Nothing says Easter more than a hot cross bun and this collection of baked goods is by far the best for this year.
Packed full of fruit and spiced to high heaven, there’s something instantly comforting about hot cross buns for Easter (especially when they’re toasted and slathered in butter). This year's hot cross buns have certainly raised the bar, with many supermarkets offering novelty and savoury buns as well as the traditional bun. There really is something for everyone.
This year's Easter taste test has been conducted by our expert Food Team; Food Director Jen Bedloe, Food Editor Jess Meyer, Deputy Food Editor Rose Fooks, Food Writer, Amanda James, and Junior Food Writer Georgia Sparks. Speaking about the testing, Rose said: “We know how many people eagerly await the start of hot cross bun season, so we really wanted to get this right. We spent hours testing the buns both toasted and untoasted and hope you love our selection as much as we do.”
Collectively, the team has years of experience trying and testing thousands of new food and drink products each year as well as developing new and exciting recipes. This means you can trust their judgment and feel confident that they would only score a product highly if they truly thought it was worthy. With that in mind, here are this year's favourites...
Where to buy the best hot cross buns?
- Ocado: M&S Extremely Chocolatey, banoffee, cheese, and more hot cross buns
- Tesco: Salted caramel, hot cross bread and butter pudding, and more
- Aldi: Brilliant budget hot cross buns including unique hot cross buns
Best hot cross buns 2024
Why you can trust GoodtoKnow. Our experienced Consumer Editor & parent reviewers spend hours testing products to help you make the best choice. Find out how we test and review products.
How did we test the best hot cross buns?
Using their experience as professional recipe developers and food journalists, Jen, Jess, Rose, Amanda and Georgia tasted each hot cross bun focusing on top quality produce. As well as overall taste, each bun was assessed on its texture, size, and look.
For texture, the judges were looking to make sure the dough hadn’t dried out and that there was good aeration from a successful proof.
Size and shape should - in our opinion - be large enough to make a good, filling snack, and the shape should be round and puffed on top. The overall look should naturally have the signature cross across the top, but also a pleasingly shiny glaze and perhaps an indicator as to what the flavour of the overall bun is.
Meet the experts: Tried and tested by...
Rose Fooks is Deputy Food Editor at Future Publishing, creating recipes, reviewing products and writing food features for a range of lifestyle and home titles including GoodTo and Woman&Home. She has a Diplome de Patisserie and Culinary Management at London’s Le Cordon Bleu. Career highlights have included interviewing the wonderful Mary Berry and working on Truth, Love and Clean Cutlery; a guidebook of sustainable restaurants in the UK.
An experienced recipe writer, editor, and food stylist, Jen is Group Food Director at Future plc where she oversees the food content across the women’s lifestyle group, including Woman and Home, Women’s Weekly, Woman, Woman’s Own, Chat, Goodto.com, and womanandhome.com. Jen studied Communications at Goldsmiths, then landed her first job in media working for Delia Smith’s publishing company on Sainsbury’s magazine. Jen honed her practical skills by combining courses at Leith’s cookery school with time spent in the test kitchen testing recipes and assisting food stylists on photoshoots.
Jess is the Group Food Editor at Future PLC, working across brands in the woman’s lifestyle group, including Woman and Home, Woman’s Weekly, Woman, Woman’s Own, Chat, womanandhome.com and Goodto.com. An experienced recipe writer, food stylist and home economist, Jess honed her skills in print and digital food media, working with well known brands such as Great British Bake Off, Tastemade US and UK, and Slimming World to name a few.
Georgia Sparks is Junior Food Writer, working across Woman & Home, Woman’s Weekly, Chat and goodto.com. She's passionate about food and is most content knife and fork in hand around the table with family and friends. Georgia works within the Food Team at Future Plc where she can usually be found in the kitchen developing and testing recipes as well as assisting on shoots and writing food features.
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