Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºfan and grease a large ceramic/glass baking dish/tray. It should fit 6-8 hot cross buns sat next to each other (like in the pictures)
Halve your hot cross buns like you would to toast them, and put a few chunks of chocolate in the middle and sandwich again. I used a chocolate bar, and snapped the rows off and put a row in the middle of each bun.
Lay all your hot cross buns next to each other in the dish. Mine easily fit six, and then a 7th split in half on the ends - or as many as you need.
In a bowl, whisk together the milk, double cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla until combined.
Pour over the hot cross buns, and sprinkle over the chocolate chips.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool for 10 minutes before eating!
Notes
I used Marks & Spencers chocolate and salted caramel hot cross buns for this.
I used a ceramic dish as you can see, as they're so good for baking these kind of desserts.
You don't have to use the chocolate in the middle, you could use a chocolate spread, a bit of caramel, or a jam, I just wanted this to be uber chocolatey.
This is best served warm, but can easily be reheated if it goes cold.
You can use either semi-skimmed milk or whole milk in this recipe, I wouldn't recommend skimmed.
This will last for 2 days after the day of making.