Ship of Fools: Hot Cross Bun Season

Thread: Hot Cross Bun Season Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on :

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?

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

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]

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :

Thank you for the reminder! Hot Cross buns don't exist here so I need to do some baking!

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

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 ]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

Sainsbury's sells hot cross buns all year round

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

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.

Posted by Cartmel Veteran (# 7049) on :

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.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

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.

Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on :

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]

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

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 ]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Icing?!

Just the Cross -- only it wasn't a cross, it was a smeared blob.
[Frown]

Posted by Chocoholic (# 4655) on :

Might I recommend M&S toffee and Belgian chocolate hot cross buns?
AND less calories than their standard ones! (And amazing with butter.)
[Yipee]

Choccie (with arteries hardening by the moment)

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

I discovered saffron hot cross buns this year, they're amazing

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

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.

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

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.

Posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom (# 3434) on :

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.

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

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.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

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 ]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

They may be made, bought and eaten all year round but only on Good Friday can they be referred to as Hot Cross Buns.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

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?

Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on :

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

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Peeps

Fun to watch in the microwave.

Hot Cross Buns don't have icing. That cross is flour and water paste added to the risen buns before baking. Homemade buns do taste amazing but it's not the easiest of doughs to handle.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

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 ]

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :

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!

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :

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.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kitten:
I discovered saffron hot cross buns this year, they're amazing

Yum

Posted by Jante (# 9163) on :

Blessed to have local baker who makes them during lent. had some at our Children's service this money and they were delicious.

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

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.

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :

Well the ones I made were certainly acceptable although my wretched oven yet again burned the bottom of them slightly.

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

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.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

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

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

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.

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

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.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

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.

Posted by Zach82 (# 3208) on :

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?"

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

None [Frown]

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

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 .

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

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."....

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

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]

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

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]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

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 ....

Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :

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 [Biased]

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