They arrive earlier every year, but here’s where this Easter treat originated

The dish

Hot cross buns, UK

Plate up

You have two choices now when you spy hot cross buns on the supermarket shelves about 15 minutes after New Year’s. You can let it really get to you, this rampant commercialism, this never-ending creep (will they appear before Christmas next year?), the disappointment that one of our nation’s few truly seasonal treats is now being sold for something like four months.

Or, you can just eat them. And eating them is a reasonable option because these Easter buns are undeniably delicious, all squishy and sweet, with warm spices, raisins and citrus peel, maybe even chocolate, and two perpendicular stripes to represent the Christian cross. Some heat theirs in the microwave before splitting them open and adding a wedge of cold butter. Others toast them under a grill, or in a pan, again swimming with butter. Regardless of your choice, a hot cross bun during Easter is a thing of beauty – as it is any day after New Year’s.

First serve

Hot cross buns have been around since before Christianity existed. Ancient Egyptians celebrated their gods with small loaves of bread divided into four equal sections; Greeks and Romans used sweetened rolls as tributes to the goddess Eos, and early Germans to Eostre (whose name is the derivative of Easter).

It’s believed that an English monk in the 12th century was the first to decorate a bun with a cross to represent the crucifixion, and to eat it on Good Friday. The custom quickly gained traction, not least because the cross on the bun is supposed to help it rise in the oven – which seems appropriate.

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