Love them or hate them, there's no escaping hot cross buns at this time of year.
Supermarkets are packed with the Easter staple and there are now more varieties than ever.
You only have to watch the M&S advert to know just how elaborate some of them are these days - apparently its new Banoffee ones, and the Extremely Chocolatey ones, are both flying off the shelves.
To keep things simple - and with the ongoing cost of living crisis in mind - we decided to taste test the most basic traditional version available in each supermarket.
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It was only Aldi where the basic one wasn't in stock, so we tried its luxury one instead. And in M&S, its standard one is a 'luxury' one anyway, of course it is.
The others were from Asda, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons - and just a quick glance over them shows how different they are, varying in size, glaze and quantity of fruit.
We all agreed the ones with more glaze looked most appealing, Tesco's, Lidl's and Morrisons' looking particularly sticky.
All three felt a little dry to cut into mind and while the taste was OK, they weren't among the favourites.
Asda's looked the biggest of all and was praised for its softness, but again, it didn't make the top three.
It goes without saying that they all taste fruity, but some have stronger flavours than others.
The quantity of fruit and richness of the flavour helped M&S and Aldi take joint second place - both moist, with a thick texture and chunky pieces of fruit. There's something to be said for that 'luxury' label after all.
But rather surprisingly it was one of the cheaper ones, Sainsbury's £1.10 pack of buns (currently reduced from £1.40), that was the overall winner - with four out of five tasters preferring them to any other.
They don't actually look as appealing, with very little glaze at all and not as packed with fruit as some of the others. But they're moist and flavoursome with a hint of cinnamon and just the right amount of everything.
And when they work out at just 18p each, you'd struggle to find a better basic bun for your dough this Easter.
Here are the prices for the packs
- M&S £1.90
- Aldi luxury £1.19
- Morrisons £1.15
- Sainsbury’s £1.10
- Asda 99p
- Tesco 99p
- Lidl 99p
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