Waitrose combines hot cross buns with panettone
Waitrose has combined hot cross buns with panettone to create a new treat for Easter known as a “bunettone”.
The British bun traditionally eaten on Good Friday has been given a makeover using the ingredients that go into the fluffy Italian cake.
The 500g “hot cross bunettone” pulls apart easily into four portions. Waitrose said it had seen demand from customers for more sharing options when it comes to holidays such as Easter and Christmas, as well as lighter alternatives for traditionally dense desserts.
Crafted by a family-run bakery in Piedmont in Italy, Waitrose’s £8 “bunettone” is described as a “spiced Italian cake made with sultanas, butter, candied orange and lemon peel with a sachet of icing sugar”.
The combination is the latest in a recent spate of food makeovers, which included a hot cross bun gin liqueur from Aldi and a KFC hot cross bun burger.
Sales of panettone outstripped those of Christmas puddings at the supermarket in 2023, while its “cinnamon bunettone” - a cross between cinnamon buns and a panettone - is one of its bestselling festive cakes.
“I think we’ve seen a huge trend over the past few years of people buying into the slightly lighter eat, but still looking for nostalgic holiday favourites, and we’ve definitely seen that with panettone,” Will Torrent, the senior development chef behind the latest innovation, told The Telegraph.
“We spent so long during the pandemic not being able to share food with family and friends, so this idea of having something that you can put on the dining table and cut into lots of different portions to share is something that we know families are now really valuing.
“If you strip everything back from a panettone, it’s yeasted dough and delicious dried fruits - it’s basically exactly the same as a hot cross bun.
“So we wanted to have the hybrid of bringing two products together, but being able to have that sharing element as well,” he added.
Queen Elizabeth’s former honorary chaplain previously said supermarkets and restaurants were doing “the devil’s work” by defiling hot cross buns with chocolate, caramel and cheese fillings.
Dr Gavin Ashenden, who served as chaplain to the late Queen at St James’s Palace for almost ten years, said they had forgotten the Christian origins of the buns, which are traditionally eaten on Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion.
He said retailers were “enlarging appetites” by adding novel and unhealthy fillings to the buns, thereby warping their symbolism of struggle and salvation from those very appetites.
