Hot Cross Competition

With Easter round the corner, the ol’ Hot Cross Bun has become a regular treat. Word On The Street thought we’d take a few from around town and pitch them against each other.

Sending our Happy Easter Helper out to provision the taste test, we pulled buns from Aro Bakery, Brooklyn Bakery, New World Metro (apparently they got an award or something) and Pandoro.

Philosophy: The tasting sample was a one off, some might say we should have taken an average across a few batches, but I believe every bun should be as best it can be. If a batch aren’t what they should be, they shouldn’t be on the shelf.

Conditions: It was a crisp but not cold Saturday morning. Accompanied by the paper and a pot of freshly ground and plunged People’s coffee, the buns were warmed in the oven, then halved and grilled lightly and presented with true blue full fat fully salted Kiwi butter.

Tasting notes: In alphabetical order, they stacked up like this…

Aro Bakery : A citrusy blend, with more zest and zing, quite a solid bun. Presentation wise they served up a very malformed but substantial cross on top; on that basis I wouldn’t serve these to the Queen. Still , there was definitely a strong and sultry HCB aftertaste with Aro’s buns. Price $1.80 @

Brooklyn Bread and Bagel: Presentation wise, this rated best of the four sampled, with a strong solid cross on top and nice colouring. Disappointingly this was as far as the good news went. The bun was light on fruit and the bread was less spicy than we would have liked, in that the comment from the tasting panel was “it’s just a normal bun with some raisins thrown in”.  Price – individually $3@ or 6-packs for $10.20@ (plus 2 free buns with each 6 pack purchased so $1.28@)

New World Metro: A good amount of fruit in this bun, but like a lot of supermarket baked goods it is more size than substance. The bread is lightweight, so probably better for you if you’re paranoid about blowing your waistline over Easter, but that means it lacks some of the fulsome substance you’d expect in a good HCB. Any awards previously won here do not apply to the batch we sampled. Price $8.99 for six-pack ($1.50 @)

Pandoro: there’s a lot of hype about these buns every Easter, so in true tall poppy style, I came to these with some healthy skepticism. However, Pandoro buns earn their kudos. The package says “all-natural ingredients”, and these HCBs are bursting with fruit, have lovely spiced bread and a density befitting the solemnity with which we eat HCBs in my house. The only downside is the presentation – nice colouring but the crosses we got looked like an afterthought, all malformed and droopy. Otherwise, these are the HCBs of choice. Price $10.90 six pack ($1.80 @)

Verdict: Top dog is Pandoro, followed by Aro Bakery, then New World Metro and then Brooklyn.

This taste test was sadly limited by the stomachs of the tasting panel, so in pursuit of a comprehensive take on the region’s Easter baking, please do comment on your picks for other fine and fulsome HCB brilliance.