Local chefs get creative with hot cross buns
The Easter staple comes in several forms in Metro Vancouver professional kitchens, not all of them traditional
The hot cross buns from Railtown Catering have become well-known for their deliciousness.
MYSTERY AND ANCIENT lore surround the history of a favourite Easter treat: the hot cross bun. Sweet, spiced, studded with dried fruit, and decorated with a white icing cross, the springtime staple is shared across many families’ tables. Baking bread adorned with a cross is a tradition that journeys back not just through Christianity but paganism as well. And for Easter 2021, Vancouver chefs are carrying on the tradition while putting their own stamp on this centuries-old sweet.
At springtime’s emergence, the pagan Anglo-Saxons celebrated Eostre, the goddess of dawn, by baking bread marked with a cross. Symbolizing the four seasons and the world’s rebirth after winter, the pagan cross linked this celebration of the goddess to the spring equinox. Upon the spread of Christianity throughout the British Isles, pagan meanings of this springtime celebration were replaced with Christian ones, the crucifix taking the place of the pagan cross.
From there, little documentation of the beloved bun exists until the Tudor period. In 1592, Queen Elizabeth I issued a decree forbidding the day-to-day sale of “spiced buns”, with the exception of Good Friday, Christmas, and funerals. The goods were deemed too sacred to be eaten on any ordinary days.
The Poor Robin’s Almanac, a series of satirical calendars that began in the late 1600s, first the used the name of the bread that we know today with this line: Good Friday come this month, the old woman runs. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. That gave rise to the street-vendors’ cry turned Easter song and nursery rhyme, with “Hot Cross Buns” now commonly screeched out on recorders by school children:
‘Hot cross buns, hot cross buns!
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons,
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns
Hot cross buns are also surrounded by superstition. Due to the cross on top, hanging a hot cross bun in the kitchen supposedly wards off bad spirits and is said to ensure that all the bread baked will turn out well. Sharing hot cross buns with friends will also keep a friendship strong for another year, according to British legend.
In the hands of local chefs, hot cross buns continue to evolve.
For Railtown Catering pastry chef Shelley McKenzie, hot cross buns have been an Easter staple since childhood. “We would have them every day a week leading up to Easter because we loved them so much, McKenzie tells Stir. “You always know the Easter Bunny is coming soon when you smell freshly baked hot cross buns.”
In making Railtown Catering’s popular hot cross buns, McKenzie notes the importance of using high-quality dried fruits and soaking the fruit in warm water to ensure they don’t become too hard in the baking process. She says there’s joy to be found in the tradition of hot cross buns, “mak[ing] you look forward to celebrating Easter and time with your family”.
The fragrantly spiced, fluffy hot cross buns come with whipped butter as part of Railtown Catering’s Easter Feast To-Go. Available for pick up or delivery, the meals include pre-sliced honey-glazed ham, scalloped potatoes with Gruyère cheese, cucumber salad with fresh dill, rhubarb crumble, and more. Rosemary-crusted leg of lamb is a premium optional add-on. (Orders must be placed by 10 am March 31, a portion of proceeds will be donated directly to Mission Possible, a non-profit charity providing street-level care for those with immediate and critical needs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.)
Chez Christophe’s Hot Cross Croiss.
Sunny Park, pastry chef at Chez Christophe, the Burnaby-based Swiss chocolatier and bakery, is weaving the traditional flavour of hot cross buns with the texture of a croissant. “Being from Korea, we don’t celebrate Easter, so the first time I tried a hot cross bun was in Vancouver,” says Park. “It tasted dry to me, so I thought, why not combine it with a croissant?”
Park’s Hot Cross Croiss, a croissant swirl with cinnamon cardamom pastry cream, raisins and Cross orange rum glaze, is marked with a cross. “It’s much flakier and much more buttery than compared to other hot cross buns,” Park says.
Beaucoup Bakery’s hot cross buns. Photo by Rich Won
At Beaucoup Bakery, head chef Betty Hung has two types of hot cross buns in her Easter repertoire this year. Growing up in a Chinese family, hot cross buns were not a part of her personal traditions. “I didn’t really enjoy hot cross buns until I started working at Beaucoup, as our version is made from our rich brioche recipe which is extra tasty,” With rum-soaked currants, French candied orange and lemon peels, fresh lemon and orange zest, the brioche recipe is proofed overnight before being portioned, shaped, and baked. Finished off with a little syrup and an icing cross, “they have become my Easter tradition,” says Hung. “They are not around all [the time] so it is something to look forward to all year.”
Hung has created another version that’s a little more indulgent. The Hot Cross Lava Bun is filled with vanilla pastry cream and hazelnut praline paste, adding a French twist to the classic British baked good.
With so much flavourful ingenuity, it’s no wonder the crossed bun is still so hot; at the same time, they represent tradition.
“I think hot cross buns are still popular because they are very nostalgic,” McKenzie says.
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