Ever since I went to Florida with my family when I was little, I’ve been a bit obsessed with cinnamon rolls. I remember passing by a shop that sold them and being hypnotized by the gorgeous swirl and the sweet scent of warm butter and cinnamon.
When I decided to go vegan, I knew I had to experiment with making a plant based version and these cinnamon rolls are delicious!
Made with a rich enriched yeast dough and filled with a chocolate, cinnamon, raisin mix these rolls would make a great sweet treat with a cup of tea, a indulgent grab and go breakfast option or a real show stopper for a party.
I decided to add chocolate inside the swirl and on top to make them a bit more indulgent but other great options would be to top the bun with flaked almonds whilst the chocolate on top is still melted and leaving them to set, or removing the chocolate all together, adding orange zest into the cinnamon sugar mixture and then brushing the outside with melted apricot jam when cooked (kind of like a chelsea bun).
If you would like, you can always cook these in a round baking dish instead of a rectangular one like I have done and if the buns are close enough, it would make a great “tear and share” piece for friends!
The recipe calls for a plant milk, I used almond as it was what I had in the house but feel free to use oat milk (which is said to taste the most like cow’s milk), soy milk (I think this is the creamiest) or even coconut milk (which has a lovely coconutty taste) to name just a few. The recipe also calls for vegan chocolate.
Cadbury’s Bournville is a an easily accessible option, Lidl’s Simply Dark Chocolate is not only delicious, but super cheap and all the big supermarkets have their own labelled vegan or free from chocolate – just have a google to find out what your favourite supermarket has to offer.
I’d say you should be eating these within 3 days before they start to go a bit hard, but if you feel they aren’t already soft enough, just stick them in the microwave for a few seconds – good as fresh! If you want to use these for a breakfast, just batch cook the recipe, freeze what you will not eat at that moment and get one bun out the night before you plan to have it for breakfast.
I wish I could say these were for the health conscious but alas, they are not! But a little bit of what you fancy is good for you, right?