You know you are getting old when you worry about your buns!

Hot cross buns. This is the way they look and they taste good

There are lots of things that are said to show you are getting old; police officers look younger, chicken doesn't taste like chicken, being unable to get out of a chair or bend over to pick up the post without making groaning sounds. However, at this time of year I think the big test is around hot cross buns.

I decided this having bought a few packets of HCB's from local supermarkets in the run up to Easter. As a chewed on a bun a few thoughts struck me.

1) The buns were just not bun shape. They were so flat they could have been doing an impression of a pancake. 

2) They are soft and a bit spongy.

3) Has the traditional spice disappeared from the recipe?

The answer, of course, is to make your own and I realised that despite having made lots of bread and lots of cakes over the years I've never made HCBs. So while a lot of people, us included, invest a lot of time, effort and money into making Christmas cakes, do to many of us depend on shop bought HCB?

A trawl of our shelves of cookery books failed to produce a recipe for HCB's, a surprise in itself. So we turned to the web and found a few recipes. Never one to ignore a passing bandwagon we jumped on board the Paul Hollywood baking bandwagon which is prompting a revolution in (some) kitchens, and used his recipe from the BBC website. First time round the buns were OK, though a bit hard. Though that may have been because we had baked bread in the oven just before putting the buns in so the oven may have been too hot.

A few days later the aforementioned Mr. Hollywood was back on TV doing an Easter themed programme with the doyen of baking Mary Berry and HCBs were on the agenda. He used a slightly amended method so we headed back to the kitchen and gave this version a try, also lowering the temp in the oven. We also replaced the currants with cranberries, but this was a personal thing.

Pleased to say this recipe worked out great and we ended up with HCBs that were 

1) Bun shaped

2) Good texture

3) Nicely spiced.

So, as the baking revolution sweeps the UK will we see the return of the home baked HCB or have the bland supermarket versions altered the nations taste-buds?