I love hot cross buns. I love them smeared with butter or dobbled (new word meaning ‘so thickly spread that the only way to do it is with a spoon’) with lemon curd, slathered with peanut butter or Nutella, or both at once.

I always buy too many hot cross buns and end up with a freezer full of them. Oh c’mon, they are only available for four months starting the day after Christmas once a year – I need to stock up. Although, having started eating hot cross buns in February (yes, I am one of those people), by Good Friday I’m looking for something different.

This is different…

Salted Caramel Hot Cross Bun Pudding

Oh yes, you read that correctly. I made this for Good Friday breakfast last year and we ate the whole thing. There were two of us. We didn’t even share with Ted (grapes/raisins are poisonous for dogs). It was THAT good.

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Because we ate the whole thing in one day I haven’t dared make it again because we will eat it all…again.  You need this recipe before the long weekend though, so I am using the photos from last year’s effort. Just imagine them with slightly more photographic skill and a better camera.

My recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s. Which is adapted from a recipe published in the New York Times by Amanda Hesser (co-founder of Food52) – quite a pedigree (and I’m not including myself in that statement 🙂 ).

The best bit about this breakfast is that you can make it the night before and then just bake it in the morning. I am not a morning person so this is perfect for me.

It is actually remarkably easy. You make the caramel (don’t fret if it separates, it’ll all work out in the end), pour into a tin, arrange pieces of bun on top, pour over an eggy mixture and bake.

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When you turn out the pudding you end up with a crunchy french toast base, a thick layer of crunchy salted caramel toffee on top and lots of salted caramel syrup infused hot cross bun layers.

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I think that deserves revisiting: lots of salted caramel syrup infused hot cross bun layers. That is my happy place.

Happy Easter!

Want some more Easter recipes?

Check out my Cadbury Creme Egg Cake or my roundup of Eggcellent Easter Recipes

 

Salted Caramel Hot Cross Bun Pudding
An indulgent Easter breakfast pudding and a great way to use up leftover hot cross buns
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Prep Time
40 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
1 hr 10 min
Prep Time
40 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
1 hr 10 min
Ingredients
  1. 75g/2.6 oz unsalted butter
  2. 3/4 cup sugar
  3. 2-3 pinches of sea salt
  4. 4-5 hot cross buns depending on size (I used a combination of fruit and choc chip buns)
  5. 5 eggs
  6. 1/2 cup milk
  7. 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
  8. 1 tsp vanilla essence
Instructions
  1. Grease a 20cm round cake tin. Do not line.
  2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add sugar and salt.
  3. Reduce heat to medium low and stir frequently- watching it the whole time - until the caramel is a light toffee brown. See note.
  4. Pour the caramel into the cake tin. Make sure the cake tin is on a wooden board or similar as it will get incredibly hot.
  5. Allow to cool (caramel will harden).
  6. Whisk together eggs, mascarpone, milk and vanilla.
  7. Slice the buns into 1cm (ish) slices and arrange over your hardened caramel.
  8. Pour your milk/egg mixture over the top and squish down the buns so that it is all covered and moist.
  9. Cover with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge overnight (or you can cook it immediately).
  10. If cooking the next morning, remove tin from fridge and allow it to warm to room temperature while you preheat oven to 190C/375F
  11. Bake for 30 minutes or until brown and crunchy on top and cooked in the middle.
  12. Run a knife around the edge of the pudding.
  13. Place a plate on top and using pot holders, invert the pudding onto the plate.
  14. You might be left with a huge hard toffee slab left in the pan. If so (hooray!), just scoop it out and put it back on top of your pudding.
  15. Serve with mascarpone.
Notes
  1. The salted caramel will look like it is going to fail horribly for a long time, then it will all come together briefly before separating again. Do not panic. Just keep giving it a stir until the sugar has melted, the caramel looks relatively smooth (the butter will probably be floating on top of it- that is OK) and the caramel is a light toffee brown.
  2. Do not touch the caramel at all, it will be insanely hot.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Champagne and Chips https://www.champagneandchips.com/

30 Comments on Salted Caramel Hot Cross Bun Pudding

  3. I recreated something similar with Hot Cross Buns from my nana’s Bread Pudding. I also ate it for breakfast. Hot Cross Buns are winning whichever way you bake them. But are prize winning slathered in salted caramel. This pudding ain’t for sharing!

    Reply

  5. I think I almost choked on my own drool. I haven’t had hot cross buns in ages. I’m a sucker for anything with caramel and this looks amazing. Oh my gosh, I just looked at it again…this would not last in my house! I actually like when things have raisins in them now because then I don’t have to feel guilty for not sharing with my dog. She knows how to play me like a fool!

    Reply

  13. This takes hot cross buns to a whole new level. That crunchy toffee coating looks divine. I wouldn’t share either if this came across my kitchen table.

    Reply

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