It is time. Hot Cross Buns are one of my favorite things in the whole, wide world. And this year brings some new ones - new to me, anyway!
Bouchon Bakery: They only start making this iconoclastic, cardamom-scented bun closer to Easter Sunday, so I have yet to have one this year. However, I'm confident that it will be as outstanding as ever. It's big and full of fruit, but doesn't hold up: my mother always insists on saving it overnight and it's never as good day-old.
Galloway's Bakery: I can't believe I'd never tried this! Galloway's, not too far from my parents' house in Westchester, is an old-school family bakery that makes the world's best cinnamon rolls and glazed donut holes. Until this weekend, I'd never tried their HCB, but when my mom and I went on Sunday and we saw the hand-written sign advertising them, well, the die was cast. While it wasn't quite up to the standard of the ultimate old-fashioned bun (that of the late, lamented College Bakery of Carroll Gardens) it was still very tasty: a fluffy base that tasted like a good Parker House roll, a good amount of fruit, and of course plenty of gooey icing.
The Breslin: This split, toasted British-style bun is on the menu year-round. It really is like what one (or, I guess, April Bloomfield) gets in the UK: not too sweet, flour-paste cross, just currants. It's wonderful.
Entemann's: I have a soft spot for these, unabashedly commercial and sweet and suspiciously long-lived though they might be. My heart leaps in my chest the first time I see their purple box at the store - or, as it did this year, the bodega in Fort Greene!
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