3 weeks Ago
With the Easter weekend upon us, thousands of people all across the country will be indulging in some of our longest-held foodie traditions. These include eating fish on Good Friday, scoffing a chocolate egg and, of course, enjoying a hot cross bun. To make the most of this demand, major supermarkets are selling their very own take on the iconic buns, posing the question: Who does it best? To find out, I taste-tested hot cross buns from the biggest stores operating in the UK.
I taste-tested hot cross buns from major supermarkets and have found the best Here is what I thought about the hot cross buns being sold by major supermarkets this Easter weekend. Sainsbury's Sainsbury's (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) A few key features make for the perfect hot cross bun, including a soft and airy texture as well as a subtly sweet taste from the bread and fruit. While Sainsbury's succeeded in some of these measures, I found the bread to be quite hard and dense.
While the fruit was fairly plain at first, it exploded with flavour after a few seconds, allowing it to be a close contender for the title of 'best'. Morrisons Morrisons (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) The Morrisons bun from its in-store bakery offered a softer texture and moister fruit, which added to the freshness of the cake. The initial taste was quite sour and tangy, something that thankfully gave way to a sweeter glow.
Tesco Tesco (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) Tesco's hot cross bun was admittedly disappointing when compared to the others offered. The bun was quite hard and dry, making it much harder to chew on. This was made up for by the abundance of fruit packed into the small cake.
Aldi Aldi (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) While the Aldi bun was quite dense and substantial, its moist texture and perfectly sweet fruit made it a joy to dig into. Lidl Lidl (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) The hot cross bun from Lidl was similarly dense, something that was quite noticeable. Sadly, the bun was a bit tasteless for me as well, with the delicious after-taste of the fruit going a long way in saving the flavour.
Waitrose Waitrose (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) Moving on to the higher-end supermarkets, the Waitrose offering was very bouncy and soft. While the sweetness of the bun was quite understated to begin with, this quickly creeps up on you in the most delightful of ways. M&S M&S (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) The first thing I noticed about the M&S cake was its larger size when compared to the others in this comparison.
While they were tasty, there was a hard-to-ignore crunchiness from the fruit that sadly put me off. Recommended Reading: I tested Cadbury's Easter treats range which was a mixture of heaven and dismay Here's my verdict on Popeye's new menu items inspired by breakfast classic I tested Lidl's new Easter egg range but could any of them match up to Cadbury? ASDA ASDA (Image: Newsquest/Andrew Smart) In something of a surprise for myself, the ASDA take on the spring classic was my favourite. This was thanks to its soft insides and sweet taste, which did not overpower compared to some of the others mentioned.
If you're on the lookout for a lovely hot cross bun that doesn't break the bank, this might be the one for you..
