Hot Cross Buns
A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins, marked with a cross on the top, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Australia, British Isles, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and some parts of America. The buns mark the end of Lent and different parts of the hot cross bun have a certain meaning, including the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices inside signifying the spices used to embalm him at his burial. They are now available all year round in some places.
Recipe 1
75ml hand-hot water
4 tsp easy bake yeast or 14g fresh Baker's yeast
3 tsp ground mixed spice
110g currants
50g whole candied peel, chopped
For the crosses:
For the glaze:
2 tbs water
First place the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt, yeast, mixed spice and cinnamon and mix it all together.
Add the caster sugar, currants and candied peel then mix these dry ingredients together and make a well in the centre.
Next add the butter and pour the hand-hot milk and the hand-hot water over the butter followed by the beaten egg.
Mix everything to a dough, starting with a spatula and finishing with your hands until it is all combined, evenly mixed and leaves the bowl clean. Add some more milk if it needs it.
Next cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it at room temperature to rise – it will take about 1½ hours to 2 hours to double its original volume.
Then turn the dough out on to clean work surface (you shouldn’t need any flour) and knead the dough.
Now divide the mixture into twelve (weigh each piece).
Take one piece of the dough and shape it into a round then roll it between the fingers of each hand, keeping your hands flat, to form a fairly smooth round ball (this should only take about 10 seconds or so) then do the same with the remaining pieces of dough.
Arrange them on the lined or greased baking sheet (allowing plenty of room for expansion). Leave them to rise once more covered with a tea towel for 45 minutes to an hour, or again until about double the size.
Meanwhile, if you want to make dough crosses, put the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add just enough cold water to form a dough then roll it out thinly on a lightly floured surface to an oblong about 12cm by 16cm then cut it into 24 strips.
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C, gas mark 7.
When the second rising is up, brush the strips with water, to make them stick, and make a cross on top of each bun trimming away any excess dough with a small knife.
Alternatively you can use a small sharp or serrated knife to score a cross in the top of each bun.
Bake the buns for 15 minutes near the centre of the oven. Then, while they're cooking make the glaze in a small saucepan by slowly melting together the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water over a gentle heat until the sugar granules have dissolved and you have a clear syrup.
As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush them immediately with the glaze while they are still warm.
Then cool them on a wire rack, covered by a tea towel.
Hot Cross Buns produced on 11 April 2017 (recipe 2)
A 12th-century monk introduced the cross to the bun. The origins of hot cross buns may go back as far as the 12th century. According to the story, an Anglican monk baked the buns and marked them with a cross in honour of Good Friday. Over time they gained popularity, and eventually became a symbol of Easter weekend.
The tradition of baking bread marked with a cross is linked to paganism as well as Christianity. The pagan Saxons would bake cross buns at the beginning of spring in honour of the goddess Eostre – most likely being the origin of the name Easter. The cross represented the rebirth of the world after winter and the four quarters of the moon, as well as the four seasons and the wheel of life.
Ēostre or Ostara (Old English: Ēastre [æːɑstre], Northumbrian dialect Ēostre [eːostre]; Old High German: *Ôstara (reconstructed form)) is a Germanic goddess who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ; West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; Old High German: Ôstarmânoth ), is the namesake of the festival of Easter in some languages. Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th-century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Ēostre's honor, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.
The Christians saw the Crucifixion in the cross bun and, as with many other pre-Christian traditions, replaced their pagan meaning with a Christian one – the resurrection of Christ at Easter.
According to Elizabeth David, it wasn’t until Tudor times that it was permanently linked to Christian celebrations. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of spiced buns except at burials, at Christmas or on Good Friday.
The first recorded reference to ‘hot’ cross buns was in ‘Poor Robin’s Almanac’ in the early 1700s:
‘Good Friday come this month, the old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns.’
This satirical rhyme was also probably the inspiration of the commonly known street vendors cry:
‘Hot cross buns, hot cross buns!
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons,
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns!’
A century later the belief behind the hot cross bun starts to get a superstitious rather than a religious meaning.
