Best Hot Cross Buns Recipe Today's Hot Cross Buns for 2024, were made from a 1957 recipe, or perhaps even older. This journey for me of finding the best Hot Cross Bun recipe, has really taken me down some rabbit holes. In the end the best recipe, after eating a lot of Hot cross Buns, was from The Good Housekeeping's Cookery Compendium 1957 edition. This recipe makes 24 of the freshest, most delicious spiced fruit buns I've ever tasted. This recipe is very suitable for freezing so making a batch of 24 should not be a problem. So lets get cooking......

• 800 grams high grade flour
• 115 grams of caster sugar
• 210 mls water
• 210 mls low fat milk
• 7 grams active yeast granules
• 1/2 tsp pink salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 115 grams of butter just melted
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 170 grams of fruit cake mix
• This recipe makes 24 Hot Cross Buns

The origins of hot cross buns are shrouded in mystery, but historians believe they date back to the pagan traditions of ancient Britain. The Saxons used to bake buns marked with a cross during their spring celebrations to honour Eostre, the goddess of dawn and fertility. The cross symbolised the four quarters of the moon, a nod to the natural cycles of the season. It’s likely Eostre is the origin of the word Easter.

As Christianity spread throughout England, the church adapted many pagan customs. By the 12th century, these springtime buns were given a religious interpretation, with the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the late 14th century, Father Thomas Rockcliffe started distributing such buns to the poor in St Albans in Hertfordshire, England on Good Friday. This cemented the association of hot cross buns with Easter and the end of Lent. The buns were typically made with ingredients that were forbidden during Lent, such as sugar and butter, making them a special treat for the end of the fasting period.