The Best Vegan Cinnamon Buns
Ooey and goey…soft and slightly chewy. Sweet and so delicious you know you should stop but you can’t. Can you guess what I’m talking about? Cinnamon Buns! They are one of my favourite desserts in the world and finding a bun that hits all of the notes perfectly is harder that you would expect. Not to toot my own horn, but I do believe I make a mean bun. This is what I’ve learned throughout my journey of cinnamon bun baking.
3 Must Use Tips
There are 3 very important aspects to perfecting your bun.
- The dough – it must be fluffy and soft, but not undercooked and the layers can’t be too thick but also can’t be too thin.
- The gooey centre – I am a HUGE fan of cinnamon. I believe the more the better, now this isn’t always the case for everyone and I do understand that. Making sure the ratio of your cinnamon centre to dough is right, is imperative. This is also an important factor when deciding on the topping to your bun. If you’re like me and like a cream cheese frosting then you definitely don’t want to put too much in the centre. You’re teeth will end up hurting from all the sugar!
- The Frosting
- Non-Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting-The perfect cream cheese frosting is important. Not too cheesy but being able to taste the cream cheese is important. I love a fluffy almost whipped looking cream cheese frosting so getting the right texture is also very important.
- Vegan Frosting – Make sure the cream of coconut is chilled. It helps keep it thick. Cream cheese is thick and we’re trying to mimic that. I don’t believe in over whipping. So mix that frosting until its like a fluffy cloud!
5 Suggested Tips
Luckily for you I have tested multiple recipes and tweaked enough times to make all these points to achieving the perfect cinnamon bun easy for you on the FIRST try to impress all your friends and family. Before you get baking though I have a couple baking tips for you to take note of.
- Active dry yeast or Instant? I have tried both and always end up letting the dough sit regardless of what yeast I use as I find giving the dough time to rise is important. I would suggest going with Active Dry Yeast and not rushing the process. There’s no quick and easy way to make a really delectable cinnamon bun and honestly the waiting and patience is totally worth it!
- I always seem to crave cinnamon buns (& baking) more in the winter but my house is always quite a bit cooler and the sun isn’t out nearly as much which makes for getting dough to rise a challenge. Turn your oven on to bake at the lowest degrees possible, let it heat up then turn it off. This will create a warm nurturing environment for the yeast to grow and help the dough rise. I’ve found this has made a huge difference with the quality of the dough! Do this before you start so your oven isn’t too hot for your seran wrap or bowl that isn’t oven safe.
- Cooking Twine – Use cooking twine to cut your cinnamon buns. It’s a life saviour and makes for a lot easier and cleanlier cutting experience.
- Make it your own – when I say this you can’t mess with the dough recipe. At least not until your comfortable with it (and are prepared to have a couple crap batches) but when it comes to the filling and topping get creative and feel free to make your own decisions.
- Take all of your cold ingredients out (butter, eggs, cream cheese etc.) at least an hour before you start baking to get them to room temperature.
*You can scroll over the photo’s below for more information*
The BEST Vegan Cinnamon Buns
Servings: 12
Calories: 356kcal
Equipment
- Oven
- Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer w/ Dough Hook *optional
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 Packet Active dry yeast or 2 1/4 tsp
- 1 cup Plain unsweetened almond milk (luke warm) can substitute for plain unsweetened cashew milk or oat milk *for non vegan buns use 2% milk
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ⅓ cup Vegan Butter (softened) *for non vegan buns use regular butter
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 each Bob's Red Mill egg replacer or flax eggs *for non vegan buns use 2 eggs
- 4 cups Flour
Filling
- 1 cup Granulated brown sugar I like to use "Best Brown Sugar"
- 3 ½ tbsp Cinnamon
- ⅓ cup Vegan Butter (softened) *for non vegan buns use regular butter
Non Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 tbsp Butter (softened)
- 1 ½ cups Icing sugar
- ¼ cup Cream cheese (softened)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 pinch Salt
Vegan Frosting
- ¼ cup vegan butter I use Earths Balance
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cup icing sugar
- ¼ cup cream of coconut chilled *see picture below of what I use*
Instructions
Dough
- Warm your milk of choice in the microwave until luke warm or about 90℃-100℃. From your 1/2 cup, take 1 tsp of sugar and mix into warm milk and pour yeast into bowl and let rest for a few minutes or until the yeast has froathed.
- Add sugar, butter, salt, egg replacer (or eggs) and flour to a large bowl (or bowl of your mixer if you have one) an mix well. Once mixed, add the yeast/milk mixture and knead with the dough hook (or your hands) and mix until well incorporated.
- Grease a bowl large enough for your dough, then place dough in bowl and cover with wrap and set aside for 1 hour in warm place. Dough should double in size. (If your house is anything like mine then preheating your oven to the lowest possible temperature then turning it off once heated will provide a warm cozy place for your dough to rise.
Filling
- Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter together.
- Once your dough has doubled in size, roll out on a slightly floured surface. You want it about 1/4 inch thick and in the shape of a rectangle.
- Spread the cinnamon mixture evenly across your dough. Then roll your dough up (hotdog style).
- With your cooking twine (or string will do if you don't have cooking twine) and cut dough into 12 peices starting in half, then the halfs into quarters and so on.
- Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 9X13 baking pan, cover and let rise in a warm place for another 30 mintues. Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Once buns have risen, remove cover and bake in oven for 20 minutes or until a light golden brown.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Once the buns are out of the ovenand cooled, mix all of the ingredients togeher. Spread frosting evenly across the buns.
Vegan Frosting
- Toss all ingridients into the bowl of your stand mixer and blend until light and fluffy.
Notes
- You can add raisins or chopped walnuts or pecans
- Freeze them for fresh cinnamon buns for up to 4 days
- Best enjoyed served warm