Hot cross buns, not cross buns
Traditionally, and only ever at Netherton HQ*, eaten on
Good Friday the hot cross bun has a long history.
In her book Oats in the North, Wheat from the South
Regula Ysewijn MBE https://regulaysewijn.com/about-me/
informs us that the first registered reference to hot cross buns was in Poor
Robin’s Almanack in the 17th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Robin
from whence we hear for the first time the familiar refrain - “Good Friday
comes this Month. The old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns.”
But spiced buns have long been associated with both pagan and religious
ceremonies and have oft been banned by more puritanically inclined authorities
of church and state.
A hot cross bun is a spiced bun, usually
containing small pieces of raisins and marked with a cross on the top.
The cross was once incised in the bun, but is now more likely to be a simple
flour and water paste.
According to Wikipedia , “It is hypothesised that the
contemporary hot cross bun of Christianity derives at some distance from a bun
developed in St Albans. There in 1361, Brother Thomas Rodcliffe, a
Christian monk at St Alban’s Abbey, developed a similar recipe called an
"Alban Bun" and distributed the bun to the poor on Good Friday.
So, in the midst of Holy Week, can someone please explain
to me why Marks and Spencer declared open season on hot cross buns on 19th
January, yes you read that right, less than 2 weeks after 12th night……………….
………………. and why they have thought it remotely acceptable
to pass these off as hot cross buns?
To be fair to M&S, it has to be pointed out that
supermarkets and bakeries across the country have been bombarding us with
hot cross buns, in ever madder combinations of flavour combinations for quite
some time. A simple Google search threw up ( I use the phrase
advisedly and ironically) salted caramel and chocolate; strawberries and
clotted cream; triple chocolate; rhubarb and custard; chocolate orange; triple
berry and lemon and white chocolate.
And whilst we are the last people to preach religious
piety and are certainly not averse to innovation, can we just make it clear
that these are Not Cross Buns, rather than Hot Cross Buns. So we will be
baking and eating traditional hot cross buns today, following the recipe in
Regula’s aforementioned book and she has kindly given us permission to
reproduce the recipe here for you.
You can buy the book, with so many more traditional and
delicious baking recipes, such as Bath buns, Bara brith, Yum-yums and
Devonshire splits here https://www.waterstones.com/book/oats-in-the-north-wheat-from-the-south/regula-ysewijn/9781911632641
*Please note that we will be eating uncrossed buns and
teacakes throughout the year, always buttered, sometimes toasted.
www.netherton-foundry.co.uk
18th April 2025©