Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

This hot cross bun bread and butter pudding is the perfect festive Easter dessert! Easy to make, with just a few simple ingredients.

this recipe

Looking for a fun Easter dessert that's easy to make and tastes amazing? 

This hot cross bun bread and butter pudding is a festive take on classic bread and butter pudding - a British dessert that makes the most of almost-stale bread. While our recipe uses fresh hot cross buns, you could also use this recipe as a way to finish off any leftover buns you have lying around post-Easter. . . if they last that long! 

Jump to:

• Flavour Profile
• Why We Love It
• Test Kitchen Notes
• Ingredients and Substitutions
• The Process
• 📖 Recipe

Flavour Profile

🍯 sweet
🌰 spiced 
🍮 custardy

Why We Love It

• Simple ingredients: This recipe uses basic ingredients to create an incredible dessert. The most 'unusual' ingredient is store-bought hot cross buns, but if you're living in Australia or the UK, they should be relatively easy to come by around Easter.
• Easy: This recipe requires slicing, mixing, pouring and baking. That's it! You don't have to be a pro baker to pull this off.
• Nostalgic: This custardy pudding is a delicious, nostalgic comfort food. The perfect way to round out an Easter lunch, it's sweet and satisfying without verging on cloying.

Test Kitchen Notes

• We love that this is an Easter dessert that's chocolate-free! It's so often the case that by the time the main meal rolls around, everyone's already nibbled on a chocolate egg or two . . . and the chocolate fatigue can happen quickly. When it strikes, people will be glad for a non-chocolate dessert option.
• Usually, bread butter pudding has sultanas added, but using fruit hot cross buns streamlines this step. If you don't like fruit buns (or sultanas), you can skip them altogether.
• If your pudding starts to brown on top before the custard has set, cover to protect the buns from burning while the custard continues baking.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Hot cross buns: We used traditional fruit hot cross buns from Woolworths. Feel free to use any flavour/variation you prefer.
• Eggs: We used 3 average-sized eggs in this recipe. Eggs are a crucial component in the custard, so we don't recommend leaving them out.
• Caster sugar: This sweetens the custard. You could also use table sugar or brown sugar for a more caramelised flavour.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla adds extra flavour. If you don't have it, you can leave it out.
• Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon adds a little spice and depth. If you like less cinnamon, use ¼ teaspoon instead.
• Milk: We used regular whole milk in this recipe. We haven't tried it with skim milk but think it would also work.
• Cream: Cream makes for a richer custard - we don't recommend skipping or swapping it.
• Butter: We used softened butter for this recipe, but you could also use spreadable butter to make it slightly easier to spread.
• Demerara sugar: Demerara sugar sprinkled over the budding before baking makes for a slightly caramelised, crunchy topping. It's not essential, but highly recommended.
• Vanilla ice cream: We serve this pudding with vanilla ice cream, but you can use any ice cream flavour you'd like. We think this would also taste great with cinnamon, caramel or butterscotch-flavoured ice cream. If you don't like ice cream, you can skip it or serve the pudding with custard instead.

The Process

Slice the hot cross buns, butter them, then lay them in a greased baking dish.

Mix up the custard ingredients.

Pour the custard over the top of the buns and sprinkle everything with Demerara sugar.

Bake the hot cross bun pudding until the buns are golden brown and the custard has set. Divide into servings and serve with vanilla ice cream.

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📖 Recipe

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