Instarecipe! Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding

Happy Easter, hope you all had a lovely weekend. It's the time to be eating chocolate - YASSSS - and what better way to use up those leftover hot cross buns along with the broken or little bits of chocolate hanging around (which I didn't seem to have, let's face it...no one can really have leftover chocolate) but if you're sick of eating it (literally) in egg form, then sprinkle some into this warm, gooey and comforting traditional pudding. 

It's been spruced up a bit by swapping the usual bread for hot cross buns, albeit not just any old hot cross buns at that! These are chocolate orange ones and unless you're from the UK and can bag yourself some from the reduced counter at THAT supermarket (think you know the one, their Easter TV advert made them the star product!!) then otherwise bake yourself a batch and let them go a bit stale first, OR sounds a bit too much effort? Then use any hot cross bun you have, they'll work just as perfectly. 

This pudding proved to be a real family favourite on Easter Sunday in our household, served warm out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside. I'd never tried eating normal bread and butter pudding before, or even made it - it's not really appealed to me, I loved this version but don't think I'll be able to go back now and have it any other way, chocolate orange was the turning point for me, it's the way forward guys!!!

P.S   My rather amateurish video gif representations was used here to show how easy this recipe is to complete. It takes no effort and is basically a simple assembling of ingredients. 

Note: I used a circle baking dish as it was about the right size for the amount of hot cross buns, just use whatever dish you have to fit the amount of hot cross buns you are using. 

Chocolate  Orange  Hot  Cross  Bun  and  Butter  Pudding

Adapted from here.

Serves 6

Ingredients

7 or 8 chocolate orange hot cross buns

25g butter

40g chocolate chips of your choice or chopped up easter egg chocolate

2 large eggs

250ml milk

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 Orange

1 tsp demerara sugar

Method

Heat the oven to 170°C/ 150°C Fan/ 325°F / Gas 3.

Cut the hot cross buns in half and butter the cut sides, sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips or chopped bits of chocolate, sandwich together again and place into a medium sized greased baking dish.

Beat the egg, milk and sugar together in a jug and pour over. Zest the orange and sprinkle all over the pudding with the demerara sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes until just set. Leave to stand for a few minutes and then serve into portions.