Easter season comes with plentiful chocolate bunnies and towers of hot cross buns. With the cool winds coming in and the dark morning slowly set in, the hot cross buns are the sweet little treats that get you going. Then, we go overboard and get a bit too many.
Who does that? Says my family, but I know, I do!!
After a couple of weeks, it doesn’t feel like it is hot cross buns time anymore as well. Then the buns just receive no attention. This is the time for a leftover hot cross bun makeover.
Let’s start with some easy makeovers. The easiest recipes are the ones that get consumed the fastest. So here are a few ideas
Quick sandwiches
The easiest thing I do with the hot cross buns is e a peanut butter sandwich or a chocolate and fruit sandwich. A slather of peanut butter (or any nut butter), a few slices of banana on a halfway sliced leftover hot cross buns makes my towards the end of the week mornings so much better. You can also do a slather of berry jam or plum jam with a touch of butter (use vegan if you prefer). The toasted version of this is even tastier.
The more crowd-pleasing version is a bit of cheese and spinach to sandwich the toasts. The saltiness actually makes the buns taste heavenly.
The more crowd-pleasing version is a bit of cheese and spinach to sandwich the toasts. The saltiness actually makes the buns taste heavenly.
Sweet treats
These are the most satisfying desserts you can build with the leftover hot cross buns. In fact, I have tried it on a hardcore “no hot cross bun” people and they hardly figured it out!
Custard pudding – dunked in the warm buttery custard, the leftover hotcross buns certainly have an afterlife ad the yummiest. I love to use the turmeric cardamom custard as the base or some orange custard to form the pudding.
Parfait- make layered with fruits or just berries the pieces of hot cross buns taste amazing in the sexy pudding. Use the chocolate chip ones for the best feeling in this recipe.
Alternatively, use them with yogurt cream and dry fruits in our version of the pavlova pudding. make that Christmas special revamped for Easter!
Hot cross buns with icecream – the ice cream sandwich is absolutely delightful. So why skip it! Slice the ice cream and the bun and layer them together or scoop out the centre of the hot cross buns and add in your ice cream. I love this version. I love to use the fruit-laden version for this recipe.
Chocolate clusters – if you are an everything taste better with chocolate kind of girl, chop up the bun into small bits and toast them briefly with a touch of butter. Then melt some good dark chocolate (a bit in excess) roll in the toasted hot cross bun pieces in it and drop them on parchment paper to cool as clusters. Add in a bit of sprinkles or gold stars if you like.
Bread ladoos- this is the easiest Indian inspired idea with hot cross buns. Swap over the leftover bread for these buns and make ladoos following this recipe. I can promise you yumminess with the chewy brioche hot cross buns as ladoos.
Custard pudding – dunked in the warm buttery custard, the leftover hotcross buns certainly have an afterlife ad the yummiest. I love to use the turmeric cardamom custard as the base or some orange custard to form the pudding.
Parfait- make layered with fruits or just berries the pieces of hot cross buns taste amazing in the sexy pudding. Use the chocolate chip ones for the best feeling in this recipe.
Alternatively, use them with yogurt cream and dry fruits in our version of the pavlova pudding. make that Christmas special revamped for Easter!
Hot cross buns with icecream – the ice cream sandwich is absolutely delightful. So why skip it! Slice the ice cream and the bun and layer them together or scoop out the centre of the hot cross buns and add in your ice cream. I love this version. I love to use the fruit-laden version for this recipe.
Chocolate clusters – if you are an everything taste better with chocolate kind of girl, chop up the bun into small bits and toast them briefly with a touch of butter. Then melt some good dark chocolate (a bit in excess) roll in the toasted hot cross bun pieces in it and drop them on parchment paper to cool as clusters. Add in a bit of sprinkles or gold stars if you like.
Bread ladoos- this is the easiest Indian inspired idea with hot cross buns. Swap over the leftover bread for these buns and make ladoos following this recipe. I can promise you yumminess with the chewy brioche hot cross buns as ladoos.
Keep for longer
If you happened to buy a lot and just the above recipes are not enough for you, here are two more ideas that you can use. These two methods make the leftover hot cross buns stay a bit longer so you get a bit more shelf life out of them.
Crumbs– the classic hot cross buns are best to give a whizz in the food processor to make bread crumbs. Store these breadcrumbs in a freezer friendly pouch. You can use these crumbs a mix with your pancake batter or add to a bean burger for surprise slight sweetness.
Croutons- dice the hot cross buns, brush them with a bit of oil and sprinkle some cinnamon. Bake in a low oven for 15 minutes. These are instant crunch with a cookie feel. Use them to top up some scoops of ice cream.
Crumbs– the classic hot cross buns are best to give a whizz in the food processor to make bread crumbs. Store these breadcrumbs in a freezer friendly pouch. You can use these crumbs a mix with your pancake batter or add to a bean burger for surprise slight sweetness.
Croutons- dice the hot cross buns, brush them with a bit of oil and sprinkle some cinnamon. Bake in a low oven for 15 minutes. These are instant crunch with a cookie feel. Use them to top up some scoops of ice cream.
Stay connected
These leftover hot cross buns recipes are perfect if you are just a couple of members in the family who actually love them as well. This way there are not really end up in the bin. We hope you will love to share with us your thoughts about or recipes and post. Do leave your comments for us to improve and also notes on the ones you love. Take a moment to visit our youtube channel. Leaving you with our Facebook page (click here) and Instagram (click here ) so you can take a peek. Don’t forget to follow us as we update these to the best of our efforts. Subscribe, share, like and evermore come backStay safe and see you at the next post.
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Superb share!! best use of the leftover buns and breads. my heart goes out to the orange pudding!!
thanks, Swathi. you should try the orange pudding. it is really a lovely one.
Lovely way to use the leftover. Love the different combo ideas. I always like to make something like this to finish the leftover. Thanks for the share.
Glad you like them. let me know which one worked best for you with these hotcross bun makeover.
Such wonderful ideas and these can be dessert by themselves. 🙂 Love the parafait with buns especially.
Wow superb share. Best use of leftovers. Just love it. In day to day life such ideas are life saver.
Nice use of left over bread and buns. I would prefer panzenella among the choices, though all are good.
Such a delightful recipe to use the hot cross buns. I think this can be tweaked with pav bhaji buns too ..these buns always tend to be ignored at my home 🙂
Priya, for our taste buds the buns were a bit sweet to be a pavbaaji bun. Ofcourse, it is always worth a try.
A useful post Seema, love all the different ways one can use up leftover hot cross buns. Would love to try out the chocolate clusters and fruit sandwich. I may have to hide some buns this Easter just so I can try out the above mentioned recipes.
I too end up buying a couple of extra loaves before realizing I have a bit too many. This is how I ended up testing all these recipes. Sneak away a couple of the hot cross buns. They are immensely tasty.
Nice use of the left over buns Seema. You know, I keep making your panzanella salad with leftover bread slices.
Turmeric cardamom custard —- yummm can only imagine the deliciousness. But first I need to bake these hot cross buns 🙂 parcel me the extra next time u have leftovers
Wow love use of leftover bread. Simple and yum I love the idea of pudding.