Our taste test: Hot or not

''One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns.'' Isn't that how the rhyme goes? Not these days, with the price of petrol, GST and all that. When you hand over $2 at a bakery for a single hot cross bun, you want it to taste good. So Hawke's Bay Today's finest taste experts got together to find the most delicious bakery-made hot cross bun in the Bay.

We take our buns very seriously in the Hawke's Bay Today office. Very seriously indeed. Fruit has to be plump, well-distributed, citrus peel a must. Is the texture fluffy and light or delightfully dense? Soft or crusty top?
The check list was long. Game faces were on. The blind tasting of hot cross buns from six Hawke's Bay bakeries had nothing to do with the fact it was 3pm and some staff needed a hit of sugar and spice.
None of the taste testers knew the origin of each hot cross bun. But there was immediate ooh-ing and aah-ing over exhibit c, from Olive Branch Bread Company in Napier, the moment the selection tray was revealed. Olive Branch's hot cross bun stood out from the others for its homemade, artisan look. This bun looked genuine, said one taster. It was darker, flatter and once prised open, tasters were delighted to see little treasures of candied peel.
Olive Branch's bun had a rich flavour and was declared the overall favourite by half of the tasting team.
The other half preferred the rather unassuming, lofty number from Jackson's Bakery. It didn't look like much, but oh my, it had good flavoursome fruit and between mouthfuls, one taste expert declared with the utmost authority, a "good squishy texture". Again the addition of fruit peel was a winner.
That would've suited New Zealand's queen of home baking and former Hastings resident Jo Seagar who said "there was definitely something missing" when citrus peel was omitted.
Mrs Seagar loaned her expertise to Hawke's Bay Today s taste test. She liked her hot cross buns with "lots of cinnamon and spiciness and nothing mean about the fruit".
On that basis, Mrs Seagar would've approved of the bun from Baker's Delight. It looked a bit anaemic, but it had a pleasant smell, flavour and the variation in fruit (currants!) proved a hit.
The good-looking bun from Brumbys Hot Bread Shop had a good puffy texture with a lightly crusty top. But the cinnamon taste was overwhelming, leaving tasters yearning for more variety in the spice.
Buns at the bottom of the pile were from Heaven's Bakery & Cafe and New World Hastings City supermarket. Heaven's bun had a yeasty flavour, more bread than bun, said one taster. But it was partially redeemed by its plump and tasty fruit.
New World's bun ticked most boxes - good cinnamon smell, nice big raisins - but failed to pull out the big guns in any one area. Tasters unanimously turned their noses up at the carnivalesque flavours - mocha, jaffa, lemon with currant and cardamom, and especially the pineapple lump flavour. It felt sacrilegious to link such buns with the 600-year-old "spice bun" recipe characteristically rich in nutmeg, raisins and currants.
Mrs Seagar said nothing beats a homemade hot cross bun. But if you're daunted by the recipe, rest assured, there's plenty of good local bakeries willing to do the hard work for you.