Every Easter, bakeries across the country prepare their doughs and put their own stamps on the hot cross buns.
Some stay close to tradition, while others have pushed the seasonal staple into previously uncharted territory.
For all the differences in flavours and techniques, they tend to agree on one thing. Hot cross buns are best eaten toasted with a generous scrape of butter.
Eleven cafe owners and chefs spoke to the Herald about what sets their buns apart from the supermarket standard, and why Easter remains one of their most important weeks of the year.
Store: 53 Fort St, Auckland CBD
Flavour: Traditional with a vanilla custard cross
Price: $42 for 6-pack
Yael Shochat (founder): They’re a little bit harder than the rest of the buns we make because of the custard, and the custard itself has to be made, set and whipped.
We make the custard with real whole vanilla beans scraped on-site. For the fruit, we add currants and mixed peel, and we also use quite a lot of butter in there, then sweeten it with honey.
Because the cross is custard-based, it’s very delicate. You can’t just pipe and put them in the oven as it’ll burn, so we have to half cook, take them out, cross them, and put back in the oven.
Last year, we were so unlucky. the Thursday before Good Friday is our biggest day, and Cyclone Tam hit. Since Covid, these buns have basically kept my business going. It’s been so hard in the Auckland CBD, and having the buns, knowing there’s some money coming during Easter, has been so good.
Store: 76 Benson Rd, Remuera
Flavours: Traditional, Sticky Date, Chocolate & Citrus
Price: $36 for 6-pack
James Bryant (founder): Our hot cross buns start with good ingredients like sourdough, free-range eggs and New Zealand butter, and they take a lot of patience to make.
The dough takes two days to prepare, beginning with feeding the sourdough starter. The process is mostly done by hand, from shaping the dough to glazing the buns. It’s a slow process, but the results are worth it.
The traditional is for hot cross bun purists; we keep the flavours very classic but the difference is in the soft, cloud-like texture. Chocolate & citrus contains dark couverture chocolate and bright pops of citrus peel, and it’s a team favourite. Sticky date is an indulgent bun with date pieces instead of raisins and a decadent butterscotch glaze.
We’ve partnered with Farro this year, and the traditional and sticky date flavours are available in all stores Auckland-wide. All three flavours are also available from our sister cafe Takapuna Beach Cafe and for nationwide delivery.
Store(s): 596 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Flavour(s): Hot cross bun-flavoured sourdough loaf
Price: $25 per loaf
Maya Handley (founder): We specialise in making slow ferment sourdough loaves, so we thought, why not make a hot cross bun version this year?
Our loaf is special because it can be sliced and toasted over the Easter long weekend. It’s slowly fermented with our sourdough culture, which adds a complex depth of flavour and aids with digestion.
We freshly grind cardamom which adds warmth and citrus notes to our spice mix. The loaves are packed with sultanas and currants, and our candied peel is handmade.
The loaves are finished with our orange, cardamom, and star anise glaze. The whole thing is soft, sweet, a little tangy and warming.
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Store(s): 10 Commerce St, Auckland CBD
Flavour(s): Limoncello, Almond Croissant
Price: $7 per bun
Jenna Carter (owner): For us, a great hot cross bun starts with doing the classic really well. We bake them fresh at the Deli each morning using a traditional spiced dough, then have a bit of fun with the flavours.
The limoncello bun is finished with a glossy citrus glaze made from our house limoncello, which we make using my Nonna’s recipe, giving it a really bright, fragrant finish. The almond version is almost like an almond croissant crossed with a hot cross bun, with chocolate baked through the dough and topped with frangipane and toasted almonds.
Store(s): Ten locations around Auckland
Flavour(s): Traditional, Sour Cherry & Chocolate
Price: $24 to $25 for 6-pack
Sid Bahri (head of pastry): Daily Bread’s signature hot cross buns are truly special. Both varieties are naturally leavened using their sourdough starter, with a long-fermentation rendering them light, fluffy, flavourful and unique.
Our traditional buns are spiced with a unique in-house blend of local-rum-soaked spices, candied orange peel, and sultanas, striking the sweet spot between fruit, warmth, and lashings of indulgence. All finished with a signature orange and cinnamon glaze. They’re triple-award-winning, and have just been awarded third best buns in NZ as judged by Baking Industry NZ, making them officially the best hot cross buns in Auckland.
Our sour cherry & chocolate buns are for those not such a fan of sultanas, but still wanting decadence. Our sourdough buns are mixed with cocoa and filled with 55% Callebaut chocolate & sour cherries. They’re most & springy, and possibly our favourite creation yet. Finished with our signature orange & cardamom glaze.
Stores: Farm House Cafe – 400 Papakura-Clevedon Rd, Clevedon; Hill House Cafe – 72 Hillsborough Rd, Hillsborough
Flavours: Pani Popo, Cream Cheese & Chives
Price: Pani Popo - $8.90 each or $44.50 for 6-pack; Sour Cream & Chives - $6.90 each or $34.50 for 6-pack.
