The Lustful Vegan

A friend of mine made cinnamon buns on the weekend, and the mere thought drove me mad with desire. But it’s not like I could just run out and buy a vegan sticky bun. Not around here anyway. So I spent a little time looking at her recipe, and eventually crafted a vegan version. They’re not as complicated as they look.

The stuff:

Dough:

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2.5 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk alternate (soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, etc.)
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 6 1/2 T water
• 1 T egg replacer powder (equiv. 3 eggs)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 to 4 1/4+ cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon [approximate, optional]

Filling:

• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 T cinnamon
• 4 T shortening
• 1 1/2 tsp water OR Kahlua or other vegan liquor^*

Topping:

• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 T Earth Balance/vegan margarine
• 3 T maple syrup
• 1 T corn syrup (or you could probably use more maple syrup)
• splash of caramel extract [or other, optional]

• 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

The how:

On the night before you want them…

1. In a stand mixer, combine warm water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit until it ‘blossoms’ and foams a bit (~5 minutes).
2. Mix the egg replacer with a bit of your ‘milk’, stir until smooth.
3. Add milk, shortening, sugar, egg repacer, cinnamon, salt and 3 cups flour (1 cup at a time), mixing on low speed until blended.
4. Switch to a dough hook and knead on low speed, slowly incorporating the remaining 1 cup of flour.
5. Increase speed to medium, kneading dough until smooth and slightly sticky (adding a little more flour if too wet), 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Shape the dough into a ball, oil lightly, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
7. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (1 hour to 2 hours).
8. Punch down. Turn out onto a lightly floured cutting board and let sit 20 minutes.
9. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon for filling.
10. Melt the shortening for the filling, and stir the water in until well blended.
11. Roll the dough out to form a 12 x 18″ rectangle.
12. Brush with melted shortening, then sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon mixture.
13. Roll up the dough along the long edge. Seal the seam by pinching it shut.
14. Cut the roll in half [2]. Keep halving each piece until you have a total of 16 skinny little rolls. Let sit.
15. In a pot, combine all topping ingredients except nuts and stir over low heat until melted. Pour into a well-greased 9×13″ pan. (Taste a bit once it cools a little — it’s swoon-worthy!)
16. Sprinkle nuts over topping.
17. Snug the rolls, cut side down, into pan.
18. Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate overnight.

In the morning…

1. Take buns out and let them warm up while you heat the oven to 375F.
2. Bake 30 – 35 minutes.
3. Turn upside down over similarly sized platter/pan.

Voila! Fresh cinnamon buns. Try not to drool on them.

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^*Learning note: You can replace butter (or Earth Balance) with shortening in baking recipes, at least where it’s not a major flavour-component. However, you must add approximately 1 1/2 tsp of water or other liquid for every 1/4 cup of shortening, because shortening has less moisture in it than butter or margarine. So says Crisco, and it seems like they should know.^**Thoughts: I think these would be good with chocolate chips rolled into the rolls, or more chopped nuts.