For some time already, I gotta admit, I had been daydreaming of making vegan cinnamon rolls. But since I didn't have an oven in my apartment, I didn't have a chance to give it a try. (Seriously, could someone explain to me why Mexican people don't use ovens?!) Anyway, last week we finally went to buy a small countertop oven, and that's when the fun begun!
Ever since I have been making these cinnamon rolls at least 4 times and pizza couple of times. Obviously trying to improve the recipes each time. I didn't even rememeber how much I love oven-cooked food!
When it comes to cinnamon rolls (or baking in general) I used to be one of those people who believe that you cannot really make delicious stuff without eggs, butter and milk. Boy, was I wrong. First of all, eggs are in most cases just extra ingredient or can be easily replaced. Butter can be replaced with margarine or vegan butter, and milk - do I even need to say this? Milk can be replaced with plant-based alternative, just choose your favorite from tens of different options!
Now, here it comes: Vegan cinnamon rolls, easy and delicious!
CINNAMON ROLLS (20 pieces)
DOUGH
1 cup almond milk (or other plant-based milk)
1 bag (11g) dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp salt
3-4 cups wheat flour
70g dairy free margarine (or vegan butter)
FILLING
50g dairy free margarine
cinnamon
brown sugar
GLACING
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp full fat coconut milk (or other plant-based milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Making the dough:
1. Heat the almond milk in microwave oven (to 40-45 celcius degrees, a little bit warmer than hand-warm). Be sure not to heat the milk too much; in over 50 degrees the yeast will die and doesn't work properly!
2. Mix 1/2-1 cup of flour and dry yeast and add the mixture into the milk. Stir thoroughly.
3. Add sugar, salt and cardamom and mix.
4. Add rest of the flour little by little and stir with a wooden spoon or by hand.
5. Knead the dough some 5 minutes.
6. Melt the margarine in microwave oven (in 10-15 second cycles) and add it into the dough.
7. Cover the dough with a towel and let sit in a warm place for at least 30 minutes, or as long as it has doubled its size.
8. Knead the dough for some 5 minutes more, and then start flatten it using a rolling pin (If you don't own one, you can use an empty wine bottle instead! Just use butter paper between the bottle and the dough, master tip, tested by me ;)) Make a rectangular shape (about 30x40cm) of the dough.
9. Make a mixture of melted margarine and cinnamon and spread it on top of the dough. Add sugar as much as you want (I used about 3-4 tbsp)
10. Starting from the longer side of the dough, start rolling it into a tight wrap. Leave the seam underneath the wrap. Using a sharp knife, cut about 2-3 cm slices of the wrap and place the pieces on the table, leaving some space between the pieces.
11. When all the pieces are cut, place a towel on top of them and leave sit for some 15 minutes.
12. Place the rolls on top of paper covered oven plate, leaving minimum 5 cm space between them (the rolls with grow and spread in the oven). If you want, you can use a mixture of water and sugar to spread on top of the rolls (instead of the traditional egg spread) but also it works just fine without it.
13. Bake in 225 celsius degrees on the middle rack for some 8-12 minutes, depenging on your oven. When the rolls have stopped growing and are getting a nice golden tone, they sould be ready. Make sure to not bake them too long or they might get a bit dry.
14. Meanwhile the rolls are in the oven, you can prepare the glacing. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Depending on how thick or thin glacing you want, feel free to vary the amount of the ingredients.
15. Spread the glacing on top of the rolls and let sit for a while before serving. (For some people, including myself, the rolls might get too sweet with the glacing, so if you want to test both options, leave some rolls without the glacing and see which option you prefer!)
(You can store the rolls in a plastic container / bag to keep them fresh and soft for later. If you want to eat them next days, a quick heat in a microwave oven (10-15 sec) works perfectly to make the rolls like freshly baked again!)
