This is an accidental find. I ran out of milk, eggs and butter, and had made a starter. It is very seldom that I run out of these staples in the house. And so I innovated and made some vegan buns. They are so soft and tasty, the kids think they are better than the ‘real’ deal.
My daughters are growing up and now in their late teens and early 20s. It is about this time that girls start to adopt new beliefs in what they eat. I remember me doing the same when I was their age. Their friends are now into vegan diets, and for a multitude of reasons that I became a semi vegetarian years ago as well. So, making vegan bread is really not a bad idea. Moreover, these buns are so soft and tasty, you really cannot tell they are any different, except that perhaps it is really a gourmet bread.
Have fun making and eating them. Less meat products is really not bad for health, and good for the environment.
Vegan Bread Rolls
Ingredients
Starter
- 200 ml water at 40C
- 6 g instant yeast
Water Roux
- 3 Tbsp bread flour
- 15 Tbsp water room temperature
Bread Dough
- 400 g bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 60 g brown sugar
- 40 g oil olive or peanut or sunflower
Instructions
- Make the starter and leave it aside until it froths.
- Make the water roux by mixing the water with the flour, and then bring that over the fire until the mixture is about 70C.
- Cover the water roux with a piece of cling wrap touching the surface of the roux.
- Freeze roux until it is 3C.
- To the starter, add the roux, all the ingredients of the bread dough except for the oil.
- Knead for 4-5 minutes (on the Thermomix, it is 4 minutes)
- Add the oil and mix for a further 2-3 minutes.
- Test for window pane.
- Cover and let it proof until double its size, or when you put a finger through the dough, the finger imprint stays.
- Shape and proof at 40C until it doubles again, normally 50 minutes.
- Bake at 180C, medium to top shelf, for 15-20 minutes. The smaller the buns, the higher the shelf to use and the shorter the time.
