Seeking personal memories of Hot Cross Buns

My very Catholic mother made hot cross buns all during Lent. I'm remembering that somehow she put chocolate inside them - am guessing she cut into the side of each, when they'd just come out of the oven, and inserted part of a hershey bar...

I only remember them as being something to avoid.

They've never gone out of "style" here. They're available at several nearby groceries every day.

I still avoid them. Well, I try them again about once a decade and ... ptoooey.

My grandmother used to bake them for Good Friday and put plums
inside, and they were delicious, especially with hot vanilla sauce.

They were part of my Protestant childhood, although I didn't have a clue about what Lent was... rather they were a part of Easter (only as an adult did I know the connection to Lent).

I also remember a "Hot Cross buns" song, sung to the tune of "Three blind mice", and a "Hot cross bunnies" punchline to a joke about pouring boiling water down a rabbit hole.

Did you sing this too?

Hot cross buns,
One a penny buns;
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Hot cross buns.

Fresh, sweet buns,
Come and buy my buns;
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Fresh, sweet buns.

Nice, light buns,
Buy my currant buns;
Come and try them,
Then you'll buy them,
Nice, light buns.


I learned this song in school when I was a child, but never saw or tasted one until last year in Ireland. I didn't know they were related to Ash Wednesday.

When I was growing up, we had hot cross buns my mother had made and iced with a cross of powdered sugar icing every Easter Sunday morning before church- a lovely treat instead of the usual scrambled or fried eggs (which I hated) or boring old oatmeal or cold ceral.

I've adapted the tradition to suit my childrens' preferences which are for the more tasty cinnamon roll. They enjoy them with hot chocolate. We have those every Easter and Christmas morning.

I'm not as positive as I sounded about the "all through Lent" - I remember she baked them several times in a row and it was around that time of year.

apricot or raspberry Paczki I can get behind as a religious festival treat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_cross_buns - they say Good Friday..

Western PA evidently wasn't all that much of a backwater.

I'm a little envious of baking mothers. We had a Breadman from the local bakery who came on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a cigarette-girl style display tray of bread and lunch cakes.

Probably one reason the Hot Cross Buns were special was my mother did not buy lunch cakes.

Ul--

Hot cross buns, hot cross buns
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny
Hot cross buns.

I checked the Word from Wiki and find the notion of a "secret" recipe downright unbelievable.

Noddy,
thanks for the extra lyrics.

wow, I remember paczkis and piontzckis (the Polish Jewish equivalent). The Polish ones were heavier and the dough sweeter, while the Jewish ones had all kinds of fruit

Goruncze krzyzy-were the "Hot cross buns" My dad(who was a baker as a kid) would make a batch every Friday at Lent. They were a potato flour with a cinnamon roll center and each had a liitle kryszyz made of icing. (Hed make them in groups of 8 buns and wed have em for breakfast on Sat also. They were where cinnabun got the idea for an icing covered cinnamon roll.

My memories are identical to ehBeth's. But everyone else's seem better. I don't recall fruit or icing or anything to make them enticing. And the day after baking, they were inedible.

However, I live the insights that I get from dipping into threads like these. Now, this one gives me an inkling on Farmerman's idiosyncratic spelling :wink:

Traditionally, we get "struwen" (or struven) here.



When mother made them on Good Friday, father always complained there weren't original ...

Actually, poeple really didn't make them in that part of Westphalia where I grew up: it was a kind of exclusive right only in one town, where they were served after the cross procession.

Recipe Struwen (Yeast pancake) in English

Thanks for the recipe.. that looks good.

Tico, if you notice, most of my spelling errors are favoring my lrft hand. Its cause I have a crippled left hand an Im mostly too lazy to correct my spelling errors . My two different spellings of krzyzy(crosses) are an example . I figure that evreyone here is sharp as a tack and can get the substance of my spelling. Therefore I dont get all typistically tortured over it like I used to get when I was on abuzz. There was a guy that used to try to win arguments by making major disclosures about how much of a moron I ws because I couldnt spell "the". It always comes out "teh".

Ah, I'm sorry about your hand, Farmerman. But it's ok by me -- I personally have come to love your spelling. I'm almost disappointed that it's a mechanical thing and not a cerebral one -- kinda an "eff off if you're too stupid to figure it out" attitude!

Sorry all -- back to Easter pastries --

If we can talk about different pastries - although the topic is Crossed Buns-

In Austria a Pinze is baked. This is a yeast dough which contains either white wine or Anis wine. I was told that this custom originates in Friaul, Italy.
Similar to the time around All Souls Day these breads made prepared with white flour, eggs and spices are made to give away, especially to poor people.
This custom provided food for old and poor people.
These white breads - shaped differently for the different seasons- became dry and could be kept for a long time. Later they were used in milk or thin soups.

Pinze - easily baked. You cut a cross into the dough to get the shape. Sizes vary- like a roll or a loaf of bread.