Hot Cross buns

For the first time ever, I made some Hot Cross Buns from an M&S recipe. Rather tasty, different from shop bought, dryer but I enjoyed them very much. So did DH and I gave some to the neighbours.

"Flavoured" hot cross buns? Heresy!! (Only the "traditional" buns in this household.)

Lidl are delicious the extra special with added orange and the original packed with fruit

ASDA make the best buns for us. They stay fresh and are good toasted. For a treat, Booths Belgian Chocolate and Ginger are amazing eaten fresh, but put them under the grill don’t not in the toaster if you like them toasted.

M&S luxury hot cross buns microwaved for 16 secs and then buttered are absolutely the best. Full of juicy fruit and just a ghost of spice, you couldn’t beat ‘em. Tried Tesco Finest, Waitrose, Sainsburys and the Tesco economy ones my husband picked up and none of them held a candle to M&S luxury. Off to see if there are any left this morning.

Mark's and Spencer lovely gf hot cross buns!!!! Freeze well!

ann I have to agree, the M &S hot cross buns are fab, and believe me I have sampled a lot from all other shops!

We got 2 packs of Hot X Buns yesterday - Daylesford at £3.95 for 4 and Co-Op Irresistible at £1.25 for 4.

I buttered one of each and gave to DH for a blind tasting. The Co-Op ones won hands down, juicy fat raisins and nice spicing. The Daylesford ones were dry and dull with hardly any fruit.

You don't always get what you pay for.

Last year M&S sold savoury cheese HCBs. I thought they might be nice toasted but they were absolutely disgusting! I haven't noticed any on sale this year, but not really looked as I am watching the calories at the moment so not bought any.

Morrison’s won best tasting hot cross buns this year knocking MS and waitrose off top spot. I tried them and they are tasty and 75pence for 4 .

They are a lovely Easter treat! Two years ago, I tried making them from scratch (don't like store bought). Alas, the crosses disappeared in the oven. I then had to wait for them to cool so I could 'pipe' in some new ones made of icing.

They looked good enough, but the texture was hard and they were short on taste......certainly nothing like the mouth watering creations some of you are describing.

Does anyone have a good recipe they'd like to share?

M&S HCB’s were 50p for 4 in my local store yesterday . Delicious with a lump of Wensleydale cheese . Drool .

annsixty Yup
merlotgran "You could have played cricket with them" Love it! More donations to my bladder-leak-pads fund please.

i picked up two packs in Morrison's when shopping but half way round the store i thought hey you have all the ingredients in the cupboard at home to make these, so they went back on the shelf and i spent a nice afternoon kneading, proving and baking my own HCbuns.
The house smelt fantastic with the spices and my mouth was watering waiting for them to cool. I only made 8 and they lasted till the end of Good Friday. I want to make more but we have a trifle for dessert tonight and tomorrow. There is also a large Easter Egg to share with DH today and tomorrow. Once Monday has gone we will be back to healthy eating to loose a few pounds ready for summer.

We like Tesco cheapie ones. Just the right dough consistency for us, and fruit inside is just right amount

NannyJan 53 The ones I bought from a 'who shall be nameless supermarket' were far from how I believe the texture of HCB's should be, these were doughy and later found covered in mould. I had put them in a tin the use by date was long enough allowing them to be eaten on Good Friday when friends would be visiting for a coffee and chat. To my horror this is when I discovered the buns were covered in mould.

jimmyRFU.
'Doughy' is the right word for the 'not cheapie' ones I bought and believe they were undercooked and why they went mouldy. At least we were spared indigestion.

We got addicted to Lidl's standard HCBs but then we tried their citrus ones- my word, they were delicious & definitely not as expensive as Waitrose or M&S. We've also sampled the Co-op ones & they were good too

I love them in a bread and butter and marmalade pudding too NannyJan.
Today I wanted a Stilton sandwich and a hot cross bun but knew I'd never manage both so I put the Stilton in the bun, yummy.

I also accidentally bought some salted caramel ones, from Aldi. I almost choked when I tasted them! Horrible! The birds enjoyed them, though. I will check labels more carefully in future!

I bought brioche hcb from Aldi they were lovely and preferableasy to the m&s ones and cheaper

Waitrose mini hot cros buns are yummy.

I agree that the ordinary Aldi ones don’t even look appealing, but their ‘Specially Selected’ are very good, full of fruit. The Co-Op best ones are lovely too.

willa45, a bit late for this year but Mary Berry's recipe is pretty foolproof.

Mary berry recipe

Thanks for the link Shysal! Will definitely give them another try.