Peter Matvos (co-owner): We’re doing two quite different hot cross buns across our cafes. At Hill House, we’re bringing back our best-seller from last year – the Pani Popo hot cross bun, which sold out every single day they were available. It’s inspired by the traditional Samoan dessert and, as far as we know, it’s the only pani popo-style hot cross bun being made in New Zealand.
The idea is very close to home for us. One of our owners, Leilana Meredith, and our cafe manager Rosie Mamea are both of Samoan heritage, and they wanted to bring a flavour that reminded them of home into the Easter season. The buns are finished in a silky coconut cream, just like the traditional dish, and they’re incredibly soft – honestly as fluffy as a cloud.
They’re also very labour-intensive. We’ve been soaking the fruit for months to build flavour in the dough, and everything is made completely from scratch in our cafes. Production starts at 5am every morning, with the first batch ready for our 9am opening, and we’ll continue baking them throughout the day, much like we do with our famous Sin In A Bun.
At Farm House, we’re doing a savoury hot cross bun. We grow a lot of chives on the farm, so we thought it would be fun to use them in a savoury take stuffed with cream cheese and raisins. It’s reminiscent of a breakfast bagel or a savoury scone, but still unmistakably a hot cross bun.
The pani popo hot cross buns and the savoury version will be launching at both cafes from next week.
Store: 327 Karangahape Rd, Auckland CBD
Flavour: Traditional (sourdough)
Price: $31.50 for 6-pack
Liam Fox (founder): We leaven with a sourdough starter and just a little bit of yeast to give it that extra rise. But the sourdough breaks down the sugars differently, so it doesn’t make the dough quite so sweet. It feels more like an enriched, slightly sweetened bread than a cakey concoction.
Our buns are about 25 to 30% fruit, so they’re pretty laden. We soak our fruit overnight in Earl Grey tea, just to give it that extra little something. It’s a three-day process, so we do need to get the crystal ball out and plan accordingly.
We’ve been selling a lot, but at the same time, it feels like Easter’s kind of snuck up on people this year. We put our first batch out last Saturday and people came in and went, “Oh, hot cross buns! Is it Easter?”
Store: 158 Remuera Rd, Remuera
Flavours: Traditional, Chocolate
Price: $24 to $26 per 6-pack
Kelsie Culpan and Laura Metcalf (co-owners): We’re honing in on our classic hot cross buns this year. Ours are traditionally dense, with a light quality that creates the perfect chew. Our fruit is soaked in early grey tea & orange juice, and after baking we glaze our hotties with our house made apricot jam and spiced sugar syrup.
Our chocolate hot cross buns will also be making a return. These are lightly spiced, with more emphasis on chocolate being the hero. No fruit in sight!
We highly recommend serving all our hot crossies alongside our salted croissant butter, available in store.
Store(s): 267 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Flavour(s): Traditional
Price: $6.50 each or $26 for 6-pack
Logan Birch (co-owner): Since the hot cross bun is such a nostalgic treat, we don’t muck around with it too much, instead taking a little extra care and time to make it softer, spicier (and sexier).
We start off with a Tangzhong which involves cooking flour and milk into a paste – this technique locks in moisture and results in a tender crumb.
The best quality dried fruits are soaked in fresh orange juice and baked into the hand-rolled buns, which are finished with a thin cross and a glaze heavily infused with whole spices.
Store: 160 Garnet Rd, Westmere
Flavour: Traditional sourdough
Price: $25 for 6-pack
Ben Eyres (co-owner): Our buns are partly sourdough and a continuation on the panettone. We feed our starter three times to make a first dough, then make the final dough the following day, and then bake them on the third.
We add heaps of butter and make our own peel, boiling New Zealand oranges to candy them, which takes about a week for each batch. We then poach South African sultanas and blend whole spices together to make our unique spice mix.
Easter’s the one week a year where you have 10 times the workload as every other week; it’s busier than Christmas for us. Plus, being my wife and I’s business, our first baby is due next week, so it’s all go trying to manage that at the moment. We couldn’t do it without our staff.
Stores: 155 Beaumont St, Auckland CBD; 30 Enfield St, Mt Eden; 87 Kitchener Rd, Milford
Flavour: Traditional
Price: $5 each or $26 for 6-pack
Emma Zhou (owner):
We wanted a bun that felt nostalgic but tasted fresh, so our focus has been creating a balanced and “bouncy” bun and a plump, flavour-packed raisin.
Our hot cross buns are kept soft and moist through carefully controlled dough hydration, making it taste great either fresh or toasted.
Every raisin in the hot cross bun is slow cooked in a reduction of fresh orange juice and zest, then left to soak until they have fully absorbed the liquid.
*Text has been edited for length and clarity.
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