Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns have been a Good Friday tradition since at least the fourteenth century when a monk at St. Albans Abbey in England baked rolls topped with a cross to distribute to the poor. However, the sweet buns may have originated significantly earlier as a treat to mark the end of the Lenten season.

Many of the ingredients of Hot Cross Buns are symbolic – the spices representing the embalming spices used to prepare Christ’s body, the bitter orange zest signifying the bitterness of the cross, and, of course, the cross on top to symbolize Christ’s death. 

Here’s a wonderful recipe for these soft, traditional treats: