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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Hot Cross Bun Season
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
It is of course a grave mortal sin to buy hot cross buns out of season, almost as bad as putting up Christmas decorations in shops in October. But when is hot cross bun season? Good Friday only? Lent? Sundays and feasts in Lent? Palm Sunday to Pentecost? Thoughts?
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Definitely only during Lent.
But in Arizona it's never Hot Cross Bun season. The stores here rarely have them, and what they occasionally try to pass off as "Hot Cross Buns" are horrid things that bear no resemblance to HCBs.
Yesterday my local grocery store advertised HCBs in their weekly ad, and they even announced having them on the speaker inside the store. I didn't see any and asked at the bakery department. "Oh, we don't have them except a few on the marked-down rack." (This was about five minutes after their announcement.) There was one bedraggled package on the marked-down rack, with the icing melted and sliding off, and horrid looking buns. A young man who had never had a Hot Cross Bun was as disgusted as I was.
On a brighter note, one of our Sunday School classes makes good ones every year, and their teacher knows how much I love them, so she always puts some aside for me!
![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Thank you for the reminder! Hot Cross buns don't exist here so I need to do some baking!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I'm tempted to have a go - I'm sure one of my bread-machine books has a recipe, but whether I'll be able to produce them by tomorrow is another matter - I'm up to my ears in The Usual Maundy Thursday Things* this afternoon and evening, and I'm w*rking tomorrow to build up time so that I can take holidays later in the year.
FWIW, I'd say that any time between Passion Sunday and Holy Saturday would be appropriate HCB season; someone brought some along to the soup-and-sandwiches that we had last Saturday after making palm crosses.
[ 17. April 2014, 14:56: Message edited by: piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
We bought HCB while in the UK, bringing back 3 packs. Plus a pack of M&S chocolate chip and caramel "HCB" - delicious they may be, but I don't count them as HCB. Only fruit spiced buns count.
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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Cartmel Veteran
Shipmate
# 7049
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Posted
Hot Cross Buns seems specially formulated to stick inside toasters and then set off the fire alarm. I've just bought some toaster cages to solve this problem during the HCB season.
Posts: 1041 | From: Dorset | Registered: May 2004
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Definitely only during Lent.
But in Arizona it's never Hot Cross Bun season. The stores here rarely have them, and what they occasionally try to pass off as "Hot Cross Buns" are horrid things that bear no resemblance to HCBs.
Yesterday my local grocery store advertised HCBs in their weekly ad, and they even announced having them on the speaker inside the store. I didn't see any and asked at the bakery department. "Oh, we don't have them except a few on the marked-down rack." (This was about five minutes after their announcement.) There was one bedraggled package on the marked-down rack, with the icing melted and sliding off, and horrid looking buns. A young man who had never had a Hot Cross Bun was as disgusted as I was.
On a brighter note, one of our Sunday School classes makes good ones every year, and their teacher knows how much I love them, so she always puts some aside for me!
Icing?!
Good Friday morning for breakfast, then tea, then Saturday ditto. Picked up from the local bakers who, traditionally, are only open on Good Friday morning for this purpose. However, I have a couple of packs of Waitrose wholemeal ones, because they had a buy too many or be subsidising the greedy offer on, so there may well be a HCB and butter pudding on Monday.
I abjure them at all other times - should the hunger for a fruity spiced bun arise, Waitrose has some "Richly Fruited Buns" with no crosses on, as well as the crossed ones.
Trade descriptions - unless purchased from the local baker as above, they are not hot, only crossed.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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The Intrepid Mrs S
Shipmate
# 17002
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Posted
I make Not Cross Buns - only cos I can't be bothered to do the crosses, and that way I can eat them all year round.
I used to use the breadmaker for the dough, piglet, and then bake them individually, but they never really rose properly. Now I'm Retired (mwahahaha!) I use Paul Hollywood's recipe, with orange zest and grated apple, and they are officially Awesome (though they do take all day to make).
Quote from the bakery manager of our local Sainsbury's, on receiving the first HCBs of the New Year ' 'Good heavens, he was only born a week ago, and you're crucifying him already?!'
Mrs. S, enthusiastic baker and even more enthusiastic consumer ![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
In our Sainsbury's they seem to start crucifying him well before he is born ... Mind you, the Church calendar often his Holy Annunciation in the middle of Lent, which is no clearer!
