| Monday, February 26, 2007 |
| Easter, Part 1 - Hot Cross Buns |
I've decided to run a series of blog entries on Easter food, which being a celebration of rebirth is much better celebrated at the time of the spring equinox, making some Easter traditions such as eggs, baby chickens and any spring decorations a little odd down here in the Southern Hemisphere, but it's tradition, what can you do? To fit in with New Zealand seasons, I'm gonna do a fall recipes series to celebrate the autumnal equinox and the dawning of the cooler months. If I were pagan, it would be to celebrate Mabon, which is the opposite holiday to what American Wiccans would celebrate at Easter, the sabbat of Ostara. I really like the ideas of the Wiccan Sabbats because I like honouring the changing of the seasons and I love a good excuse to celebrate with different foods. We need more holidays. I've even decided to create my own Thanksgiving this year but not on the date that the Americans or the Canadians celebrate it. I think New Zealand is in need of a good mid-winter holiday, something different from a mid-winter Christmas. I haven't decided on an exact date but it will be sometime in June or July.
I know I complain a lot about holiday celebrations beginning too early and Easter is not until April, but when I was at the bakery this weekend, I spotted chocolate chip hot cross buns and my belly cried out for their little doughy goodness. I don't like regular hot cross buns so I guess I got overly excited because I temporarily forgot about the existence of the chocolate chip variety. Anyways, if I'm gonna do a series on Easter-ish food, I should start early. There might be lots to cover.
Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but they go on sale well before then and people eat them whenever they want. The cross as you all know is a symbol of Christ, whose death and rebirth is the reason for the season.  Chocolate chip hot cross bun Hot cross buns also became a part of popular culture when the street cry of English bakers was developed into a simple song to teach the basic notes of various instruments. You all know the song:
- Hot cross buns,
- Hot cross buns,
- one a penny,
- two a penny,
- hot cross buns.
- If you have no daughters,
- give them to your sons,
- one a penny,
- two a penny,
- Hot Cross Buns
I ate a hot cross bun for breakfast. Soft on the inside, slightly chewy skin on the outside and filled with a supposed "100 chocolate chips per bun", it was a pretty satisfying breakfast. I ate it plain but would very much like to try it with nutella; peanut butter; cream; more chocolate; or mascarpone cream.
I also tried a new type of hot chocolate. Chocolate is a very Easter-ish food and a wonderful breakfast beverage. Linda gifted me with a bag of spiced hot chocolate and I thought it would go well with a hot cross bun because they are slightly spiced. I added a bit of Cadbury Drinking Chocolate to make it richer. It was pretty good. The spices were subtle and of the sweeter variety like in chai tea, not of the chili variety. I really need to start frothing my milk for my hot chocolates because it would have been way better with thicker frothier milk.
 Labels: autumn, beverage, breakfast, Easter |
posted by Lauren @ 7:19 PM  |
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| She Who Eats |
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Name: Lauren
Home: Auckland, New Zealand
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