Ingredients
1/2 C warm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 C milk, scalded
1/2 C butter
1/2 C Pioneer Sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 C raisins, dusted in flour
4 1/2 – 5 C flour
Lemon Frosting:
1 C Pioneer Confectioner’s Powdered Sugar, sifted
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. water

Directions
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Meanwhile, scald milk, add butter and let melt in the hot milk. When the milk has cooled to warm add it to the dissolved yeast. Add egg, Pioneer Sugar, 2 cups flour, salt & cinnamon; beat well. Add dusted raisins and mix in remaining flour to form soft dough.

Knead mixture on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. Place dough in a large greased bowl, turning to grease all sides of the dough. Cover and let rise in warm place until double. Punch down. Shape dough into buns and place on buttered cookie sheet.

Cover and let rise 30 minutes, then very carefully press the shape of a cross into each bun with the back of a spatula or butter knife.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 – 15 minutes. Make the shape of a cross on top of the bun with icing. Serve warm.

Lemon Frosting:
In a mixing bowl add the powdered sugar, lemon juice and water. Mix until smooth. (If icing is too watery, add more powder sugar until you reach the consistency you want).


*In England the most notable Good Friday custom is baking hot cross buns, which are almost universally eaten for breakfast on Good Friday morning. These are buns, or spiced rolls, round in shape, with a cross indented in the top. The custom is said to have originated in 1361 at St. Alban's Abbey, when one of the monks baked them as gifts for the poor.
All kinds of beliefs prevail as to the curative properties of the Good Friday buns. Unlike common bread, they are supposed not to grow moldy when kept and stale buns are retained for all kinds of purposes - for grating into medicines, as charms against shipwreck, as a means of keeping rats out of corn, and as a general "good luck" talisman for the household, to be hung from the ceiling on a string.