The Leftover Hot Cross Bun Solution

You don’t have to explain the why or how of it, I’ve been there. I understand. You bought seven packs of hot cross buns for the Easter weekend breakfasts and you’ve still got two packs leftover.

What now?

Fear not, dear reader, I have the answer to all your problems which include an excess of hot cross buns which are on the verge of growing hospital grade penicillin.

This dessert not only clears out your bread basket, but also adds a nice in-keeping-with-the-theme-of-the-holidays flair to your family get together.

Chances are you’ll even have all the ingredients – sugar, vanilla essence, milk, eggs, butter – you need in the pantry already. Over Easter you’ll probably even have a bit of cream tucked away somewhere behind the leftover pav.

Better still…no. No, that’s not giving the dish its due.

Best of all (!!!), it only takes a couple of minutes to pull together. Most of the work is done by the oven. I used a mixmaster in this video below, but the day before I made two with a whisk and if anything it was quicker.

Also, don’t worry if it’s Sunday and you bought the hot cross buns on Thursday. Here’s the thing: day old hot cross buns make an even better pudding.

I don’t know why, that’s just science, or possibly an Easter miracle.

If you need more inspiration on how to best use your Easter leftovers, be sure to check out the Woolworths Food Savers website. They have loads of recipes to ensure you’re wasting less and saving more post Easter celebrations.

You will need:

6 hot cross buns of your choosing (trust me on this, go with Woolworths White Choc and Raspberry Hot Cross Buns)
60g unsalted butter
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups milk
300ml cream
1/4 cup additional chocolate (I used melts)
a sprinkle of cinnamon

STEP ONE: Halve, slice or pull apart the buns and butter the bejesus out of them (I can say that because it’s Easter) before adding them to a baking tray.

STEP TWO: Place the egg yolks, caster sugar and vanilla essence and whisk together until the colour of the mix lightens. Add milk and cream and whisk a little more.

STEP THREE: Pour the liquid over the buns, being careful not to waste any of it by splashing unnecessarily. Now you have to let it sit for 15 minutes so the buns absorb the glorious liquid. Every five minutes press the buns down gently because they’ll have a tendency to float until soaked. Do this with your fingers and you can lick them. You’re welcome.

STEP FOUR: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

STEP FIVE: Cook at 180 degrees for 35 minutes.

STEP SIX: Serve with an additional dollop of cream. Expect praise. Try not to gloat.

Here’s a quick video showing how easy it all is. 

Raising a family on little more than laughs

this post sponsored by Woolworths

3 Comments

  • Today I learned “Hot Cross Buns” is not just a song that my kids play on repeat to annoy me… I’ll let them know this is a food that is still available in some parts of the world. We’ll have to eat some if we ever make our way that far…

      • Yes for us “Hot Cross Buns” refers only to this one very, very repetitive song that the kids have to practice endlessly for band class, and that song drives me nuts (“Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny two a penny hot cross buns…” then repeat 850 times.) We figured the last actual hot cross buns were probably eaten by some kid in Ireland or France or somewhere in approximately 1850. But now I know better.

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.