On Good Friday, following a centuries-old European tradition, I make hot cross buns. They’re simple sweet rolls dotted with currants, scented with cinnamon, and topped with an X of vanilla icing. The recipe is really a no-brainer, but almost every year something goes wrong.
Frequently the buns mysteriously fail to rise; other years I can’t get the consistency of the icing right — either it adheres to the buns in globs or it melts into a shiny coating. I’ve overproofed the dough so it exhausts itself in the first rising and has nothing left for the second; I’ve undercooked them so they’re still raw inside.
This year, I left them in the oven too long, and they produced a hard, chewy crust — great for sourdough bread, not for a sweet roll.
The curse of Good Friday haunts my baking, yet still I try for a decent batch of hot cross buns. It’s a tradition, after all.
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Is your annual failure a new kind of tradition? Or should we call it "The Good Friday Hot Cross Bun Curse?" Take heart! Curses finally wear off. See what happened to the Red Sox when they broke their curse and beat the Yankees in the World Series. It will happen to you some Good Friday. I promise.
ReplyDeleteNalongo
We all have our culinary Rubicons, Mandy; remind me to tell you about my failed petits fours sometime.
ReplyDeleteHa! I feel your pain. I cannot bake to save my life. Luckily Dianda's down the street had a decent take on the bun.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about this season? I managed to ruin the asparagus this year.