Following on from my post earlier in the week, I assembled a team of tasters (Dan, Ali, Timmeh and Maria) and a selection of fourteen different hot cross buns to conduct The Official Tasting.
So as not to be influenced by any bun prejudices, we decided to conduct the tastings blind. For consistency, we also decided to taste the buns un-toasted and un-warmed. Butter was provided, and the tasting panel were advised that if they elected to have butter, they had to have it on every bun. (I elected to skip the butter.)
J set up the buns on numbered tasting stations (right), so he was the only one who knew which was which. The rest of us went round and tasted each bun, wrote down comments and gave each one a score out of 10 – giving each bun a total score out of 50.
The contenders ranged from organic artisan bakeries right through to Bakers Delight and Coles. The results were intriguing, to say the least!
And now, in order of highest overall score:
| THE WINNER:
Natural Tucker ($2.40, 136g), with a score of 41.5/50. We all really liked this – the bun had good density but a soft doughy texture, lots of juicy fruit and a good spice flavour. A pretty-looking bun, too. |
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| 2nd Place
Babka ($2.20, 104g) with a score of 36/50. A simple-looking bun, we all agreed that this bun had a very good flavour – I think due to the finely grated peel mixed right through, rather than being in large pieces. It had a soft light texture, pretty glaze, and was quite a pale colour compared to many of the other buns. |
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| 3rd Place
Ferguson Plarre ($1.80, 93g), 33/50 This rated quite well overall, but I wasn’t a fan personally. The others liked that it had lots of fruit and peel, but I found its texture very dry and flaky, almost stale. |
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| 4th Place
Sugardough ($2.90, 80g), 32.5/50 Ali was the only one who didn’t like this, commenting that she thought it was “bland”, but everyone else loved the flavour and fruit. The glaze was also marked highly – not many of the buns had such a nice shiny top. |
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| 5th Place
Bakers Delight ($1.30, 73g), 30.5/50 Well well well! This was a surprise. The Bakers Delight entry crept in under the radar – it was a very simple soft bun with no peel, that didn’t attract big marks from anyone but managed to get a solid 6/10 across the board. Not bad. |
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| 6th Place
A Treat of France ($2.20, 76g), 30/50 A pleasant “textbook” hot cross bun with a lovely texture, although all agreed it could use a bit more spice. |
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| 7th Place
Loafer Bread ($2.60, 93g), 29.5/50 This bun had quite an unusual springy/chewy sourdough tex |
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| 8th Place
Baker D. Chirico ($2.50, 83g), 28.5/30 I was really surprised this bakery didn’t rank higher (which makes me all the more glad we did the tastings blind). Comments were positive about the fruit and spice, but less so about the texture. Personally I think this is the sort of bun that really doesn’t work eaten cold, I think it needs toasting and lots of butter. (Maria gave this bun a Sad Face |
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| 9th Place
Coles ($0.60 per bun in a 6-pack, 90g), 26/30 Bet you didn’t see that coming – we certainly didn’t! Maybe Messrs Calombaris and Stone are onto something. The general consensus was that bun was pleasant and inoffensive, if not particularly exciting. Timmeh and Maria both commented though that the cross on top was too hard and not pleasant to eat. |
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| 10th Place
La Madre Bakery ($2.00, 137g), 25.5/50 The second-heaviest bun of the day, La Madre’s buns were very dense and had a strong sourdough flavour. They had lots of spice and good fruit, but none of us were big fans of the weight and texture. I suspect this is the sort of bun that just doesn’t work if you eat it plain – it really needs toasting and butter. |
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| 11th Place
Dench ($2.70, 97g), 25/50 O Dench, I love you so… but your hot cross buns were disappointing. Maria thought there were not enough sultanas; Dan and Ali thought it had too strong an orange peel flavour; I thought it was a bit bland. And not very pretty, let’s face it. |
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| 12th Place
Cavallini ($2.50, 95g), 23.5/50 I’ve always liked Cavallini’s buns in previous years, but this one was not great. It had quite an unusual eggy texture and a very sugary glaze – you could actually see crystals of sugar all over the top. Maria, Timmeh and Ali all thought it was too sweet. I thought it needed more fruit. |
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| 13th Place
Crumbs Organic Bakehouse ($3.00, 150g), 22/50 The most expensive AND the heaviest bun of the day. Crumbs’ buns were huge, and with nice-looking crosses and glaze, but they weren’t popular – we all thought it tasted more like a loaf of sourdough bread (admittedly with a few sultanas in) than a hot cross bun. Ali did comment that she thought it would be nice toasted with some jam. |
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| 14th Place
Abbotsford Convent Bakery ($1.50, 91g), 6/50 Oh dear. Nobody had anything good |
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– which as a primary school teacher is about the worst criticism she can offer.)Best Bun for Buck
As the price varied so much from bun to bun, we also thought it would be interesting to do a weighted ratio of score divided by price. The winners in that race were as follows:
- Coles (43)
- Bakers Delight (23.4)
- Ferguson Plarre (18.3)
- Natural Tucker (17.3)
- Babka (16.3)
The Sourdough Issue
We all agreed that the density and heaviness of the sourdough buns put them at a disadvantage in a cold tasting. I’ve got some leftovers, so I plan to freeze them and try them later in the week, toasted and with butter, to see how they come up.
(right: the spittoon. Not my idea. This is what happens when you let your little brothers get involved in this sort of event.)
So, what do you think of the results? Any suggestions for how we could improve the tasting process for next year?
KATE