Hot Cross Buns Mark Best Style

Hot Cross Buns - Image Mark Best - Styled Mark Best

Tradition, authenticity and origin are to be considered when eating the hot cross bun. Their origin is lost to history and nostalgia. When we started using these to signify part of the pagan festival we call Easter is hard to know. The cross is to said signify the end of Lent and the spices to signify the embalming of Jesus following his crucifixion.

Hot Cross Buns are inextricably linked to Easter and to Christianity. In reality, they probably have pre-Christian origins. ‘Cross Buns’ were baked to celebrate Eostre, a Germanic Goddess of Fertility, after which the season of Easter is said to be named. The four quarters of the cross on top of each bun were said to represent the phases of the moon, while the cross itself symbolised Spring and the rebirth after winter. (of the Northern Hemisphere)  

Back to the buns at hand. I am not going to bother with a recipe as there are almost as many as them online as there are people saying they are Jesus. One of them must be wrong.

This recipe is naturally leavened (now that’s old testament!) using my sourdough starter. One of the best sources for your starter is the seminal volume Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. I then used the basic proportions of his country bread recipe with less hydration. The hot cross bun is an ‘enriched dough’ meaning the addition of dairy in the form of butter and milk and eggs, which I added. With something as basic and ubiquitous as this I like to pimp it a little. I used my experience to guesstimate, so while I am moderately happy with the result (like me they are a little more dense than optimal) another attempt would see me make some adjustments. Having eaten six of these already my gut instinct tells me this will be next Easter.

In terms of the spices I used Garam Masala , dried rose petals and Iranian saffron. I used currants and sultanas soaked in rum. For the citrus I used a chunky home made marmalade. For the glaze I used apricot jam let down with a spoon or two of water and simmered a little. This combination is pleasing in a culinary and intellectual sense.

Jesus the man most likely spoke Aramaic which is from the same family as Hebrew.  Aramaic remains a spoken, literary, and liturgical language for some Christians of that area and also some Jews. Aramaic also continues to be spoken by the Assyrians of Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwest Iran, with diaspora communities in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and southern Russia which I think speaks to the origin of the bun.

This is not a recipe, more an attitude. You cannot create in a vacuum.