Eggs Bunnadict

Here's an Easter twist on one of my favourite breakfast or brunch dishes, eggs benedict - it uses hot cross buns, hence the name eggs bunnadict!

The name comes from a dish served by the ETM bar group, which owns bars like the Botanist in the City of London - I haven't actually been to them but read in the Evening Standard about a dish they were serving over Easter: strawberry marshmallow and vanilla and coconut panna cotta on a hot cross bun base. It sounded awesome but I preferred the idea of making something savoury - and when I heard that Marks & Spencer had launched some savoury cheese and onion hot cross buns I decided these would be perfect for the base.

I couldn't get hold of any unfortunately - I asked staff in one M&S Simply Food and they had never heard of them and seemed surprised when I said M&S had recently announced their launch (do they not pay any attention to internal communications?!) and then suggested I try again in a few weeks - after Easter. Hmm.

M&S were then very helpful via Twitter and checked stock at two other stores local to me but said they didn't have any in stock, which was a shame (at least they knew what I was talking about this time!).

I knew there was no way I would have time to make my own hot cross buns so decided to take a punt and make eggs benedict on normal i.e. sweet hot cross buns and see how they would turn out... I was a bit nervous as my husband doesn't like sweet and savoury together and declared the bacon brownies I made from a Nigella recipe "an abomination". So it was a nice surprise when he said bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on a toasted hot cross bun shouldn't work... but strangely did!

So there you go - if you want a new way to enjoy your hot cross bun this Easter, try this Eggs Bunnadict!

Hot Cross Bun Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

I had some hot cross buns left over from Easter (in the freezer) and recalled seeing a recipe for bread and butter pudding using hot cross buns so decided to make it a few weeks back as we hadn’t had a pudding for ages, and I was being allowed sugar for 2 days a week (and avoiding it entirely the rest of the week).

I used this recipe from the BBC Good Food website but instead of the cubed marzipan I added chunks from a 100g bar of chocolate. It gave it a lovely flavour and it felt like a real treat!

 

You need:

300ml double cream

600ml milk

4 eggs

100g caster sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla essence

8 hot cross buns

40g soft butter

100g chocolate, broken into chunks

Preheat oven to 170C. Gently heat the milk and cream in a pan. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla, then gradually add the warm cream.
 

Slice the hot cross buns in half and butter them. Lay half in a shallow oven proof dish (or as many as you can get on the bottom of the dish), sprinkle over some chocolate and pour over half the cream.

Place the remaining halves of bun on top, pressing down gently as you do. Add the rest of the chocolate and pour over the rest of the cream.

 

Bake for 45-50 mins in the oven, then remove and allow to stand for 10 mins. Serve warm.

 

 

I'm sending this to We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette of Tin and Thyme.

 

 

 

 

Triple Chocolate and Ginger Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

 

This Easter Dr. Oetker has teamed up with Great British Bake Off finalist Kimberley Wilson to encourage bakers to make their own hot cross buns. Anyone who remembers Kimberley from GBBO will know that she has of course put her own spin on it - in this case made the hot cross buns into chelsea buns, and chosen chocolate and ginger as the flavour.

Dr. Oetker has made a video of Kimberley demonstrating the recipe, which you can watch here.

They've asked me to share the recipe with you as well; here it is in full.

Triple Chocolate and Ginger Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

Preparation time: 34 minutes plus proving time

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Makes: 12

Ingredients:

Bun dough

500g strong white bread flour

7g fast-action dried yeast

75g caster sugar

Pinch of salt

1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground ginger

50g unsalted butter

300ml Soy milk

100g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks’ Dark Chocolate

Filling

50g unsalted butter, softened

100g dried mixed fruit

100g crystallised ginger pieces

100g Dr. Oetker Milk Chocolate Chips

50g Dr. Oetker Dark Chocolate Chips

Finish

100g apricot glaze

70g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks’ White Chocolate

Serves

10 buns

Method

• 1.       Place the fruit into a bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside.
  
• 2.       Combine the flour, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle over the salt. Over a low heat melt the butter and 100g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks Dark Chocolate in a small saucepan. Once melted, add the milk and continue to heat until blood temperature.
  
• 3.       Tip the milk mix into the flour mixture and bring together with fingertips until a sticky dough forms. Tip it out on to a work surface and knead until it comes together. It is quite a wet mixture so this may take about 10 minutes.
  
• 4.       Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave until doubled in size.
  
• 5.       Tip on to a floured surface and roll out into large rectangle about 5mm thick. Spread with the softened butter.
  
• 6.       Drain the fruit and combine with the remaining filling ingredients. Sprinkle over the buttered dough.
  
• 7.       Starting from a long side roll in to a fairly tight, long sausage. Divide into 10 pieces. Arrange on a 35cm x 26cm deep sided roasted tin, cut side up. Cover with cling film and leave to prove until only about 1cm of space remains between each bun.
  
• 8.       Heat oven to 200C. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-18 minutes. Remove from the oven and glaze while still hot. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before melting the 70g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks White Chocolate in a piping bag. Pipe crosses over the cooled bun. Pop into the fridge for a few minutes to set the White Chocolate. Serve!

Kimberley Wilson is part of the Dr. Oetker Even Better Baking Team, for further tips, trends and recipes visit evenbetterbaking.oetker.co.uk.

Disclaimer: Dr. Oetker asked if I would be willing to share this recipe and video with my readers. I received no compensation for doing so. I just think it's a good recipe!