Whittaker’s Hot Cross Bun Chocolate

Apparently I have a reputation: I’ve already had two of these blocks of Hot Cross Bun chocolate from Whittaker’s bought for me. It’s quite good at what it’s trying to do, with spice and orange and fruit, but it could never be better than berry and biscuit or Ghana peppermint. 7.5/10

Woolworths Display

Woolworths branching out with different flavours: brioche, biscoff, caramilk, and of course chocolate. At $7 for 4 I’m not that keen but might give it a go if I see them again. They were only in stock for one trip that I saw, so maybe didn’t sell that well? 8/10 for concept

Woolworths Buns

Woolworths aka Countdown. Pretty good, consistent over the years, even with a brand change. Pricier than they used to be. Delicious. 7/10 for consistency

PaknSave

PaknSave $4.49. Darker than Woolworths, and taste like it too. Maybe slightly more robust to be heated than Woolworths buns. 6/10 room for improvement

Baker’s Delight

This Baker’s Delight offer on Instagram caught my attention so I signed up. It’s only now that I look back at the screenshot that I see the offer was only available for Feb. There’s another special offer in the app, so expect to see these in a future update. 10/10 for Baker’s Delight getting my details, 2/10 for me for follow through

Baker’s Delight Recipes

Something else from Baker’s Delight: these bonkers recipes that somehow contain hot cross buns.
https://bakersdelight.co.nz/recipes/

• Hot Cross Buns Waffles: Put a bun in a waffle machine to toast: good. Trying to pipe a cream cheese and apple mixture into the middle: very extra.
  
• Hot Cross Bun-Misu: insane (but probably extremely delicious)
  
• Hot Cross Buns Pie: I’m regretting that I don’t have a pie maker.
  
• Hot Cross Buns Croquembouche: again, filling hot cross buns is so extra. How did someone think of this? Would definitely eat.
  
• Choc Raspberry Hot Cross Bun Layer Cake: this is just putting sweetened cream in between hot cross buns. I love it.

Hazella

Hazella from Whitakers. This is delicious. It rivals Ghana peppermint and dark salted caramel. Smooth roasted hazelnut flavour, that builds to a gentle intensity, perfectly balanced with the chocolate. 10/10 yum yum yum

New Zealand’s Best

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/19/new-zealands-best-hot-cross-bun-for-2024-revealed/

Janus Bakkerij

Janus Bakkerij from Wellington, because my sister thought correctly that it was a good idea to bring up some hot cross buns. This pack and the next review! My Nana stole one but I’ll forgive her. These are very very good: lots of fruit, good spice and flavour, nice density and texture but soft too. 10/10 sister and I both agree, ideal hot cross buns

Parson’s Bakery

Parson’s from Wellington. Not great, but not bad either. Not enough fruit, flavour was good, the crosses didn’t stick to the top when eating. Heavy without having a satisfying density. 6/10 give them a go if you’re in Khandallah

Daily Bread

Daily Bread, $22 for 6. Judged to be the best in NZ, but I don’t agree. They are great, nice and soft, juicy fruit, yummy orange glaze, good spice, but I think the Janus ones are better. They might technically be good with a sourdough recipe. Not quite enough spice and not quite the right texture. 9/10 would still eat all the time.

Daily Bread has a cool store downtown near Britomart station. They have stacks of hot cross buns and I wanted to get a picture but also didn’t want to seem like a weirdo and there were people in the way (edit: it was really busy) so here’s the outside. Daily Bread is so cool they don’t have branding on their coffee cups. Large mocha, didn’t seem that large, not enough coffee and not enough chocolate but nice enough. Maybe I should start mocha reviews in central Auckland?

Yarrows

Yarrows Traditional, $5.50 from New World Pretty good, good fruit, good spice, good texture. 7/10 good buns

New World Selection

New World + Yarrows selection Spiced Fruitless (wouldn’t bother) Mini Spiced Fruit (only a little smaller) Spiced Fruit (got these ones) Chocolate (probably good)

New World Lunn Ave Yarrows speciality Rocky Road (see above) White Chocolate and Raspberry (probably good) Cheese and Onion (sacrilege)

Ima Cuisine

Ima Cuisine, $6.50 for 1. Worth it. Custard cross, ginger and orange pieces, currants not raisins, more cardamom than cinnamon I think, nearly enough for a lunch. 10/10 so good. Crappy photo, sorry. Everyone in the place was eating one, there were many bags for collection, and they were still making more.

Yarrows Rocky Road

Yarrows Rocky Road, $6.19 from New World See reply for other options. These were like a hot cross bun version of a chocolate chip muffin, with a little bit of marshmallow added in. Nice enough, interesting to try, improved with 10 seconds in microwave. 6/10 not very rock and roll

Moustache Cookies

Moustache Caramilk Hot Cross Bun Cookie Pie. Thanks to my lovely wife, she brought one of these home for me. Delicious, nice cinnamon and nutmeg, with a chunk of chocolate in the middle. Moustache cookies are great anyway. 9/10 thanks Dee

Grown Up Donuts

Grown Up Donuts Hot Cross Bun A recommendation from my lovely wife, while I was running some errands at Sylvia Park. There were some other regular Boston Cream type ones with rabbit ears. This one was spiced filling with a simple cross on top. Raisins in the cream was very unnecessary. Great as a novelty but prefer others 7/10 yum

Homemade

Made my own hot cross buns! I had a few different recipes but chose a Jamie Oliver one. Prepared the dough the night before then in the morning incorporated the fruit, split them into buns, and baked. I think I either scalded the yeast or the rise in the fridge wasn’t very good because they were tough to work with and the fruit didn’t go in well and they didn’t have a good second rise. They tasted great so got the spice right. 10/10 from my mum, 6/10 from me