Hot X Buns

Bakeries over here sell hot cross buns all year round; some are chocolate.

Yes, they do here too (Sydney) and at home in the UK. I can never quite get my head around it having been brought up with them for sale only on Good Friday. (I have to say the choc chip ones are quite good!)

The chocolate ones are foul but the others are traditional and tasty.

M&S have several varieties, apple is my favourite. I had one for breakfast today.

STOP IT! The GF ones are foul and any I make are worse still!!

I prefer the traditional ones... why do they always have to 'muck about' with things?

Agreed tanith

I did see a list of gf hot cross buns and one came out quite well, I will see if I can find it.

www.bestdaily.co.uk/food/news/a638141/top-gluten-free-and-dairy-free-easter-food-ideas.html I can't find the link I saw, this one recommends Waitrose and M&S but you may have tried those already.

They had none in our large Tesco this morning - scandalous!

When my kids were small I used to get up early on Good Friday and walk down to the bakers and buy our Hot Cross Buns straight out of the oven . The smell as I came back in the house with a dozen 'HOT' Hot Cross Buns soon had everyone out of bed and sat at the table with a pot of tea and lots of buttered buns,.... those were the days...
Now I'd be pushed to find a bakers never mind one that actually cooks Hot Cross Buns..

We used to do that too, tanith - and they were put into a nice paper bag!

I have made them before now but perhaps not this year. We need to lose weight and I would make too many and we would be gobbling them up trying to resist more than one.

I remember my Mum doing that, Tanith (going out early and buying HOT hot x buns, I mean). (Sorry, don't mean to imply that you are old enough to be my Mum!) We used to love having them for breakfast on Good Friday. Nowadays the supermarkets seem to sell them all year round.

I saw Hot X Muffins in the M & S at Cambridge services on Saturday. Our favourites are wholemeal ones but I did enjoy Heston's from Waitrose last year even if they were a bit more like Panettone.

Yes in a paper bag rosequartz, they used to put half a dozen in each bag.. and you are right NotTooOld when you can get them every week the novelty has warn off quite apart from the fact I don't know where I could buy them from a bakers..

Hot X Muffins??

I usually ban DH from having any until Good Friday (how mean I hear you say), but I relented this year.

They did look strange.

I found this on the internet:
^The tradition of baking bread marked with a cross is linked to paganism as well as Christianity. The pagan Saxons would bake cross buns at the beginning of spring in honour of the goddess Eostre - most likely being the origin of the name Easter. The cross represented the rebirth of the world after winter and the four quarters of the moon, as well as the four seasons and the wheel of life.

The Christians saw the Crucifixion in the cross bun and, as with many other pre-Christian traditions, replaced their pagan meaning with a Christian one - the resurrection of Christ at Easter.

According to Elizabeth David, it wasn't until Tudor times that it was permanently linked to Christian celebrations. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of spiced buns except at burials, at Christmas or on Good Friday.^

I think you're allowed to eat them at any time now

Last week I got my bread maker out of the cupboard and made a batch of hot cross buns. I even went to the trouble of making the pastry crosses. I put them in the oven and promptly forgot about them. I only just rescued them in time, ( they were only slightly over done).

I think the M&S ones are far and away the best. the Tesco Finest Range are foul.

Had M&S cherry and berry today, absolutely delish.

Waitrose cinnamon and raisin are nice although I can never taste the cinnamon!

Luckily that is something I have never liked. I have only tasted the traditional ones and that was many years ago. I agree, where I live, Wiatrose seems to have them on the shelves just after Christmas.