For our great friends in Europe and around the world this is what the British people eat at Easter time (as well as chocolate eggs). HOT CROSS BUNS:
Most of us eat them toasted with butter, but not all. This lunchtime Yorkshire Bakers Thomas the Baker and Cooplands go head to head in a blind taste test challenge! One Lancashire man and two Yorkshire women blind taste both bakeries Hot Cross Buns. Taste Test Winner on majority vote will be announced later this afternoon…
73 Phil G4OBK
Phil,
Mmmm delicious - one of my favourites.
They must be known further afield than you think.
My son lives in Singapore, and he has just bought some for Easter from a local bakery round the corner from him.
Regard to all this Easter.
73’s
David
So that’s where all the flour went ! 
Here’s the Bavarian equivalent - fresh out of our oven 30 minutes ago…
An HEFEZOPF
Now I just need to find equivalents for Steak & Kidney Pie and Cornish Pasties and I’ll be set!
73 Ed.
This is a typical Easter sweet thing we eat in Spain: TORRIJAS DE LECHE (296 Kcal/100g)
This one too: BUÑUELOS DE VIENTO (408 Kcal/100g)
I love them all…
73,
Guru
Apparently there is sufficient capacity in the UK for only 15% of the shoppers to buy 1 bag/week and as supermarkets never seem to be out of flour normally, the supply chain and demand chain are balanced. There is no shortage of flour, just in consumer sized bags. Catering sizes are readily available as so many cafes/coffee shops etc. are closed. What’s hard is for people to do is to cooperate and 1 person buy a 10 kg bag and sell 9kg to their colleagues because we have to keep apart.
Having just returned from my weekly shop (which was madness when social distancing is considered), they had overflowing aisles of loo roll but no flour, no cooking oil, no pasta. Unusually for Scotland the fruit and veg aisles were quite depleted. There were Turkey Crowns on offer for half price. Now Turkey is not a traditional Easter meal in the UK. But half price… so were having another Christmas chez 'FMF. I bought some Gin so I can have some Martinis over the weekend.
Family pack of 18 Andrex Supersoft toilet rolls received yesterday as substitute for a pack of 16 Andrex Quilts and gratefully accepted! Received as part of a £200 order put in online to Morissons 3 weeks ago. Van came to Pickering from Darlington, almost 50 miles away. Next customer for the van in Scarborough. Main item missing from order - baked beans. Wanted bag of flour also - non in stock, so XYL cannot make rhubarb tray bake from fresh rhubarb in our garden… stewed with custard instead.
73 Phil
The taste test has concluded…
**Thomas the Baker Hot Cross Buns **
Weight (each) 62 grams
Mixed dried fruit including cherries
Price £1.40 for 4
Cooplands Hot Cross Buns
Weight 79 grams
Mixed dried fruit - no cherries
Price £1 for 4
After toasting on one side, the Thomas Hot X Buns were of a light composition and two of us thought, were lacking in flavour. Preferred by one taster only.
The Coopland Hot X Buns were of a firmer composition and were noticably spiced with more flavour. Preferred by two tasters.
In the blind taste test the Cheaper Cooplands Hot X buns came out best with a score of 2 to 1.
So tomorrows essential shopping when the streets are quiet, before the SOTA Activators take to the airwaves and my station is opened up, is to bike to Coopland Bakers and buy another 8 Hot X buns!
73 Phil
Thanks, Ed. My Hamburg-based daughter has issued us an Easter Baking challenge, and thanks to you I know now that I will be baking Hefezopf tonight! Looks tasty!
73, Jim KK0U
I could never bake anything like that but I married a rather special German lady who can paint, translate and bake.
73 Ed.
We like hot cross buns here as well.
Fresh out of the oven… too bad there is no way for me to convey the amazing aroma!
Had a mate who likes them with lots of butter…his wife saw them and asked what was that on them, he told her it was cheese…LOL
73 de Geoff vk3sq
If that’s the first time you’ve made one Jim - it certainly looks like a great effort. If it tastes as good as it looks, you’re on to a winner!
73 Ed.
My Daughter Heather (G7SPP) yesterday sent me this photo of her hot cross buns from just south of Hamburg. I can smell the “allspice” from here. With 2 daughters and husband under lockdown, I cannot imagine they are still there.
David
G0EVV
What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole during Easter? A hot cross bunny.
Elliott, K6EL
…No animals were injured during the creation of this joke…
