easter hot cross buns!
According to the book Dates and Meanings of Religious & Other Festivals, hot cross buns "used to be kept specially for Good Friday with the symbolism of the cross, although it is thought that they originated in pagan times with the bun representing the moon and its four quarters."
The custom of eating hot cross buns goes back to pre-Christian times, when pagans offered their god, Zeus, a cake baked in the form of a bull, with a cross upon it to represent its horns. Throughout the centuries, hot cross buns were made and eaten every Good Friday, and it was thought that they had miraculous curative powers. People hung buns from their kitchen ceilings to protect their households from evil for the year to come. Good Friday bread and buns were said never to go moldy. This was probably because the buns were baked so hard that there was no moisture left in the mixture for the mold to live on. Hot cross buns and bread baked on Good Friday were used in powdered form to treat all sorts of illnesses.
recipe adapted from joyofbaking.com. it's the first time i tried making yeast bread, you really need alot more patience and time waiting for the yeast to activate and the dough to rise, and the whole lot of kneading work involved. thank goodness, the buns turned out pretty nice (3 gone within minutes!), though i wished i also had dried cranberries and fruit peels instead of plain old currants, and could have made the glaze a little thicker. my breakfast for tomorrow, these are best eaten warm with margarine and jam. ;)
scribbled at 6:09 pm
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According to the book Dates and Meanings of Religious & Other Festivals, hot cross buns "used to be kept specially for Good Friday with the symbolism of the cross, although it is thought that they originated in pagan times with the bun representing the moon and its four quarters."
The custom of eating hot cross buns goes back to pre-Christian times, when pagans offered their god, Zeus, a cake baked in the form of a bull, with a cross upon it to represent its horns. Throughout the centuries, hot cross buns were made and eaten every Good Friday, and it was thought that they had miraculous curative powers. People hung buns from their kitchen ceilings to protect their households from evil for the year to come. Good Friday bread and buns were said never to go moldy. This was probably because the buns were baked so hard that there was no moisture left in the mixture for the mold to live on. Hot cross buns and bread baked on Good Friday were used in powdered form to treat all sorts of illnesses.
recipe adapted from joyofbaking.com. it's the first time i tried making yeast bread, you really need alot more patience and time waiting for the yeast to activate and the dough to rise, and the whole lot of kneading work involved. thank goodness, the buns turned out pretty nice (3 gone within minutes!), though i wished i also had dried cranberries and fruit peels instead of plain old currants, and could have made the glaze a little thicker. my breakfast for tomorrow, these are best eaten warm with margarine and jam. ;)