Good Friday Hot Cross Buns! Spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins, marked with a cross on top; traditionally eaten on Good Friday.
So, I’ll be honest. I never really knew the history behind hot cross buns until recently. Growing up, we never ate these. Around Easter, I just remember eating a lot of food and celebrating. . I grew up going to church so we – of course- celebrate Easter Sunday and Jesus’ resurrection. Hot Cross Buns, however, are traditionally eaten on Good Friday. “In many historically Christian countries, the buns are traditionally eaten hot or toasted during Lent, beginning with the evening of Shrove Tuesday (the evening before Ash Wednesday) to Good Friday, with the cross (on the buns) standing as a symbol of the Crucifixion.”
Hot Cross Buns are traditionally a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with the cross on the top, but people, super markets, and bakeries are baking variations such as toffee, coffee flavored buns, chocolate, orange and cranberry, and apple and cinnamon. I, personally, really enjoyed these. I used golden raisins, ground cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon but am definitely trying a chocolate version for next time!
These buns came out perfectly and I love the crispy (but not too crispy or hard) bottoms thanks to my Silpain baking mat (for bread).
So, if you are a blogger or just follow food blogs or visit FoodGawker a lot, you’ll see there are currently 125 recipes for Hot Cross Buns. So, I’m not going to post another recipe here but I will point you in the direction of the recipe that I followed and two others that have caught my eye!
For the recipe:
I used Lora’s recipe, over at Cake Duchess. I met Lora through a baking group called Twelve Loaves (which she started) and she is the sweetest person ever. I love this group so much as baking as become like therapy for me. As soon as I saw her recipe for Hot Cross Buns, I knew I wanted to try it. I also adore Thanh’s blog, Eat Little Bird and love the recipe she just posted. And lastly, I have to share this one from Singapore Shiok, because it has a beautiful chocolate chip hot cross buns recipe and I know I’ll be trying this one soon.
So, why did I write this post if I didn’t even create my own recipe for Hot Cross buns?
I’m posting this for Good Friday and what it symbolizes for me. Pause. Reflect. Pray. Confess. Give thanks.
Thanh @ eat, little bird says
March 29, 2013 at 10:01 amYour hot cross buns look so lovely! There is something so comforting about baking your own bread at home, isn’t there? Hope you and your family are having a lovely Easter.
denise @ singapore shiok says
March 30, 2013 at 1:49 amHi 🙂 thanks for the shout out and link back to my recipe. Hope you have a wonderful Easter!
Crista says
March 30, 2013 at 7:28 pmI’ve seen a lot of recipes for hot cross buns lately too! I never knew there was Ny history behind them. Thank you for sharing! I think I’ll make these sweet buns soon 🙂
Paula @ Vintage Kitchen says
March 31, 2013 at 7:49 amThis is a very Catholic country, and I don´t think I ever saw hot cross buns here. It´s all about a braided sweet bread with pastry cream and hard boiled eggs on top. But I love these little buns! Not too sweet.
Nancy @ gottagetbaked says
April 1, 2013 at 9:59 pmWhat a lovely post, Alice! I’m not religious but I can definitely appreciate a time for reflection and gratefulness for all the wonderful things we have. And your hot cross buns are beautiful! I admired Lora’s when I read her post and yours look just as fabulous. Happy Easter, my dear friend.