Hot Cross Buns Recipe- A time to slow down

With Easter around the corner, it is time for new beginnings and baking Hot Cross Buns! While there are many recipes on the net, these hot cross buns will take your breath away. A recipe that will help you rediscover the joys and stillness of slow living, to pause and take a break and to focus on moments that truly matter. The slow rising time required to make these sweet sticky buns celebrate the flavours and textures, perfumed with a hint of spices and citrus.The only investment required is your time and love! After all, that’s the recipe for all good things in life!

Because it’s not a fast track recipe, I promise you it will win your heart as you take a bite of the delicious toasted bun with lashings of butter. And the best part is, it would be a product of your love. You will want to bake these throughout the year besides Eater and share them with family and friends. These Hot cross buns will resurrect the joy and magic in your life and bring you smiles. 🙂

So let’s play some music, light some candles, put on the kettle, make a cup of rosy lee and bake some Hot cross buns. But, wait!? Wouldn’t you like to read a little about my story and how the Hot Cross Buns came into my life? Food brings memories and connects the past and the present. Perhaps, you will be inspired to create your own story after reading my story. So please don’t jump straight to the recipe, let the story come to you.

My Hygge childhood with the Hot Cross Buns

As a child, I remember celebrating Easter in my grandparent’s garden with family. My aunt played the role of the family Easter Bunny. She would hide the painted eggs in the garden and on Easter morning, we would go looking for them. Followed by a cosy breakfast spread in the garden, with all kinds of treats from the local bakery, including hot cross buns, bunny-shaped chocolates and pastries. My mom would whip the eggs into waffles for all to share. Eating together is a celebration of life, a shared experience and stays with you for years.

Warm memories from my childhood envelope me into a big hug from the Easter Bunny every time I bake these buns in my kitchen, as I reminisce of the lovly days gone by. Food has that power, to bring back memories, emotions and settings of experiences from the past. You can read more about this in my article Food is Life

Hot cross buns recipe to my rescue

The last few days I have been feeling mentally and emotionally drained out and lost. Especially since I failed to meet my expectations of all the goals and targets I had set for myself. This really affected my creative flow and energy. Even if I tried, I couldn’t muster a single idea in my head. I felt like I had hit a wall. So, I decided to switch off completely from everything, give myself time to slow down.

I decided to focus on things that really mattered, to engage with myself. A big part of it was to get back to my place of love, my kitchen where I could slow down and bake. And, that’s when the recipe for these Hot Cross Buns came to my rescue. Perfect timing! With Easter approaching, it feels the time for renewal and new beginnings. I can happily confirm that I feel more centred, connected and relaxed after the process of just letting go and embracing the present moments. After all, here I am writing away this article after a big creative block has been lifted.
Perhaps you can relate? What do you do to channelize yourself when lost?

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Feeling overwhelmed? Slow down and bake

Are you are feeling overwhelmed right now? Did my story inspire you to slow down and focus on yourself? Switch off from everything, take a break, you owe it to yourself. If you are feeling stuck, you won’t find solutions by obsessing about them. They might come if you give yourself some time. Food has that power, probably you are not fond of cooking or baking. But hey, its Easter! New beginnings and all, right?! So let’s try something new. Try baking these lovely little English buns. The slow process of rising and baking is meditative and relaxing. Make yourself a cup of tea while you wait for the buns to rise. You will feel your mood resurrect right away, calmer and recentered.

Here’s a little tip to maximise the pleasures of this bun if you can: Pack yourself a little picnic basket and go for a little walk in the woods. If possible, build yourself a little campfire to toast these buns and enjoy them with lashings of butter. If you have kids, they will love it and cherish the memories forever.

Surrounding yourself with nurturing elements that bring you joy, whether it’s the woods, the hot cross buns, baking or anything else that you love, is the most precious gift we can give ourselves. To rediscover who we are, to remember to live the little moments, to be the true versions of ourselves is what keeps us going and makes our lives meaningful. It will be these experiences that will stay with you till the end. So don’t get stuck in the rut of running a rat race. Do you really want to remember running around like a headless chicken trying to please everyone at work or chasing your ambitions? Or do you want to remember the memories created by you of your choosing?

Breaking Hot cross buns together

As, I always say, eating together is a powerful experience that harnesses the magic of love and new beginnings. So bake these buns and share them with your neighbours, friends and even strangers. They won’t feel so strange anymore once you share these delightful buns with them and you might gain a new friend. According to the old English folklore, these buns are known to solidify friendships. The Irish central shares n old rhyme to capture this lore “Half for you and half for me, between us two, good luck shall be.” https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/irish-hot-cross-buns-recipe-easter. So go ahead and break some Hot Cross Buns together with others

The folklore of the hot cross buns

Here’s a story shared by food Author, Regula Ysewijn that you might find interesting and shows how food truly connects the past and the present.

In London’s East End you can find a pub called The Widows Son, named after a widow who lived in a cottage at the site in the 1820s. The widow baked hot cross buns for her sailor son who was supposed to come home from the sea on Good Friday. He must have died at sea as he never returned home, but the widow refused to give up hope for his return and continued to bake a hot cross bun for him every year, hanging it in her kitchen with the buns from previous years.
When the widow died, the buns were found hanging from a beam in the cottage and the story has been kept alive by the pub landlords ever since a pub was built on the site in 1848.

Time to bake some buns

Surely, you must have heard this famous English nursery rhyme, so lets sing along and bake these lovely Hot Cross Buns

One ha’penny, Two ha’penny,
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
If your daughters do not like them
Give them to your sons;
But if you haven’t any of these pretty little elves
You cannot do better than eat them yourselves.