Well and Good Hot Cross Buns
Posted: March 5, 2024 Updated: March 8, 2024
It’s Easter time and it’s been two years since I did a review of hot cross buns so let’s check out the traditional ones from Well and Good.
Well and Good are an Australian brand based in Melbourne. In supermarket, you’ll often see the baking kits and also their vegan mac and cheese kit. I think it’s similar to the classic Kraft mac and cheese kit.
Outside of the big supermarkets in speciality retailers you’ll find their huge range of breads, buns, rolls and even bagels.
Happy Tummies, an online store selling allergen free products, sent me this pack of hot cross buns to taste and let you know what I think.
As you may know, I work as an affiliate with Happy Tummies. It means if you click a link to Happy Tummies and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way of supporting me running this website and bringing you great gluten free information on Facebook and Instagram.
Anyone who’s ever met me would tell you. I’m very very honest so don’t think in any way that me getting something for free is going to change my opinion of the product. It definitely won’t 😅.
One key feature in the Well and Good hot cross buns
The big thing I noticed, and this is often very important to coeliacs and other gluten free folks – there’s no allergens in these buns. That includes may contain warnings, zero.
This is great as egg and often soy are in gluten free baked goods, and hot cross buns are no exception.
Another great thing about these buns? They weigh more than advertised! Given we how much we pay for gluten free food, you definitely don’t want underweight products.
Preparing Well and Good Hot Cross Buns
Depending on the bun your toaster might accommodate a hot cross bun. The Coles / Lifestyle Bakery brand are flat enough to get in a toaster once sliced. Woolworths are too crumbly, I’d never risk that in a toaster.
Well and Good hot cross buns won’t fit in my toaster either, they are too big!
We sliced ours in half and put them under our oven’s grill. Our oven’s grill is… effective (psycho?) so it took about 20 seconds for it to be thoroughly browned.
I did think about turning them and toasting the other side but the grill was scaring me a bit so I just left it at that.
If heating from frozen they do suggest microwaving them for twenty seconds first. I’m sure they’d also come up great in an air-fryer, if anyone has cooking times for this please let me know in the comments!
The taste
The first thing I noticed on my plate after biting in was that there’s no crumbs after toasting! Like, at all.
There were a few crumbs on the chopping board when my husband cut them but who knows what knife he used?
The consistency is just right. It’s lighter than the Coles hot cross buns and heavier than the Woolworths ones. The dough has that bread / bun texture, just like it should.
The bun is quite springy, you can see there’s so many little bubbles in the dough. I can squish it down and it comes right back up without any damage or crumbling.
The outside of the bun is good too, it’s chewy. Is that meant to be a thing? I don’t think I ate hot cross buns before going GF because I thought I hated fruit in bread. Turns out I just hated citrus peel.
Luckily for me there’s no citrus peel in these. There are sultanas and currants inside and they’re juicy not at all dry or hard.
You can taste the spices in the dough, however I’m not clever enough to pick up what ones. The ingredients only lists spices, so we’ll have to assume it’s the usual suspects cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger.
And what did my gluten-eating husband think? He said it was “Good, tastes like a regular bun.” Though he was a little disappointed as he was expecting chocolate chips 😅.
I think my only downside was that it got a little more stiff as it cooled down. However I took ages eating it because I was writing up this review as I went. If you were eating it like a regular person, i.e. scrolling the wonderful articles on my website, it wouldn’t go cold before you were done.
The upgrade
Of course butter is the natural choice but my husband and I usually do peanut butter and / or jam. I don’t know why, just how we roll. Turns out that’s pretty weird – someone on IG called me out on it last year!
Anyway this time around I used some almond and pistachio butter. I wouldn’t normally get it but it was randomly half price at Coles a few weeks ago and it’s a good product to use for my baby’s allergen exposure.
It worked quite nicely with the hot cross bun, I’ll definitely try it again.
The verdict
I am super happy with these. There’s not that many gluten free hot cross buns available at supermarkets. Even though they become available by January 1st every year there isn’t much scope to compare them all.
If you were only going to buy one packet of hot cross buns this Easter, treat yourself and get Well and Good. Even though they are more expensive, they are genuinely better than what you can get in Coles and Woolworths.
That’s not to say either are awful, but these are really great.
Where to buy Well and Good hot cross buns
Unfortunately Well and Good hot cross buns are not available in the big two supermarkets. It’s possible that you’ll see them at your local independent grocer. In terms of physical stores, I think you’ll see them at places like Good Food Bakery in Melbourne which stock a lot of Well and Good products. Also LaManna in Melbourne likely has them.
But honestly your best bet is to buy online. In the case of Happy Tummies, they’re shipped frozen so you’ll have maximal shelf life when you get them, which according to the website is 18 days.
Clearly you’re going to eat them well before that.
Well and Good hot cross buns come in traditional with sultanas and currants and you can also get some with chocolate chips.
Product details
Gluten free: Legit, not detected
Vegetarian / vegan: Vegan.
Allergens: Nil. May contain: Nil.
Serving size: Four buns.
Still thinking about Easter goodness? Check out these articles.
The Ultimate Gluten Free Easter Eggs Guide for Australia