I freaking love Easter. The smell of hot cross buns releases something truly ferral in me! It symbolizes the change of seasons for us in SA, moving into autumn, and without fail, it always rains. What better way than to spend a weekend huddled up in blankets, eating hot cross buns!
In fact, every year, I do a hot cross bun hunt to see which one of our local bakeries gets the vote for being the best hot cross bun baker for the year!
My criteria are as follows:
Spice
Fruit Content
Freshness
Texture
Stickiness
So chronologically, this is how it went:
I was bitterly disappointed by Pick'n Pay. Their service was terrible, and their selection of hot cross buns was SO sad: with batches completely quished and the remaining sad, and visibly not fresh hot cross buns made me run for the hills. I was desperate, though, so I picked up a pack, only to discover after waiting FOREVER to be served, that they were chocolate chip hot cross buns! I am sorry, I know they're popular, but I am such a snobby purist. I just dumped them at the till and walked out.
For my second test spot, @zaludick bought me fresh hot cross buns from Food Lover's Market, and these really almost won the prize. They were a tad bit underspiced, but still generous on the fruit, and they ticked all the other boxes! Check out the scientific process of testing we set up. So for tasting purposes, one completely plain, one with butter, and one with butter and jam.
Checkers, who historically win the prize, were also disappointing this year. They decided not to bake any of their hot cross buns "in-house" and had them mass-produced in a factory. So disappointing as shoppers would show up in their hundreds us to grab their batch (or 3!), directly off the oven trays. Look, having worked in a factory myself, I know that prepacked hot cross buns can still be delicious, but they're just not the same. There is something about that silver tray of freshly baked buns versus the plain packet of mass-produced ones that puts me off. I also know that both the factory and the shops will push that expiry date as much as they can, often leaving their customers with stale and subpar "treats." However, I must say, these weren't half bad. They had good spice content and a generous amount of fruit. They tasted fresh, too. They failed the stickiness test, though, and the texture between being soft on the inside and ever so slightly crispy on the outside, but they were the same throughout.
This year, though, my vote definitely went to Spar. The first lot of hot cross buns were very tasty, and I bought them while I was frantically looking for the last few Cadbury's bunny chocolates, which are impossible to find. The staff were extremely helpful in finding the last few bars, which was a delightful surprise! I needed them for my cupcakes, which I will post about next. They were homebaked and ticked all the boxes for me. Every single one. Then, just to seal the deal, on Easter Sunday, @Mathew-williams and I stopped there just to see if they had any, and Matthew emerged from the shop, juggling two trays that were so hot they were burning his fingers! Oh my gosh. There is nothing like it. Hot cross buns, fresh out of the oven. Needing absolutely no embellishments like butter or jam. Just utter perfection. We ripped open the packaging and munched them as we drove! They were so sticky I almost stuck to the steering wheel! Absolute WINNERS!
Sorry, for you, Woolworths, I didn't bother to try your horrendously priced hot cross buns. People were raving about the Biscoff/Nutella-filled buns, but with only 4 in a pack and triple the price, I just put Nutella in my cupcakes!
Well done to Spar in Flamingo Vlei for winning and going above and beyond, making my Easter incredible and topping my list!