On the way home from school on Monday Martin-Lane announced that after she finished her homework she needed to make some cinnamon buns. Always up for a good baking project I said I would assist. Cinnamon Buns are not in my usual repertoire, to make or eat! I put together a plan by piecing a few different recipes together and then substituting non-dairy for dairy items, fresh compressed yeast for dry yeast, vanilla bean for vanilla extract, incorporating out favorite Cinnamon from Le Sanctuaire ...
We were very thrilled with the results, but consume with care– these are a dessert, not a breakfast food.
Cinnamon Buns
Makes 12-14 buns
DOUGH
1 tablespoon fresh compressed yeast
1 cup warm almond milk
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons melted non-hydrogenated margarine such as Earth Balance
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup pureed silken tofu
3 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
FILLING
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
5 tablespoons , melted non-hydrogenated margarine such as Earth Balance
ICING
8 tablespoons softened non-hydrogenated margarine such as Earth Balance
1 1/2 cups 10x sugar
1/4 cup tofu cream cheese
seeds from the inside of 1 vanilla bean
1/8 teaspoon salt
1.Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
2.Add sugar, margarine salt, tofu, and flours, mix well.
3.Knead the dough for a few minutes and make into a large ball. Add a little flour if necessary to keep dough from sticking to your hands.
4.Put dough in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
5.While dough is rising make filling by mixing brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.
6.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
7.Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is 21 inches long by 16 inches wide and about ¼ inch thick.
8.Brush Smart Balance onto dough and sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.
9.Carefully roll dough from the long edge.
10.Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.
11.Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden brown.
12.While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.
13.Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.
14.As soon as you remove the buns from the oven spread generously with icing.
A generous friend lent us his beach house in Watsonville California, just south of Santa Cruz at the end of July. From there we took a day trip to go visit the Redwoods and on our way took a little detour to the Live Oak/Eastside Farmers Market. For east coasters it is always astounding to see at a producers only market– avocados, almonds, oranges and artichokes (I know someone is growing artichokes outside of DC but these were different!) alongside the summer bounty of fruit and vegetables we grow in our back yard in DC. We bought lots of ingredients to cook for dinner.
