The Bath bun is a sweet roll made from a milk-based yeast dough with crushed sugar sprinkled on top after baking.[1][2] Variations in ingredients include enclosing a lump of sugar in the bun[3] or adding candied fruit peel, currants, raisins or 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").[2]
References to Bath buns date from 1763,[4] and Jane Austen wrote in a letter of "disordering my stomach with Bath Bunns" in 1801.[1] The original 18th-century recipe used a brioche or rich egg and butter dough which was then covered with caraway seeds[5] coated in several layers of sugar, similar to Frenchdragée. [3]
The bun's creation is attributed to William Oliver in the 18th century.[6] Oliver also created the Bath Oliver dry biscuit after the bun proved too fattening for his rheumatic patients.[7] The bun may also have descended from the 18th-century "Bath cake". The buns are still produced in the Bath area of England.[4]
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.[3][5]