There is a definite pecking order to our local hot cross buns: two local bakers do the best, then Waitrose, then Sainsbury's, then another local baker ... haven't yet tried Aldi or Lidl though!
[ 17. April 2014, 16:50: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Icing?!
Just the Cross -- only it wasn't a cross, it was a smeared blob.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Chocoholic
Shipmate
# 4655
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Posted
Might I recommend M&S toffee and Belgian chocolate hot cross buns?
AND less calories than their standard ones! (And amazing with butter.)
Choccie (with arteries hardening by the moment)
Posts: 773 | From: London | Registered: Jun 2003
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
I discovered saffron hot cross buns this year, they're amazing
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I did make some one year at my parents, and it is not something you want to do in a hurry, being a rich dough, it needs more proving than your standard machine stuff. They were gorgeous - the best things I've ever baked, and I thought at the time it was (stand by for squirmy sentimental Victorian-ness) the love and prayers that went in as well as the fruit and spice.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
Thomas the Baker have lovely HCB, if you're ever near one during Lent (also a chocolate orange Belgian bun, but that's a story for another thread).
I've got a recipe somewhere for simnel HCBs that wants trying out at some point.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Arabella Purity Winterbottom
Trumpeting hope
# 3434
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Posted
We are about to start our yearly Good Friday HCB making - we invite all our friends over (in their old clothes) and we make as many batches of HCB as seem needed. The first batch is currently rising in our sun porch.
It has to be said that depending on who comes there aren't always crosses on the buns. Given the preponderance of small children, blobs are always popular. One year a young musician friend iced a whole batch with musical symbols. This year we're anticipating that our friend Moshe Bittelstein (not his real name, but the friend who originated my Ship name) who has recently converted to Judaism, may wish to decorate his with some other symbol.
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Hell is full of the talented and Heaven is full of the energetic. St Jane Frances de Chantal
Posts: 3702 | From: Aotearoa, New Zealand | Registered: Oct 2002
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bib
Shipmate
# 13074
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Posted
Hot Cross buns became available here from Boxing day (Easter eggs only shortly after), but I make a point of not buying any until Holy week. We always have them on Good Friday for breakfast, but I never buy the newer chocolate and other monstrosities.
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"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Eaten only on Good Friday by my family, with a possibility of a stray leftover being toasted on Easter Saturday. I started making them with fresh yeast when i was about ten, too many years ago to mention. Fresh compressed yeast makes a much better product than dried, or so it seems to me. I do use dried yeast in other breads.
Good dried fruit needed and lots of spice. The pale pasty ones are horrible and those with chocolate chips or other adulteration are considered an abomination to the Lord.
[ 17. April 2014, 23:32: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
They may be made, bought and eaten all year round but only on Good Friday can they be referred to as Hot Cross Buns.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
I have always despised hot cross buns, but from what I'm gathering here, perhaps what passes as a hot cross bun here in California is an inferior knock-off. We do have peeps, though. That surely is an American invention? It just seems so American, who else would make such a creature?
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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The Intrepid Mrs S
Shipmate
# 17002
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I have always despised hot cross buns, but from what I'm gathering here, perhaps what passes as a hot cross bun here in California is an inferior knock-off. We do have peeps, though. That surely is an American invention? It just seems so American, who else would make such a creature?
Peeps?!?
Translation request! Over this side of the pond 'peeps' is an abbreviation for 'people', originating (I think) with Harry Enfield's Stavros the Greek.
The Puzzled Mrs. S
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I just came back from shopping for hot cross buns. On offer were the following flavours:
cranberry and orange
Bramley apple
golden syrup
toffee fudge and Belgian chocolate
double chocolate
chocolate and orange
maple syrup
I had to look hard to find normal traditional ones. This has all got a bit out of hand IMO.
[ 18. April 2014, 11:39: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
I still pine for the hot cross buns of my youth, made at the village bakery a few doors down the road from our house. My Dad would get up early on Good Friday to queue up with half the village to buy the buns that the bakers had been up making since the early hours. They were uniquely delicious. I have enjoyed many hot cross buns since but nothing seems to surpass those childhood memories!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
The h*t cr*ss buns available in supermarkets here are dreadful. The bun is that soft, sticky, pasty dough you can roll into pellets & use in a pea-shooter (if you're about 11 years old). You may, if particularly blessed, encounter a bit of orange peel or even a currant or raisin somewhere in a package of 6. The dough at some point seems to have been rapidly passed through the steam arising from a pan of boiling spices, because there's a barely-detectable aroma of cinnamon? cardamom? nutmeg? too faint for discernment as you unwrap the things, but this vanishes long before you bite into one. They're cr*ssed with narrow strips of sweetened glue.
