Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns are sweet, yeast-leavened buns made with spices like cinnamon, dried currants, and candied citrus fruit zest and are usually eaten toasted with butter. A cross marks the top of the bun, which is made using knife slits, icing, or additional dough. While traditionally eaten on Good Friday (celebrated the Friday preceding Easter to commemorate Jesus’s crucifixion), hot cross buns are consumed throughout the year in the United Kingdom.

In traditionally Christian countries, the cross on top of the bun is believed to symbolize the Crucifixion; however, some historians believe the buns pre-date Christianity. Pagans baked breads incised with a cross to symbolize the four quarters of the moon to honor Eostre/Eastre, their goddess of spring and fertility (a conjectured origin of Easter). Later, as Christianity and the accessibility of sugar and spices spread during the 1600s (after the English Civil War), small loaves of bread were marked with a cross by monks and consumed on Good Friday.