Hot Cross Buns


Photo: Beverley Ann D'Cruz
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Ingredients

2 cups sifted flour
4 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

1
Sift flour once, measure, add baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and spices, and sift again. Cut in shortening. Add raisins. Add enough sour milk to make a stiff dough.
2
Turn onto floured board. Knead slightly. Roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2 inch cutter. Place close together in shallow pan.
3
With sharp knife, cut a cross in each roll. Brush with a solution of milk and sugar.
4
Bake in hot 475 degrees for 20 minutes. Brush again with sugar and milk solution.
5
Fill cross with plain frosting. Serve hot. Makes 12 buns.

Tools

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About

Traditionally baked in England on Good Friday, these buns were once believed to cure any ailment; people dried them and saved them for the rest of the year for this purpose. The buns were generally sold by poor and elderly on the streets: Hot cross buns! / Hot cross buns! / One a penny, two a penny! / Hot cross buns! / If you have no daughters / Give them to your Sons. (From "Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes" by Patricia Bunning Stevens).

Yield:

12.0 servings

Added:

Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 12:46am

Creator:

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