It is therefore never hot cross bun season here, though the above-described items are offered for sale from late winter into spring.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
If you buy too many, they make a gorgeous bread and butter pudding. Surplus from the Hot Cross Bun service this morning got taken into our town and given out to passersby, along with a leaflet advertising our church.
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Well the ones I made were certainly acceptable although my wretched oven yet again burned the bottom of them slightly.
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
Never before Good Friday. I have strong and fond memories of walking to the bakery in the next door village with my father on Good Friday morning and coming back with freshly baked hot cross buns.
I love them and they're all the better for the waiting and the not eating all year round. I eat a few on Good Friday and even more over the rest of Easter. Both toasted and untoasted.
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Safeways (yes with the "s" on the end, a now defunct English supermarket) used to do an apricot and orange one which was my favourite. The Cranberry and Orange one is now my hot cross bun of choice.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
My HCB of choice is the traditional spiced one which I will then halve, toast lightly, spread with butter and possibly add a touch of jam to.
I do sometimes eat them untoasted just with butter but think they are nicer warm.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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lily pad
Shipmate
# 11456
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Posted
I had everything ready for making them this morning but happened to buy a really nice loaf of raisin bread at the bakery yesterday and it made the most delicious toast. Will probably bake tomorrow and put the raisin bread in the freezer.
Almost all hot cross buns here have the coss made with icing or a glaze of some sort. It is very rare to find the traditional type. Have seen them with or without peel but that's the only variation on offer in the grocery stores.
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Sloppiness is not caring. Fussiness is caring about the wrong things. With thanks to Adeodatus!
Posts: 2468 | From: Truly Canadian | Registered: May 2006
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I have always despised hot cross buns, but from what I'm gathering here, perhaps what passes as a hot cross bun here in California is an inferior knock-off. We do have peeps, though. That surely is an American invention? It just seems so American, who else would make such a creature?
Peeps?!?
Translation request! Over this side of the pond 'peeps' is an abbreviation for 'people', originating (I think) with Harry Enfield's Stavros the Greek.
The Puzzled Mrs. S
This is a peep.
An Easter marshmallow convection, which yes, wiki confirms is so distinctly American in its perversely gratuitous sugar content that we have contests like this one to celebrate their, well peep-ness.
We do sometimes use "peeps" to mean "people" as well, but this time of year, there is only one peep and it is neon yellow-- unless it is pink or purple or orange-- and it's a chicken-- unless it's a bunny.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
How many hot cross buns can I eat before Good Friday ceases to be a fast day and becomes "that day I ate pastries all day?"
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
None
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
They may be made, bought and eaten all year round but only on Good Friday can they be referred to as Hot Cross Buns.
You mean just take the cross of pastry off and call it a bun ?
Good idea . Mortal sin solved at a stroke .
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Change is the only certainty of existence
Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
They're only hot on Good Friday fresh from the baker's oven. Otherwise cross buns. Though all the suppliers still apply the "hot".
I see Cleese approaching the shopkeeper.
"This bun is not hot."....
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
We had some at my local grocery in February. Bad me, I bought a package. Then I bought another package on Wednesday of this week. I'm sure these HCBs are not anything like the ones y'all are describing, but they have candied citrus peels in them (which I love) so I buy them and enjoy them whenever they might appear.
Does that make me a lost sinner? ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
This has all reminded me of that childhood joke: What do you get if you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?
A hot cross bunny ....
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
This has all reminded me of that childhood joke: What do you get if you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?
A hot cross bunny ....
![[brick wall]](graemlins/brick_wall.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
HCBs were served at the back of church after the service yesterday, which was rather interesting, as we were told to leave in silence. The silence lasted until one was asked the vital question "Tea or Coffee?".
I am definitely a hard-liner; no buns before Good Friday. Ignoring the piles of them in supermarkets is part of Lenten discipline
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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