We love all the delicious treats that Easter brings with it – from the chocolate bunnies and eggs to the toasted hot cross buns accompanied by freshly brewed coffee. Easter is definitely the time for sweet indulgences, family and entertaining. Our patisserie courses are filled with all sorts of pastry and chocolate work and taste testing is the best part of the coursework. With an abundance of hot cross buns on sale over this festive period, we’re sharing some inspiring ideas on how you can turn leftover buns into decadent desserts that everyone will enjoy.

Make a hot cross bun bread and butter pudding

Heat the oven to 180°C and grease an ovenproof dish. Cut 6 hot cross buns in half and butter them well. Place them into your dish next to each other with the butter side facing up. In a separate bowl, warm 450ml of full cream milk with 350ml of cream. In another bowl whisk 4 eggs with 175ml of castor sugar. Whisk in the egg mixture with the cream mixture and pour over your buns. Sprinkle the top of the buns with 1 and a half TBSP’s of sugar and place in the oven to bake for 45 minutes. Serve with pouring cream, custard or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Breakfasts will never be the same again

Who doesn’t love a little bit of French toast on a lazy Sunday morning? This time, instead of using stale bread, use leftover hot cross buns. Dip them on both sides in beaten egg and then fry them for a couple of minutes on each side. Serve hot with lashing of butter and syrup (and some caramel sauce if you’re not too phased about the calories).

Woolies caramel and pear trifle

In a pan over a medium heat, sauté 4 peeled, cored and cubed pears in 335g of butter until the pears are soft. Add 1 TBSP of brown sugar and 2 tsp. of vanilla extract and allow the sugar to caramelise. Remove the pan from the heat. Slice up hot cross buns into pieces and start layering your trifle by placing a few pieces of hot cross bun in the bottom of a glass. Top with pear compote, Woolworth’s toffee sauce, whipped cream and pecan nuts. Repeat with a second layer and place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Mini baked Alaska buns

Put the oven on to 200°C and spray your baking tray with a little Spray ‘n Cook. Take the bottom 2 halves of a hot cross bun and place them on the tray. Cover each half bun with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and quickly place the tray in the freezer to keep the ice-cream frozen. In a separate bowl, whisk 1 egg white until stiff peaks form and add 50g of caster sugar to the egg white to create a meringue. Pipe the meringue all over the frozen ice-cream until covered and pop in your oven to bake for 5 to 10 minutes.

Chocolate fondue bliss

Here’s how you can kill two birds with one stone! In a fondue pot, throw in all your leftover chocolate bunnies and eggs (plain milk, dark or white chocolate) and add cream, milk and a little butter until you have the perfect fondue consistency. Toast your leftover hot cross buns and cut into cubes. Place on fondue sticks and dip into your chocolate sauce for some fondue entertaining, with a coffee of course.

Our culinary arts students loved these fun ideas that are simple to create and are the perfect solution to using up your leftover hot cross buns. We hope you’re going to try some of these ideas out in the holidays – enjoy!

(Info sources and images: http://www.essentials.co.za/lifestyle/5-delicious-things-to-do-with-leftover-hot-cross-buns; http://www.woolworths.co.za/store/fragments/recipe/recipe-index.jsp?contentId=cmp201806; http://www.theinternetchef.biz/161/over-it-yet-5-tempting-things-to-do-with-leftover-hot-cross-buns; www.savourandsave.com; www.yummly.com; www.freeimageslive.co.uk)