Easter hot cross bun fight rises to new heights
Hot cross buns, a tasty legacy of Christian tradition, suggest great food may be a religion unto itself.
BOWAN ISLAND BAKERY
Large, soft and light on the fruit, but in a good way. Sourdough magician Bowan Island makes a top dough, with organic wheat flour, buttermilk, yellowbox honey, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, cassia and sea salt. Add fruit/mixed peel or Belgian chocolate (no apparent fruit, despite what the label says) and you’ve got yourself a religious experience.
$2 (traditional); $12.50 for six (chocolate). Drummoyne & Zetland cafes, NSW; elsewhere bowanisland.com.au
DAVID JONES
DJs’ first own-brand buns are as packed as the shoe department on sale day, the classic fruit version with generous amounts of sultanas and spice, the Belgian dark chocolate model bursting with juicy cranberries. They’re on the smaller, denser side, preservative-free — and so, just like the sales, best attacked on Day 1.
$2.95 each (fruit); $4.95 (chocolate). Stores nationally; davidjones.com.au
BAKER D CHIRICO
Melbourne’s baker to the stars Daniel Chirico produces a bun that blitzes the culinary box office: a crisp, generous glaze atop a slow-leavened, and quite filling bun laced with just the right level of cinnamon, orange, ginger, nutmeg, clove and two fruits: sultanas and raisins. Warmed in the oven, with good butter … Heaven.
$3.80 each. St Kilda and Carlton, Vic
BLACK STAR PASTRY
What makes Black Star the bun king? It’s the light but substantial (slow fermented) spicy dough, the lashings of fruit and peel. But mostly it’s frankincense, the heady hero ingredient in the sticky glaze on those rounded, perfectly tanned tops. If you don’t like perfume, look away … for the rest, let us pray.
Six for $25. Rosebery, Newtown & CBD, Sydney; pop-up in Carlton, Vic. blackstarpastry.com.au