Historically eaten on Good Friday, hot cross buns are both sweet and loaded with fragrant spices. The latter is a nod to the embalming spices used for Christ’s burial.

WHEELING — British hot cross buns — iconized in nursery rhyme and song — may be one of the most widely known breads to celebrate Christianity’s Holy Week with the religious symbol. But, a variety of traditional food websites indicate cross pastries are common throughout many of the European nations whose emigrants formed Wheeling.

Sometimes, the sites say, the cross is the shape of the loaf. (An Italian bread that many Wheeling readers may recognize, colomba pasquale, is formed into the shape of a cross-like dove, for example. A Greek bread, akis petretzikis, is made similarly.)

Other times, the cross might be cut into the dough, applied as a dough accent or flour paste before baking, or piped on as sweet icing. (Polish paska bread, for example, includes a braided cross on its top.

Hot cross buns from England, Ireland and other nations associated with the British commonwealth mostly often have an icing cross on their tops.)

The symbolic pastries might have started with Greek bakers in the AD 500s, Wikipedia accounts suggest. Or, it might have been a 14th century British monk who launched the trend, baking up such treats to distribute them to the poor on Good Fridays. That is still the traditional day in multiple locations to eat hot cross buns.

Other common elements of such Holy Week breads include eggs and dairy (which were traditionally restricted or forbidden during Lent until Palm Sunday), an abundance of fragrant spices (a nod to the embalming spices used in Christ’s burial) and the addition of bitter or thorn-appearing ingredients such as citrus peel or almond slivers (to represent Christ’s sufferings.)

Other fun facts: In England, according to Wikipedia, a street hawker’s cry for the sweets — think “one a penny, two a penny” — eventually turned into a nursery rhyme and then a simple song pretty much every novice musician encounters.

That nation’s folklore also attributed medicinal powers to buns that were eaten. When the buns were alternatively hung on display, they were believed to have the ability to prevent everything from shipwrecks to kitchen fires, according to Wikipedia.

So, if you are looking for a new family tradition that was likely an old family tradition — one way or another — here is a classic recipe for hot cross buns that proved holiday worthy in the Wheeling Newspapers test kitchen.

Hot Cross Buns

¾ cups milk

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 package dried yeast

1 teaspoon white, granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice

¼ teaspoon cloves

zest of one orange

2 large eggs

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup raisins or currants

1 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar

1 Tablespoon orange juice (from the zested orange)

Heat milk (dairy is preferred, but nut milk will work) in a glass measuring cup for 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until a drop of the liquid feels warm but not burning hot to the inside of your wrist. Pour the warmed milk into a large mixing bowl.

Using the same measuring cup, melt the butter (dairy is better, but butter-flavored shortening will work) in the microwave. Add the melted butter to the milk and stir to mix. Retest the temperature to make sure a drop will not burn your wrist. (Too hot a mix will kill the yeast and your dough won’t rise.)

Add yeast and white (granulated) sugar. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes or until bubbles start to form at the edge of the mix. (This shows the yeast is working.)

Add brown sugar, salt, orange zest (mince it with a chef’s knife if you don’t have a zester), spices and eggs and mix again.

Measure out flour into a small bowl. Add about one third of the flour to the milk mix and stir with a stout spoon. Continue adding flour until the mix can no longer be stirred. Using one hand, finish mixing the dough, adding a little more flour with your clean hand as needed to shape it into a ball that is moist but not sticky.

Inside the mixing bowl — to save on cleanup — knead the dough with your hand for about 3 minutes or until the dough ball is smooth and springs back after being poked gently. Pour a bit of oil on top of the dough ball, roll it to coat the entire surface, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or kitchen towels and set in a warm place. (A sunny porch or window is great on a warm day.)

When the dough has roughly doubled in size, punch it down with your fist to release air. Add raisins and knead lightly to distribute them throughout the dough.

Grease a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Divide the dough in half, then keep halving each half until you have 16 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and tuck any bunched edges underneath it as you assemble the balls in the pan.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap or kitchen towels and let the dough rise a second time until it looks puffy. This will take about 1 hour on a warm day.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the buns for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Cool to room temperature. Make an icing from 1 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar and 1 Tablespoon orange juice (juice the same orange you zested). Put the mix into a zippered bag, cut off one corner of the bag and pipe crosses onto the buns’ tops.

(If you make these ahead and freeze them, add the crosses after they are thawed.)

Eat warm or toasted. Store at room temperature for a day or two, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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