What would Easter be without hot cross bun Bread and butter pudding?

Yes indeed! What would Easter be without hot cross buns, pickled fish, Easter Eggs and of course the Easter Bunny? My children are too old (at least they think so) to believe in the Easter Bunny so the Easter egg hunt has become somewhat of a distant memory, but the tradition of family gatherings around a table laden with all the Easter treats will remain forever in my family.

To kick off the Easter celebrations , we started our day with warm, spicy hot cross buns for breakfast and in my family everyone has his/her favorite way of eating them. Dad loves them soft, warm and without anything on. I like them toasted with butter and my kids......well, they pick out all the raisins. I make sure we have enough hot cross buns in stock, because there is also teatime, snack time and let's not forget .....dessert time! I created this dessert last week some time and it was so good that I knew I would be trying this again over the Easter weekend, if there are any left over hot cross buns. I am not the only foodie who indulged in this delicious pud, my good friend Jane from Scrumptious South Africa also made it last week. I think her version is slightly different to mine, but as always I have opted for the Easy way out. 

I had the idea of baking the pudding in the same punnet that you buy the buns in, thereby saving trouble and dish washing time. Sadly, when I poured the custard over the hot cross buns, there was egg custard all over the cupboard as it leaked out of the holes that the baker pokes in the foil punnets to ensure even baking. I had to transfer the pud to a oven dish, but it was no trouble at all and still delicious!



Hot cross bun Bread and Butter Pudding

serves 6



Ingredients

6 hot cross buns

4 eggs

250ml cream

250ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Method

Take a kebab stick and poke the hot cross buns full of holes from top to bottom. Place in a buttered oven proof dish. Beat all the ingredients for the custard together and pour over over the hot cross buns. Cover and allow to stand for at least an hour so that the buns can soak up all the custard. Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake for about 40 minutes, dust with icing sugar and serve piping hot with cream and custard!