If you’ve reached peak chocolate and hot cross buns at your place, here’s how to make sure they don’t go to waste.

Leftover hot cross buns and chocolate eggs might sound oxymoronic - can you really have too many? - but given rising prices, you don’t want to waste them.

If the Easter Bunny or some other benign force has gifted you more goodies than your whānau can handle and you’ve already offloaded some to the neighbours, here’s how to use the rest.

Hot cross buns can be frozen successfully - or repurposed in several different ways. Seriously Low Carb / Unsplash

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Chill out

Both buns and chocolate eggs can withstand a stay in the freezer.

Slice buns in half horizontally, then wrap well and seal in a ziplock bag or lidded plastic container before freezing. Halved buns can be resurrected in the toaster.

Chocolate eggs, whether basic shells or marshmallow, also need to be wrapped well to prevent from freezer burn or taint. Purists will say that chocolate should be eaten at room temperature, but a frozen marshmallow egg eaten from the freezer when no one is looking is hard to beat.

Naomi Toilalo's Easter Cookies. Naomi Toilalo

Make cookies

With the school holidays stretching ahead it’s smart to have a decent cookie recipe up your sleeve. Naomi Toilalo’s recipe for Easter Cookies ticks all the boxes: it gives the kids an activity, helps them brush up on te reo baking terms and actions, and it uses up 20-30 small caramel eggs. Vanya Insull’s No Bake Chocolate Easter Egg Slice also uses up a bunch of baby eggs.

VJ Cooks Easter Egg Slice. VJ Cooks

Toast some chocolate egg sandwiches

Split one hot cross bun in half horizontally. Smash a chocolate egg into bits and layer on top. Put the other half of the bun on top and press down gently. Spread the outsides with butter. Cook in a toasted sandwich machine until the bun is crisp and the chocolate has melted. Repeat with more buns and chocolate as necessary. For extra excitement - it is Easter, after all - spread the buns with marmalade before adding the chocolate.

Hot cross buns - can you really ever have too many? John Cutting / Unsplash

Get stuffed

Is there a roast dinner in your future? Turn stale hot cross buns (especially fancy sourdough ones) into stuffing - use the equivalent amount of buns instead of sourdough in Kelly Gibney’s Sourdough Stuffing with Bacon recipe.

French fruity buns

Like French toast, but with buns: Whisk together 2 eggs, ½ cup milk or cream, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp sugar. Split four hot cross buns in half horizontally. Bathe the buns in the eggy mixture, then fry gently in a fat knob of butter until golden. Flip over and cook the other side, then serve with diced feijoas (you’ll probably have lots of those kicking around too).

Repurpose any leftover hot cross buns or chocolate eggs with the aid of some real ones. Morgane Perraud / Unsplash

Hot cross bun pudding

If you can’t face another hot cross bun, freeze them as directed above, then repurpose them in a couple of weeks in this spin on a traditional bread and butter pudding.

Grease a large lasagna dish or similar with butter. Halve 6 hot cross buns and spread the cut sides with butter. Arrange the buns in the dish, butter-side down (it’s fine to cut or tear them into pieces to fit). If you like, tuck in some broken up leftover chocolate eggs (those little caramel eggs are good here).

Whisk together 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup cream, 2 Tbsp marmalade, 1 tsp mixed spice, 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until combined. Pour this mixture over the buns. Set aside for 30 minutes while you heat the oven to 180C.

Bake the pudding for 30-35 minutes, until the custard is set. Sift over a teaspoon of icing sugar and a teaspoon of cocoa, and serve.