Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

For me, especially in the last few years, the smell that evokes the idea of Easter has to be the heady aroma of freshly baked, spiced hot cross buns wafting through the house. In Australia, gran and mum made hot cross buns every Good Friday and I loved waking on that morning, knowing from the beautiful smell that we'd be having them for our breakfast before trooping off to the Stations of the Cross at the local church. I see these buns as part of my own Easter tradition.

Back then we were only allowed to eat them on Good Friday, but as I grew up, the shops started selling them during the week before Easter (much to gran's horror and boy did she tell off the manager of our local Foodland for it) Later on, the buns became available earlier and earlier, until now we have the ludicrous situation where they are on sale from New Year's Day onwards in many supermarkets. Once I was an adult, I used to buy them regularly during Lent (sorry, gran), though I went to the effort of making them for Good Friday, especially when my own children were small and happy to help me with it all.

Now I live in Sweden, there are no Hot Cross Buns at all, so I always make my own on Good Friday to keep up the tradition. The whole flat is full of the delicious smell of freshly baked buns and I'm impatient for Lars-Göran to come home so I can start scoffing them - lightly toasted with lashings of butter, of course. It was all so much easier when I could just grab a bag while we were at Woolies or Coles.... *sigh*

The recipe I used was the same one gran used all those years ago. It makes 16 lovely buns and I'll include it here if you'd like to try it. I'll put the Swedish measurements in brackets. Some ingredients are impossible to get in Sweden, so you can for example use russin instead of sultanas. And the "mixed spice" is a mixture of ground cinnamon (kanel), cloves (kryddnejlika), nutmeg (muskotnöt), ginger (ingefära), coriander (koriander). You could use a little of each, or even just use allspice (kryddpeppar) as a substitute. Me? I bought a jar of Mixed Spice at The English Shop last year!

Hot cross buns

4 cups (10dl) plain flour
1 tsp (1 tsk) salt
30g compressed yeast
1½ cups (3.75dl) milk
½ cup (1.25dl) sultanas
60g butter
¼ cup (0.6dl) sugar
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp (½ tsk) mixed spice
½ tsp (½ tsk) cinnamon

Cross:
½ cup (1.25dl) plain flour
1/3 cup (0.8dl) water

Glaze:
1 Tbsp (1 msk) sugar
1 tsp (1 tsk) gelatine powder (or 2 gelatine sheets, soaked)
1 Tbsp (1 msk) hot water

In a medium bowl, cream the yeast with 1 teaspoon each of the sugar and flour, add lukewarm milk and mix well. Cover the bowl and place it in warm place for 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is frothy. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar and spices, rub in the butter, then add the beaten egg, sultanas and yeast mixture, beat well.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and stand it in warm place for around 40 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. Punch the dough down, then turn it out on to a floured surface and knead well until dough is smooth and elastic.

At this stage, turn on the oven and set the temperature to 220°C.

Cut the dough into four equal pieces, then cut each piece again into four, making 16 buns in all. Knead each one into a round shape. Put buns on a lightly greased oven tray (or one lined with baking paper) and stand in warm place for 10 to 15 minutes while the buns rise.

When they have risen, mix the flour for the cross into a paste with the water. Put it into a small plastic bag (I used a 1 litre bag) and cut a small hole in one corner. (It's better to cut a tiny hole that you can make bigger if you need to, rather than cutting the hole too large in the first place).

Pipe the crosses on each bun. Bake them 220°C for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven, and immediately brush on the glaze, which is made by dissolving the sugar, gelatine and hot water.

Cool the buns on wire rack.




The origins of hot cross buns are a mixture of both pagan and Christian traditions and grew up in Britain. The Saxons offered them as sacrifices to their goddesses. The cross was said to represent the four quarters of the moon in certain ancient cultures, while still others believed that it was a sign holding supernatural power to prevent sickness.

In Roman times, the cross represented the horns of a sacred ox (bun/boun means 'ox' in ancient English). The Christian church later adopted Hot Cross Buns as part of their missionary conversion of pagans.

It is popularly dated back to the 12th Century that these buns were first linked to Christianity, using small spicy cakes stamped with a cross. It is said that families hung the buns from their kitchen ceilings to protect their households from evil for the year to come.

Me, I don't care either way - I'm just about to put on the kettle and pop one in the toaster!