Grand Marnier Spiked Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding

So THIS was our dessert on Easter Sunday and it turned out so beautifully I think it will be our Easter dessert every year. I got the idea from BBC Good Food and just thought it was a fab idea - to make bread and butter pudding with hot cross buns = brilliant. To add marzipan to it? Extra brilliant! Me being me and all I had to pour over a good glug of Grand Marnier because, well basically I don't know when to stop :-D

I suppose this is more of a spiced cake with warm boozy custard than how I remember bread and butter pudding being, and for me at least that's a massive improvement! The spice flavours in the cake just went so well with the orange and boozy custard flavours and made a wonderful dessert on Easter. (Our main course was sublime too so watch this space, it's getting blogged next!)

This is also a great way to use up any leftover hot cross buns that are getting a bit dry. If you recall from my last post I made a batch of hot cross buns which turned out too dry, tasted great, but too dry. They then sat on the counter for days as I couldn't bring myself to throw them out, getting even more dry. Well, they were a perfect candidate for this dessert as it all gets soaked in boozy custard then baked. If you are using fresh hot cross buns I would suggest slowly and lightly toasting them just to dry them out slightly.

And yes, my version here does call for Alpro Soy Custard which I know some of you won't be able to buy - sorry about that, but sometimes I just gotta use these ingredients! Also a note on the buns, I used ones that were based on my original hot cross bun recipe, without egg replacer but with apple instead of raisins, brushed with apricot jam and with a maple drizzle like on my newer version hot cross buns. These buns also had cloves instead of nutmeg and that went really well here. So if you were going to make hot cross buns especially for his I would recommend my original recipe with either apple or raisins, or both! :-)

Grand Marnier Spiked Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding:

4 large hot cross buns, split in half, preferably a bit dry, homemade are best!
1 x 525ml carton of Alpro Soy Custard
50g or 1/4 cup golden caster sugar
vegan butter, about 20g
50g marzipan
zest of 1 orange
60ml or 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
icing sugar to dust

Heat the oven to 170C and butter a pie or casserole dish, one that you can spread out the 8 hot cross bun halves and has high enough sides for the custard.

Spread vegan butter over the bun halves and place in the dish:

Dice the marzipan up and scatter all over:

In a sauce pan add the carton of custard, sugar and orange zest and just bring to a simmer and make sure the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and whisk in the Grand Marnier. Pour this over the buns and gently press down on the buns to they are immersed in the custard. Leave this for 10 minutes to soak.

Now pop it into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. 

Ok, it's not the prettiest, but believe me it makes up for it in taste!!

You can either serve it now by simply scooping some out or do like we did and cut wedges out of it, we got 8 servings out of it. Simply dust with icing sugar and serve. I also made mine earlier in the day and simply reheated the serving in the microwave, turned out perfect. Serves 8.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 8.

Calories: 235

Protein: 4.7g

Fat: 4.3g

Sat Fat: 0.7g

Carbs: 41.6g

Sugar: 22.6g

Fibre: 1.4g

Sodium: 78.5mg

Calcium: 102.8mg

You Might Also Like: