A team of about a dozen Saint Vincent monks were working from early morning into the evening Thursday as they carried out a new tradition at the Benedictine community.
Their mission: preparing nearly 1,200 hot cross buns for pickup by customers on Good Friday.
The monks have been enjoying the buns on Sundays during Lent. When they decided to offer the sweet treats to the community, the orders came pouring in.
Brother Angelo Lichtenstein, who was appointed the monastery’s bread baker in November, was expecting to fill perhaps 75 orders of six buns each. Instead, his team had 198 boxes to fill with the handmade buns.
“We only advertised for 10 days,” Lichtenstein said, noting word of mouth was just as important as social media and fliers for attracting patrons from the adjacent Saint Vincent College campus in Unity and beyond. “It caught on very quick. We could have sold more if we hadn’t cut the orders off.”
Lichtenstein was up hours before dawn Thursday preparing the yeast-raised dough from unbleached flour produced at the monastery’s gristmill. Later in the morning, other monks arrived to help with the labor-intensive task of separating the 180 pounds of dough into individual buns.
While area residents may be used to store-bought hot cross buns that are similar to a dinner roll, Lichtenstein is using a recipe that turns out versions reminiscent of a doughnut. The buns have proved popular at a Catholic parish in Cambria County.
In addition to golden raisins and vanilla icing in the form of a cross, recalling the Good Friday crucifixion, the Saint Vincent buns have a raspberry jam filling, symbolizing the blood of Christ.
Brother Xavier O’Mara, who helped brush the buns with orange glaze after they emerged from one of two vertical convection ovens, noted they were being sold at a below-market price: $9 for a half-dozen.
That’s a Benedictine rule followed by all artisans in Saint Vincent’s monastic community, he explained.
“That’s one of our operating principles, to be very fair,” he said.
While sales of the buns support the monks and the gristmill, Lichtenstein said, “We do this because we just like to do it.”
Now that the monks have perfected the multi-step process of making the buns, Lichtenstein said, ”Maybe one day we’ll sell pretzels.”