In London’s East End you can find a pub called The Widows Son, named after a widow who lived in a cottage at the site in the 1820s. The widow baked hot cross buns for her sailor son who was supposed to come home from the sea on Good Friday. He must have died at sea as he never returned home, but the widow refused to give up hope for his return and continued to bake a hot cross bun for him every year, hanging it in her kitchen with the buns from previous years.
When the widow died, the buns were found hanging from a beam in the cottage and the story has been kept alive by the pub landlords ever since a pub was built on the site in 1848.
To this day, every Good Friday, the ceremony of the Widow’s Bun is celebrated and members of the Royal Navy come to The Widows Son pub to place a new hot cross bun into a net hung above the bar. Legend has it that the buns baked on Good Friday will not spoil.
For whatever reason or belief you choose to bake a batch of hot cross buns on this Good Friday, it will most likely be to enjoy them with your loved ones. May it be for Eostre, Easter, the beginning of a much awaited spring or as a superstitious amulet for when you set sail, bake them with love!
Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.
Hot Cross Buns produced April 2016
Hot Cross Buns - recipe 2
Recipe 2
Ingredients:
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Metric:
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450 g strong white flour
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150 ml milk
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4 tablespoons water
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25 g fresh yeast or
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15 g dried yeast
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1 teaspoon caster sugar
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1 teaspoon salt
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1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
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1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
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50 g caster sugar
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50 g butter or margarine
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1 egg, beaten
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100 g currants
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40 g chopped mixed peel
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50 g Plain Shortcrust Pastry (see below)
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Imperial:
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1 lb strong white flour
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1/4 pint milk
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4 tablespoons water
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1 oz fresh yeast or
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1/2 oz dried yeast
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1 teaspoon caster sugar
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1 teaspoon salt
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1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
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1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
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2 oz caster sugar
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2 oz butter or margarine
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1 egg, beaten
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4 oz currants
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11/2 oz chopped mixed
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2 oz Plain Shortcrust Pastry (see below)
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (for the crosses):
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Metric:
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50 g plain flour
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pinch of salt
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11 g butter
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11 g lard or vegetable shortening
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11 g caster sugar
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1/2 egg yolk
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a little water
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Imperial:
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1.75 oz plain flour
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pinch of salt
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0.5 oz butter
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0.5 oz lard or vegetable shortening
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0.2 oz caster sugar
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1/2 egg yolk
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a little water
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Cut the fat into the flour and rub into a breadcrumb consistency. Mix in the sugar. Beat the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons water and stir in to bind to a fairly firm dough, adding a little more water as necessary. Knead lightly until smooth but do not overwork it. Leave to rest in the refrigerator or cool place for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
Makes 12
Method:
Put 100 g / 4 oz of the flour into a small bowl. Warm the milk and water, then blend in the yeast and the teaspoon of sugar. Mix this into the flour and leave in a froth for about 15 minutes for fresh yeast, about 20 minutes for dried.
Meanwhile, sift the remaining flour, salt, mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar into a mixing bowl. Melt and cool the butter, but do not allow to harden, then add it to the frothy yeast mixture with the beaten egg. Stir this into the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. Scatter in the currants and mixed peel and mix into a fairly soft dough. Add a spoonful of water if necessary.
Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead well. Put into an oiled polythene bag and leave to rise until doubled in bulk, (1 to 1 1/2 hours at room temperature). Turn on to a floured board and knock back the dough. Divide into 12 pieces and shape into small round buns. Press down briefly on each bun with the palm of the hand, then place the buns well apart on a floured baking sheet. Cover and put in a warm place to rise until doubled in size (20 to 30 minutes). Meanwhile, roll out the pastry thinly and cut into 24 thin strips about 9 cm / 3 1/2 inches long.
When the buns have risen, damp the pastry strips and lay 2 strips across each bun to make a cross. Bake the buns in a preheated moderately hot oven at 190°C/375°F, Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
Meanwhile, make the glaze by dissolving the sugar in the milk and water over a low heat. When the buns are ready brush them twice with the glaze.
Hot Cross Buns produced on 11 April 2017 (recipe 2)
