A combination of brown sugar, granulated sugar, and honey is used as sweeteners for this delicious Easter bun recipe.
Color and flavor
Browning, molasses, vanilla extract, and melted butter combine together in this recipe to give the Easter bun its color and flavor. Browning is a dark, thick liquid used in the Caribbean to season meats and give baked products like Christmas cake a dark color.
Malta
Malta is a rich-flavored non-alcoholic beverage with strong tones of molasses. It adds flavor, depth, and richness to the Easter bun. Originally, this beverage was distributed in Jamaica by D&G, but now brands such as Grace, Vita Malt, and Goya have it available.
Egg
The egg helps to bind the ingredients together and is mixed in with the wet ingredients.
Dry ingredients and spices
This recipe uses baking powder as the raising agent, which makes this Easter bun recipe less complicated and faster to make than recipes that call for yeast.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt are added to the flour to spice it up. The dried fruits, cherries, and raisins are also mixed into the dry ingredients after the spices and baking powder.
You may use a combination of fruits, cherries, and raisins based on your personal taste. Dried fruits make the bun slices colorful and add crunchiness, but if you are not a fan, you may reduce the amount or omit them.
Topping
A partially exposed line of cherries on top of the Easter bun gives it a nice pop of color and looks very appetizing when contrasted with the bright color of cheese.
How to make Jamaican Easter bun
The great thing about making this Jamaican Easter bun is that you don't have to use any yeast or wait on your dough to rise before baking it. Instead, you'll just need to organize the dry and wet ingredients and then combine them.
Here is a look at what you'll be doing to make this easy and delicious Easter bun. A detailed list of the ingredients and their measurements along with the instructions for baking may be found in another section below.
Step 1
You'll preheat the oven and grease your loaf pan. You'll then place the two sugars, honey, browning, molasses, vanilla extract, melted butter, Malta, and beaten egg in a medium bowl.
Step 2
After doing that, you place the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in another bowl and mix them together. Add the raisins, dried fruits, and cherries to the flour mixture, then combine both the wet and dry ingredients together.
Step 3
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
And there you go, three simple steps, and you'll have your delicious bun.
Recipe tips for Jamaican Easter bun
Even though this Jamaican Easter bun recipe is not complicated, there are a few tips that you'll need to follow to make sure it is perfect when done.
Prevent raisins from sinking
A great Easter bun has the fruits and raisins distributed throughout it. The trick to not having the raisins, cherries, and mixed fruits sink to the bottom of the bun is to add them directly to the flour mixture, then allow the flour to coat them.
Bun color
Add the browning and molasses gradually in small portions so that you'll be able to adjust the color. For a lighter-colored bun, use less browning and molasses.
Serving ideas for Jamaican Easter bun
The great thing about the Jamaican Easter bun is that you can eat it all by itself. For a more traditional Jamaican Easter practice, you may make a bun and cheese sandwich, or you may serve it as a side with fried fish.
If you are in the mood for more Jamaican or Caribbean recipes, you may try this rice and beans or fried chicken.
I hope you will be excited to use this easy Jamaican Easter bun recipe and that you'll enjoy every single slice.
