Marmalade and Hot Cross Bun Pudding

If you have got leftover hot cross buns from Easter, and not sure what to do with them? Turn the stale buns into a luscious pudding. Yes, this is a take on the good old classic, bread & butter pudding. Honestly, this pud turned out so good, I feel like making buns just for this. Well, soft bread baked in a bed of custard can't go wrong!

I did create an Orange and cranberry hot cross bun recipe for Easter 2021. So obviously, I had some buns tucked in my freezer. A few from the test batch and others from the good batch. So I used them to make this pudding. To echo the citrus flavor in the buns, I decided to use Orange marmalade. The buns are sourdough which will make this pudding a sourdough pudding as well :)

Variations

Even if you have the traditional buns, this is still a good recipe. Skip the marmalade and add some spices to the custard.

If you have chocolate buns, this will still work! Add some chocolate to the custard(while still warm and mix) or sprinkle some chocolate buttons before baking to really bring out the chocolate flavor!

Feel free to use what you like and really this is not very different to a traditional bread and butter pudding except that I have pre-cooked the custard mixture a little. Precooked custard will not make the buns go soggy. Buns are softer than stale bread which is what we normally use to make bread & butter pudding.

This is a simple runny custard. Boil the milk with sugar and pour over the eggs and whisk. Cook again on medium heat until it just starts to thicken. When the custard coats a back of a spoon, it is done! Check next photo!

Leave this to cool. Cover the top with a cling film and place in the fridge to speed up cooling. You can even make the custard the day before

Split open and spread butter generously. Add a tablespoon of Marmalade if using. (for chocolate recipes, place some chocolate buttons)

If your Hot X buns are too big, feel free to cut them in half or into quarters.

Pour the custard over the buns making sure no corner is missed. There will be extra custard, refrigerate that for later. You can pour the remaining custard when you serve.

Now this has to sit at least for 2 hours for the custard to soak in. Cover and refrigerate.

You can even leave this in the fridge overnight, like I did.

bain-marieA water bath. Get a bigger deeper baking dish (like a roasting pan) and fill it half way up with boiling water. Place the baking dish with pudding in the water bath and place the whole thing in the preheated oven. The water (steam) helps bake the pudding evenly and slowly which will keep the custard moist and silky.