They’re sold out at Waitrose, but SARAH RAINEY reveals how to bake the popular ‘bunettone’ – a hot cross bun and panettone

From cheddar and black pepper to red velvet, the humble hot cross bun comes in many guises these days. And the reinvention you need to try this year is flying off the shelves at Waitrose.

Meet the hot cross bunettone: a cross between the Easter classic and a festive panettone.

It’s ten times the size of a regular sandwich, serves eight people and costs £8. But when I tried to get one in the shop I was told – on many occasions – that it had sold out. So I decided to bake one.

Waitrose won’t reveal its top-secret recipe for bunettone, but I enlist the help of Will Torrent, the supermarket’s senior development chef, who recommends adapting a classic panettone.

“Just add a few more hot flavors of the crossbread to the mix: lots of cinnamon, mixed spice and cloves,” he says.

I mix four tablespoons of warm milk with a teaspoon of granulated sugar and a 7 gram bag of dried yeast

You will need to reserve sufficient time. Waitrose’s bunettone is made with love over 24 hours in a family-run bakery in Piedmont, Italy – and they’re professionals, so us amateurs need at least half of it to get it right.

Top baker Juliet Sear (@julietsear) suggests making a regular cake tin ‘extra tall’ by lining it 2 inches above the edge with foil and parchment for strength. I give it a try, grease and line my deepest cake pan with butter, and start making the dough.

I mix four tablespoons of warm milk with a teaspoon of granulated sugar and a 7 gram bag of dried yeast. I set this aside to bubble and in a separate bowl, beat 150 grams of sugar with 250 grams of butter (a whole cube – the less said, the better) and a dash of vanilla extract. Once creamy, I break in five eggs and add the zest of an orange and a lemon.

In a third bowl I sift 550g of white bread flour with a pinch of salt and plenty of spices, before making a well in the center and pouring in the yeast mixture, followed by the egg mixture.

At this point the dough is so sticky that I’m sure I’ve done something wrong, but I decide to plow on, roll up my sleeves and try to knead it for ten minutes.

There’s lumpy dough everywhere – on my hands and apron, even in my hair – and it takes brute force to peel it off the work surface and place it in an oiled bowl for the first stage of rising.

Sarah mixes the ingredients in a bowl to make the viral dish which is selling out at Waitrose

At this point the dough is so sticky that I’m sure I’ve done something wrong, but I decide to plow on, roll up my sleeves and try to knead it for ten minutes.

I come back the next evening, knead the cold dough quickly again and mix in 160 g raisins and 100 g chopped candied citrus peels

This is important, says Will, ‘otherwise you will end up with a tight dough that is compact and sticky in the middle; it needs time to form beautiful bubbles’.

My recipe suggests leaving it in the refrigerator for 24 hours, which gives the yeast enzymes plenty of time to work and unlock the complex flavors in the wheat.

I come back the next evening, knead the cold dough quickly again and mix in 160g raisins (soaked in rum to plump them) and 100g chopped candied citrus peels.

Then it goes into a greased baking tin, loosely covered with cling film, and let it rise again – this time for up to 12 hours, until it has doubled in size.

Finally – and this is seriously the longest bake I’ve ever made – it’s time to cook the bunettone. I make a cross on top with a serrated knife, brush with some beaten egg white and sugar and bake it at 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.

There’s none of the satisfying slowness, and it’s so light it almost melts in my mouth

It’s so big (a whopping 8 inches in diameter) that there’s no way a slice will fit in my toaster

Fifty minutes later it’s done. A triumph with golden domes, a shiny, hollow-sounding crust and a fluffy, buttery, fruit-filled sponge inside.

It’s so big (a whopping 8 inches in diameter) that I can’t possibly fit a slice in my toaster, so I’m tempted to put a piece under the broiler and eat it lightly charred and smeared with butter.

My verdict? It’s definitely not a hot cross bun. There’s none of the satisfying slowness, and it’s so light it almost melts in my mouth.

But those delicious seasonal flavors are in abundance, as are copious amounts of juicy raisins and sugary fruits. As far as I’m concerned, a bigger bun is a better bun. Just don’t ask me to share it.