Tag: vegan baking

Recipes

1-hour Vegan Nutella Star Bread (+ other filling ideas)

Miche


I’ve been drooling over the star bread trend, but figured I lacked the patience and artistry to make it… I’m just not very good at making food look pretty. But then I realized that if I could whip up a *super quick* version, then it wouldn’t be so sad if it turned out to be an ugly mess 😉

(PS: If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in awhile, I talk about it on my Instagram!)

There weren’t any solid-looking quick vegan recipes for star bread out there, so I made my own! I used my go-to cinnamon roll dough, which doesn’t require the typical hours of rising time but still gets super poofy. And it requires hardly any ingredients.

If you have your own favorite cinnamon roll dough, you can definitely use that instead. Just follow the directions, including rising, for your dough. I suggest that you don’t let it rise after assembling the star, though, or the shape could lose definition.

This recipe is also super versatile in terms of fillings! Instead of the vegan nutella (Justin’s, Artisana, and Nocciolata are all great options), you can use things like:

  • Vegan butter + cinnamon + sugar
  • Jam
  • Apple or pumpkin butter
  • Cinnamon sugar, orange zest and cranberry sauce
  • Pesto or marinara + vegan cheese (just halve the sugar in the dough)

Tips

Usually I keep these pre-recipe spiels really short, BUT this recipe is a bit more finicky than my usual chuck-in-a-pot recipes, so here are some tips on the procedure:

  • When spreading the nutella on the soft dough, it can be a little tricky–I found it helpful to approach it more as lightly scraping the nutella around with the edge of the spoon rather than spreading it per se.
  • When twisting the star arms together, make sure you REALLY pinch them together at the end, otherwise they can pop apart in the oven.
  • I found this video really helpful for the shaping method, so I highly recommend watching it or another one before beginning.
  • See the steps below:

Ingredients:

Dough:

  • 1c warm vegan buttermilk (aka 1c non-dairy milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar)
  • 2 1/2c all purpose flour
  • 1 packet of instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

  • 3-4 tbsp vegan nutella

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Make the dough: Combine all dough ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook, and mix it all together. Then, knead in the mixer on low for 7 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead by hand. The dough should be smooth and not too sticky; if it’s wet or very sticky, add a bit more flour. Split the dough into 4 equal balls, approximately 160g each.
  3. Roll out a ball into a circle until it is about 8.5″ in diameter; anywhere 8-9″ is fine. Place the disc on a baking sheet (on either a silicon mat or parchment paper) that is at least 9×9″.
  4. Spread a heaping tablespoon of your filling evenly onto the disc, leaving about .5-1″ clearance around the edges. (See tips above)
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 with two more of the balls of dough, layering one on top of another. (So you’ll have a stack that’s dough disc, then nutella, then dough disc, and so on). For the fourth and final ball of dough, roll it into a disc as before and set it on top of your stack, but do NOT spread nutella on top of this one!
  6. (I strongly recommend watching a video like this one before starting this step.) Use a 2-3″ circular pastry cutter, glass, or jar to lightly mark a circle in the center of the dough; do not cut the dough out. Then slice the surrounding dough like a pizza into 16 equal pieces, leaving the center circle uncut. 
  7. To make the star arms, grab two adjacent pieces, and twist them away from each other two and a half times, then join the flat parts on the edge. Pinch them together really well so they don’t come apart! Repeat for the rest of the pieces.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy, and try to snap a photo of your beautiful bread before inhaling it! That was a tough one for us 😉

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,180 other subscribers

Recipes

The Best Vegan Dutch Apple Pie Recipe

Miche


The best vegan Dutch apple pie. Bold title choice, I know.

My husband’s favorite dessert is Dutch apple pie, so he’s tried a lot of them in his life: a few vegan ones I’ve made for him since he went vegan 3 years ago, and lots of nonvegan ones from before that. When I made him this one for his birthday the other day, he went on and on about how it was the best pie he’s ever had, by far. (And he tends to give honest feedback about my cooking, positive or negative!)

And I agree. So, to us at least, this one wins the award for being the best Dutch apple pie.

It’s got a classic pie crust on the bottom, and a slightly crispy crumble topping on top. And of course, deliciously caramely apples in between. Comfort in a pie pan.

We served it up with the incredible new Eclipse vanilla ice cream, from the same food scientist/chef that came up with Just Mayo! (We’re such foodies that we actually ordered the ice cream online. Worth it.)

We just ate the last slice yesterday, and now I’m craving it again…

Ingredients:

Bottom crust

(The bottom crust is from Nora Cooks–all her recipes are amazing!)

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup cold vegan butter; I used Earth Balance
  • 1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening
  • 3-5 tbsp ice cold water

Filling

  • 6 cups peeled and sliced green apples (~5-7 apples)
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 cup vegan white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup vegan white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup vegan butter

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. First, make the pie crust. Make sure your butter, shortening, and water are cold, or the dough won’t come together well. Add the flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor, and pulse until blended. Add the cold butter and shortening, and pulse it over the course of 10-15 seconds until it starts to look like a coarse meal. Then, while the food processor is running, gradually add the ice water one tablespoon at a time until it starts to clump together; you may only need 3 tbsp. Roll out the crust on a floured surface to fit your pie pan. Don’t worry if the edges crack, you can repair those with pieces you trim off! Lay the crust in the pie pan and trim off the edges that hang over, and repair cracks in the crust as necessary. Refrigerate the crust while you make the filling and topping.
  3. Make the filling: place the sliced apples in a large bowl. I recommend adding the lemon juice to the bowl when you first start slicing the apples, and give it a shake occasionally to get lemon juice on the new apple slices–it will prevent them from browning. Add the flour, sugars, and spices to the bowl once all the apples are sliced. Stir and/or shake to coat.
  4. Make the topping: stir together the flour and sugars. Using a fork, cut in the butter until it is evenly distributed and clumping together. If it won’t form clumps (this can happen with Miyoko’s butter because it is a bit drier, but tastes amazing!), add more butter a tablespoon at a time.
  5. Remove the crust from the refrigerator, and evenly distribute the apples on top of the crust. Sprinkle the topping evenly on top.
  6. Bake for 50 minutes, or until the edges and topping just begin to get brown. Don’t let the edges get fully brown!
  7. Slice, serve with vanilla vegan ice cream or coconut whipped cream, and watch out–it’ll disappear quickly 😉

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,180 other subscribers