Easy Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

This easy to make Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding is the ultimate way to use leftover hot cross buns. Baked in delicious vanilla custard, the lightly spiced hot cross buns are filled with sweet orange marmalade and oozing puddles of melted dark chocolate for brunch or dessert this Easter.

For me, Easter is all about having fun in the kitchen and enjoying traditional treats like Hot Cross Buns, citrus cookies and Easter eggs along with all the chocolate! Easter desserts and treats like my Mini Egg Cookies, No-Bake Mini Egg Cheesecake and Lemon Biscotti are family favourites!

This year I was super happy to join forces with my favourite UK supermarket, Waitrose, and come up with a fantastic Easter inspired recipe using their quality ingredients. So, today I'm sharing with you my twist on bread and butter pudding, a British classic pudding that is a family favourite.

What is Bread and Butter Pudding?

It's a very traditional dessert made to use up stale, leftover pieces of bread. The slices of buttered bread are layered in an oven dish, seasoned with spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon and then covered and soaked in an egg custard. The bread pudding is then baked and served warm with cream or ice cream. It's a cheap, comforting dish that we Brits love!

My recipe takes the basis of bread pudding but uses the humble Hot Cross Bun as the backbone as it's so quintessentially part of Easter. I've gone for Waitrose St Clements Hot Cross Buns as they have all the familiar spices, soaked raisins but also the peel of lemons and oranges for a citrus kick.

I wanted to highlight the citrus even more and so the buns are cut in half and both sides smothered in Waitrose Essential No Peel Seville Orange Marmalade. (Having no peel in the marmalade is a game-changer for my kids as they are not fans of big chunks of peel. This marmalade is perfect with its sweet orange flavour and they loved it in these buns. Hoorah!

Easter isn't Easter without chocolate so I added chopped Waitrose Belgian Dark Chocolate 54%, into each of the buns, and when baked it melts into big puddles throughout the pudding that tastes AMAZING alongside the hot cross buns spices and citrus flavours.

This is such a comforting classic that will become your next family favourite breakfast, brunch or dessert recipe. It is super quick to put together but hearty, flavourful and welcoming. Oh yeah, and it makes your house smell incredible too!

This post is sponsored by Waitrose. All views and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Emma Duckworth Bakes possible.

Ingredients needed

I've used my favourite ingredients from Waitrose and shared them with you today as for years I have loved the quality of their products. When there are so few ingredients in a recipe, it's in your best interest to use the BEST quality ingredients that you can find as it really makes a difference to the taste and flavour.

I understand that some of my audience can't access Waitrose ingredients, but don't worry - this recipe will work perfectly well with ingredients that you can source from your local store. Here are a couple of pointers on some of the ingredients.

• Hot cross buns - I used Waitrose St Clements Hot Cross Buns as I loved their flavour profile with the chocolate and marmalade. But you can use traditional hot cross buns or even chocolate ones. I've even seen sticky toffee ones that would be amazing here! I used 8 buns and they are best when a day or two old. The stale bread soaks up the custard better when a bit drier.
• Marmalade - Waitrose Essential No Peel Seville Orange Marmalade, was my choice was this recipe. If you prefer peel in your marmalade then choose one that has a thin or thick-cut peel in it.
• Chocolate - I've always preferred to use chopped chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips as it melts once baked. Waitrose Belgian Dark Chocolate 54% combines the perfect balance of cocoa and sweetness. If you prefer to use milk chocolate or a higher percentage of dark chocolate then feel free. Or you could use up any leftover Easter eggs (if there are any leftovers that is!!).
• Eggs - 3 large eggs are used. Make sure they are at room temperature. If you forget to take them out of the fridge ahead of time then place them in a bowl of warm water for ten minutes.

How to make Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

In a couple of easy steps, I'll show you how to make this nostalgic pudding. You're going to love how simple these steps are! There are basically two parts to making this Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding, firstly preparing the hot cross buns, and secondly, making the custard. That's it!

*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*

Prepare the hot cross buns

1. Prepare the baking dish. Grease with butter a baking dish to prevent the buns from sticking (Image 1). Preheat the oven to 170C/340F.

2. Cut buns in half and slather them in marmalade. With a serrated knife, cut the hot cross buns in half. Then cover each cut side in Waitrose Essential No Peel Seville Orange Marmalade (Image 2).

3. Sandwich buns with chocolate. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate onto the marmalade on the bottom half of the hot cross bun. Then place the top onto it, essentially sandwiching the chocolate (Image 3).

4. Add buns to the baking dish. Place buns into the baking dish and brush any remaining marmalade onto of the buns, or dollop it around if you prefer. Sprinkle any leftover chocolate around the buns (Image 4).

NOTE: To fit the 8 buns into my baking dish, I had to stand them on their edges and lean them against each other. If you have a longer baking dish you may be able to sit them flat. Both ways come out with the same result ... a delicious Easter pudding!

Make the custard, soak the buns and bake.

5. Make the custard. Making this custard couldn’t be any easier. Add all the custard ingredients, eggs, sugar, milk, cream and vanilla extract into a bowl and whisk until well combined. There’s absolutely no need for getting out an electric hand-held whisk for this. We’re keeping it simple! (Image 5 & 6)

6. Soak chocolate orange hot cross buns and soak. Now the hot cross buns get a lovely custard bath! Pour the custard mixture all over the buns and gently press them down into the custard. Leave the buns to sit in the custard for 10 to 15 minutes to soak up some of that lovely custard. Not all of it will soak into the bread- this is absolutely fine (Image 7 & 8). Dot the remaining butter on top of the buns.

Bake. Place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the buns are golden brown and the custard is just set. Once baked, take it out of the oven and set it aside for ten minutes. Serve and enjoy whilst warm and the chocolate is gooey!

Variations

Bread and butter pudding is a super versatile dish to make. You can change up lots of the ingredients to create different flavour combinations that would suit you. Here are some of my ideas:

Types of bread to use: Once hot cross buns are out of season, there are lots of different options you can choose from. Use sliced fruit bread, brioche bread, croissants, panettone or even spiced tea cakes. Just note that they are best when a little stale. We've made Jamie Oliver's Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding at Christmas and it is, as he calls it, totally bonkers. In an amazing way!

Switch up the marmalade to jam: Rather than going down the chocolate orange route, you can add in any type of jam that you prefer instead, such as raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry jam. In my cookbook 'Simply Sweet Nostalgic Bakes' I created a bread and butter pudding with fig jam and fresh figs. Totally delicious with a summery vibe.

Add in fruit: With whatever jam you choose to slather on your chosen bread, once the bread is soaked in the custard, then add some fresh fruit over the pudding to bake in the oven. Raspberries, strawberries, peaches, blueberries or apricots would be incredible added to this pudding.

Flavour the custard: In my recipe, I haven't included any extra spices as the hot cross buns already have them in the dough. However, if you use a type of bread that isn't spiced, or if you want a bigger boost of spice, then add extra cinnamon, nutmeg and all-spice to the custard. You could even turn the custard into a chocolate custard by whisking in 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder into the custard.

Frequently asked questions