{{Short description|Sweet bun topped with crushed sugar}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox food | name = Bath bun | image = Culture... a bath bun and a pot of tea, Bath, United Kingdom (9605677635).jpg | caption = | alternate_name = | country = [[England]] | region = [[Somerset]] | creator = | course = | type = [[Sweet roll]] | served = | main_ingredient = [[Sugar]], candied fruit peel, [[Zante currant|currants]] or [[raisins]] or [[sultana (grape)|sultanas]] | variations = | calories = | other = }} The '''Bath bun''' is a [[sweet roll]] made from a milk-based [[Baker's yeast|yeast]] dough with crushed sugar sprinkled on top after baking.<ref name="Ayto2012">{{cite book|author=John Ayto|title=The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink|url=https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto|url-access=registration|date=18 October 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-964024-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto/page/23 23]}}</ref><ref name="ElizDavidEngBreadYeast">{{cite book|last1=David|first1=Elizabeth|title=English Bread and Yeast Cookery|date=2001|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0140299748|pages=624}}</ref> Variations in ingredients include enclosing a lump of sugar in the bun<ref name="visitbath"/> or adding candied fruit peel, [[Zante currant|currants]], [[raisins]] or [[sultana (grape)|sultanas]].

The change from a light, shaped bun to a heavier, often fruited or highly sugared irregular one may date from the [[Great Exhibition]] of 1851 when almost a million were produced and consumed in five and a half months (the "London Bath bun").<ref name="ElizDavidEngBreadYeast" />

References to Bath buns date from 1763,<ref name="AboutBrit">{{cite web|url=http://www.aboutbritain.com/towns/bath.asp|title=Bath|publisher=About Britain|accessdate=27 March 2010| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100323103622/http://www.aboutbritain.com/towns/bath.asp| archivedate= 23 March 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> and [[Jane Austen]] wrote in a letter of "disordering my stomach with Bath Bunns" in 1801.<ref name="Ayto2012"/> The original 18th-century recipe used a [[brioche]] or rich egg and butter dough which was then covered with [[caraway]] seeds<ref name="Davidson">Davidson, Alan, "Bun" in ''Oxford Companion to Food'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p.&nbsp;114. {{ISBN|0-19-211579-0}}</ref> coated in several layers of [[sugar]], similar to [[French language|French]] ''[[dragée]]''. <ref name="visitbath">{{cite web|url=http://visitbath.co.uk/site/eating-and-drinking/local-specialities-and-british-favourites/local-bath-delicacies|title=Local Bath Delicacies|publisher=Visit Bath|accessdate=27 March 2010}}</ref>

The bun's creation is attributed to [[William Oliver (physician)|William Oliver]] in the 18th century.<ref>Bender, David A. "Bath bun", in ''A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition'', Oxford University Press.</ref> Oliver also created the [[Bath Oliver]] dry biscuit after the bun proved too fattening for his [[rheumatism|rheumatic]] patients.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/famous-cornish-people/oliver.htm |title=Biography of Dr Oliver |access-date=2006-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116174136/http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/famous-cornish-people/oliver.htm |archive-date=2007-11-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The bun may also have descended from the 18th-century "Bath cake". The buns are still produced in the [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] area of [[England]].<ref name="AboutBrit"/>

Although this is disputed, the 18th-century "Bath cake" may also have been the forerunner of the [[Sally Lunn bun]], which also originates from Bath.<ref name="visitbath"/><ref name="Davidson"/>

==See also== * [[Fruit bun]] * [[Hot cross bun]] * [[Manchet]] * [[Sally Lunn bun]] * [[List of British breads]] * [[List of buns]] * [[Semla]]

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192200/http://www.bun-recipes.co.uk/Tbl_Recipes_view.asp?editid1=106 Traditional Bath bun recipe]}} *[https://www.food.com/recipe/bath-buns-83829 Bath bun with fruit] *[https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/bath-buns/#MqbqEvS98vdBwaFZ.97 Bath bun containing sugar cube] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071116174136/http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/famous-cornish-people/oliver.htm Dr. Oliver]

{{British bread}}

[[Category:Somerset cuisine]] [[Category:1760s introductions]] [[Category:1763 beginnings]] [[Category:British breads]] [[Category:Yeast breads]] [[Category:Sweet breads]] [[Category:Culture in Bath, Somerset]] [[Category:History of Bath, Somerset]] [[Category:Buns]] [[Category:British cakes]]

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