There has been a lot of baking going on in this apartment this past month; now that I'm working five days a week I want to make the best of my days off, so I've been making an attempt to bake at least one new thing a week, if not two.
Monday's triumph were these vegan cinnamon buns I re-adapted from the already-adapted recipe posted by Hannah at Bittersweet. She turned a non-vegan recipe into a vegan one and I just took it a few extra steps forward.
I only made one prominent change to Hannah's recipe; instead of making a maple glaze I opted for a vanilla one because I don't have any maple extract sitting around. At the request of Mike, I also topped one of the pans with chopped walnuts before putting them in the oven, so that the nuts would toast while the buns were baking.
The results were beyond delicious! The walnut-topped buns were a huge success, perhaps even better than the plain buns! These cinnamon buns make me so proud.

Cinnamon Buns
1/2 Quart Soymilk (2 Cups)
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Packets Active Dry Yeast
4.5 Cups All Purpose Flour, Divided
1/2 Heaping Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Scant Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 Cup Margarine, Divided
1 Cups Granulated Sugar, Divided
Loads of Cinnamon

Vanilla Icing
1 Pound Confectioner’s Sugar
1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
6 Tablespoons Soymilk
1/4 Cup Margarine, Melted

First off, combine the soymilk, oil, and 1 cup of sugar together in a large pot and place it over medium heat on the stove. Bring it just to a boil while stirring, and then immediately take it off the heat. Let it sit for about 45-60 minutes to cool to below 115 degrees, as anything hotter will kill the yeast.

Once luke warm, add in the yeast and let it get acquainted with the mixture for about 5 minutes. Then, dump in 8 cups of the flour, stir well so that it’s fully incorporated, and cover the whole pot. Let it sit for another hour to rise.

After that hour has passed, (really, there’s a lot of waiting but not much work, you’ll see!) stir in the last cup of flour, along with baking soda and powder, and salt. Now you’re finally ready to get rolling!

On a well floured surface, take out half of the dough and use a rolling pin to coerce it into a very long, rectangular shape. Don’t worry about the exact measurements, but make sure it’s about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick and longer than it is wide. Now, melt down 1/2 cup of the margarine and pore it liberally all over the dough. Spread it on evenly using a spatula, and then top it with 1 cup of the sugar. Next, just go crazy with the cinnamon shaker; I didn’t measure, but just coat the whole slab evenly and generously, and there should be no problems (I went through about 1/2 of my cinnamon shaker, by the way.) Finally, roll the whole thing up into one sugary, spicy snake and cut it into buns about 1 inch wide. Place the buns into lightly greased (I used 8-inch round, but anything goes) pans- It should make about 7 pans in all.

Repeat with the remaining half of dough.

The buns will need to sit for another 30 minutes, but in the meantime, you can start preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Once plump and risen, you can slide those rolls into the oven for a brief 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown and smelling incredible.

While they’re baking away, you can go ahead and make the glaze. Simply combine all the ingredients for it and stir well. Once those buns come out of the oven either drench or drizzle them while still hot.


More pictures:

Labels: cinnamon, vegan, yeast breads