Earl Grey Hot Cross Bun Bread & Butter Pudding

The humble hot cross bun, a real hero of Easter time, but what's a warm, buttery hot cross bun without a cosy cuppa to accompany it? 

If you've been reading our content for a while, you'll know that we love getting creative with tea beyond just a delicious brew and there are plenty of easy ways to introduce tea into your Easter baking. Earl Grey soaked raisins in your homemade hot cross buns are pretty special, but for those of us who may be long on buns but short on time (hello), this indulgent recipe is a great way to use them up and turn a tea time snack into a pudding fest for all the fam.

To help us get in the Easter mood, we turned to chef, food writer and friend, Ben Benton for some delicious inspiration. 

Earl Grey Hot Cross Bun Bread & Butter Pudding

Serves 4 - 6 

Ingredients 

• 150ml double cream
• 150ml whole milk
• 3 tbsp Earl Grey loose leaf tea  
• 3 eggs
• 60g caster sugar
• 40g room temp salted butter
• 4 hot cross buns

Method

Pour the cream, milk and Earl Grey tea leaves into a pan, heat gently to just below simmering point. Remove from the heat and leave to steep for at least 5 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until completely incorporated. Sieve the hot liquid onto the eggs and sugar, whisking constantly to create a custard. Discard the strained tea leaves and leave the custard to one side whilst you prepare the hot cross buns.

Preheat the oven to 170c

Whilst the oven heats up, grease a baking dish with a little of the butter (a 20-22cm circular dish is nice if you have one, but otherwise whatever similarly sized baking dish you have to hand is fine too). Next, halve, lightly toast and then generously butter the hot cross buns. Sandwich them back together and cut in half to give you 8 semi-circles of bun. This is just to make it easier to fill your baking dish. 

Arrange the buns in the baking dish so that you have as neat a fit as possible and pour over the custard. Leave to soak for 10 minutes. 

Before baking, press the buns down into the custard to ensure full saturation. Pop the dish into the hot oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the custard is just set.

Serve with ice cream, double cream, custard, or all three, depending on your mood. This also works very well cold the next day, especially with a steaming cup of Good & Proper Earl Grey tea.