The Bath bun is a sweet, round yeast bread with a sugar cube in the center and candied fruit zest on top. It was invented by Dr. William Oliver in Bath, England, and is often confused with the Sally Lunn sandwich. The buns remain popular in bakeries and tea shops.
The Bath bun is a large, round, sweet yeast bread traditionally made in the historic city of Bath, one hundred miles west of London, Great Britain. The bath bun is known for being decadently sweet, as bakers place a sugar cube in the center of the loaf and top the bun with candied fruit zest and crushed sugar. In addition to butter, flour and egg, other sweet ingredients added to the bath sandwich include currants, raisins or sultanas. Other versions of the sandwich also have almonds added as an extra topping.
The bath sandwich is often confused with the Sally Lunn sandwich, which is also a bath delicacy. Sally Lunns is made with a relatively light bread that can be eaten alongside sweet or savory foods. What adds to the confusion is that restaurants and bakers both tend to sell buns. Sometimes the buns are also confused with other fruit buns, spicy hot buns, or other French pastries that are also round in shape. The bath sandwich, however, is an English invention and a treat for those with a sweet tooth.
Bath is famous for its hot springs and natural spas, and these are what led to the invention of the bath sandwich. Bath sandwiches were supposedly invented by an 18th century physician named Dr. William Oliver, who was the founder of Bath General Hospital. Sufferers were often attracted to the purported healing properties of the bath springs, and Dr. Oliver developed the recipe for feeding something nourishing to his patients as they drank a glass of warm thermal water.
The original bath bun recipe called for a sweet dough made from wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, egg, and butter, and a topping of crushed cumin seeds; these were cumin seeds dipped repeatedly in boiling sugar. The sandwiches proved so delicious and tempting that Dr. Oliver found his patients ate too much of them and gained weight. This led him to create an alternative, less fattening recipe called the Bath Oliver biscuit.
The bath sandwich’s popularity outlived Dr. Oliver. These buns remain one of the most popular products sold by bakeries and tea shops, not just in Bath, but in other parts of Britain and the English-speaking world as well. All variations of these sandwiches are served at teatime, but it is only in the teashops of Bath where they are eaten with a glass of hot sulphurous thermal water.
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