Vegan Orange and Cranberry Buns
These Orange and Cranberry Buns are egg and dairy free making them the perfect sweet treat for anyone following a vegan or plant based diet.
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
For the dough
- 200 millilitres plant milk e.g. soy milk, almond milk or oat milk
- 7 fast action dried yeast
- 75 grams caster sugar
- 400 grams strong white bread flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 75 grams non-dairy butter e.g. Flora or Naturli
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tbsp orange zest
For the cranberry jam
- 250 grams cranberries fresh or frozen
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 100 millilitres water
- 4 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tbsp orange zest
For the orange glaze
- 100 grams icing sugar
- 4 tbsp orange juice
Instructions
To make the dough (first proof)
- Warm the milk either in a sauce pan or in the microwave. It should be warmer than room temperature but not too hot to touch.
- Add the fast action dried yeast to the milk along with just 1 teaspoon of caster sugar and stir.
- Leave the milk, sugar and yeast mix for 10-15 minutes or until it has begun to bubble and go frothy (this is a sign that the yeast has woken up!)
- Add the bread flour, the rest of the caster sugar, salt, orange juice and orange zest to a large mixing bowl.
- Melt the non-dairy butter and pour this into the bowl followed by the milk, sugar and yeast mixture.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until it starts to resemble a ball of dough.
- Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes if kneading by hand, or 5-10 minutes if kneading using a mixer. It will be ready once the dough has formed into a smooth ball and is springy to the touch.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm for an hour or until it has doubled in size.
To make the cranberry jam
- While the dough is proofing, begin to make the jam.
- Add the cranberries, caster sugar and water to a sauce pan and place on a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved into the water.
- Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduced the heat to low and cook until cranberries are all burst and soft and the sugar syrup has thickened. (This should take roughly 15 minutes.)
- Leave to cool slightly before transferring the mix to a blender or food processor and blitzing until there are no large pieces of cranberry left. (Though, it doesn't need to be entirely smooth).
- Transfer to a bowl and stir through the orange juice and zest. Leave it to cool until you're ready to fill the buns.
To make the buns
- Line two large baking trays with grease proof paper.
- Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn the risen dough out.
- Roll it out into a large rectangle (roughly 24 inches by 12 inches), lifting it regularly to make sure it's not sticking to the work surface.
- With the longest side closest to you, spread the jam over the left half of the dough.
- Fold the right hand side of the dough back over the left hand side of the dough so that the jam is completely encased.
- Cut 12 long strips and separate them from each other.
- Take the ends of the first strip in either hand and twist.
- Placing the twisted piece of dough back on the counter top, curl one end up until a spiral has formed.
- Place the twisted bun on to the baking tray and repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Leave the twisted buns to proof for a further 30 minutes. In this time pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4.
- Place your baking trays into the centre of the oven and baked for 20 minutes or until the buns are golden brown.
- Leave them to cool for 10 minutes on their baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To decorate
- Once the buns have cooled completely, sift the icing sugar into a small mixing bowl.
- Add the orange juice to the icing sugar and stir until a smooth icing has formed.
- Using a teaspoon, drizzle the icing over the buns and leave to set before serving.