Hot Cross Buns

I love the smell of hot cross buns – yeasty bread coupled with cinnamon and spice. I’ve never made them before, but this recipe from a chef named Bron Marshall was super easy, and these were delicious for brunch with some butter and honey.

My family was never one to follow a lot of old Easter traditions – after all, my parents were immigrants in a new land, and the only old traditions we had were things like Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival and whatnot. So I had no idea what the whole hot cross bun thing was supposed to symbolize, or even that you were supposed to eat them at Easter. To be honest, I just liked the taste of the store-bought buns, microwaved until hot and steaming. My tastes have grown up a little since then, and these fresh-baked ones were just the thing.

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According to Wikipedia, hot cross buns were the object of many superstitions. According to one, if you bake and serve hot cross buns on Good Friday, those buns will not spoil or get moldy for the following year. Uh…I’m not going to see if that one’s true. They’re also supposed to help people recover from illness if you give one to a sick person as a gift.

I didn’t have bread flour, so I used all-purpose, and I did feel that the buns were lacking a bit of chewiness and mouthfeel. But the end result was still delicious, and my husband devoured them over a couple of days.

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These buns aren’t very sweet, so they benefit from a sweet glaze, or as we did, spread with a little wildflower honey.

Bron Marshall’s Hot Cross Buns Recipe

I followed this recipe pretty much to the letter, except for using cranberries instead of currants, so I’m just linking it above instead of typing it out again!