These Vegan Orange Hazelnut Morning Buns are fluffy, delicious, and the perfect treat to enjoy at your weekend brunch!
Hi friends and happy Thursday! It's time for the first recipe of 2022! As I mentioned in my previous post, I've had a very special reason as to why I've been taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging the last few months... I am pregnant! And growing a baby is no joke. Now that I'm in my second trimester, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and post more regularly. These Vegan Orange Hazelnut Morning Buns are soft, fluffy, and the perfect weekend breakfast treat! If you're craving some cinnamon roll vibes without the work, these buns fit the brief.
What do I need to make these orange hazelnut morning buns?
- Hazelnuts: these little nuts are the secret ingredient in these morning buns! The trick here is that we will use the hazelnuts to infuse our vegan butter to make the buns extra delicious. I also sprinkled some hazelnuts on top of the buns for extra flavor and crunch.
- Oranges: this recipe uses both orange juice and orange zest in several components of the morning buns to add lots of bright, fresh citrus flavor!
- Cinnamon: while we are not making cinnamon rolls, cinnamon is still an important ingredient in making these buns taste good! That warm, cozy flavor just can't be beat.
- Vegan butter: you can't make buns without butter! Your favorite butter will do here - I like Miyoko's, Flora, or Trader Joe's brand for a fancier option. But EarthBalance and Country Crock also work well!
- Nondairy milk: this is a necessary ingredient in our yeast dough! I do find that a higher-fat "milk" tends to yields a richer, fluffier end product. For this, I would recommend canned coconut milk, soy milk, oat milk, or even Ripple milk.
- Dry yeast: yeast is a must in this dough! You can use either "regular" active dry yeast or instant yeast - both will work in this recipe as the proofing time for the yeast is built in.
- Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vegetable oil.
How do I make these orange hazelnut morning buns?
These buns do have a few different steps involved to make them extra flavorful and delicious!
- Make the hazelnut-infused butter: so, backstory. The inspiration for these orange hazelnut morning buns were some buns that my friends and I got at brunch a while back, which were made with browned butter. It is one of my greatest frustrations that I have yet to crack the code on vegan browned butter! To create a similar "nutty" flavor, I toasted some hazelnuts and let them steep in hot melted vegan butter to infuse it with flavor and add an extra layer of deliciousness.
- Mix up the sweet roll dough: as you likely have realized by now, I use the same base recipe for all of my cinnamon rolls and sweet rolls! The recipe for these morning buns is just the same as usual - vegetable oil, nondairy milk, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and of course flour and yeast. Super simple! I also added some grated orange zest into the dough for an extra layer of flavor.
- Combine the cinnamon sugar-butter topping: once your dough has risen and your hazelnut butter has cooled, we are going to make our cinnamon sugar butter mixture! Mix up the infused butter with brown sugar, plenty of cinnamon, orange zest, and just a pinch of salt. Since we are not making rolled up cinnamon buns, I just spread about ⅓ of this mixture on the bottom of my pan and then saved ⅔ for the top of the buns. I also sprinkled hazelnut pieces on top of the buns!
- Make the glaze: to finish off these morning buns, I whipped up a simple orange glaze made with powdered sugar and fresh orange juice. Easy squeezy!
I hope you guys will give these vegan orange hazelnut morning buns a try! They are delicious, simple, and so fluffy! The perfect weekend brunch treat.
Check out these other sweet roll recipes:
- Vegan Lemon Berry Rolls
- Vegan Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls
- Vegan Coffee Cinnamon Rolls
- Peach Cinnamon Rolls
vegan orange hazelnut morning buns
These Vegan Orange Hazelnut Morning Buns are fluffy, delicious, and the perfect treat to enjoy at your weekend brunch!
Servings: 8 -12
Ingredients
- *for the hazelnut butter*
- ½ cup {1 stick} vegan butter
- ¼ cup chopped hazelnuts
- *for the dough*
- 1 cup nondairy milk
- 2 cups white flour {+ ½ cup separated}
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ½ tablespoon yeast {instant or active dry}
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- zest of 1 orange
- *for the cinnamon topping*
- hazelnut-infused butter {see above}
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon cinnamon {more or less to taste}
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 tablespoon chopped hazelnuts
- *for the glaze*
- 2-3 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- First, let's make the hazelnut infused butter. In a small nonstick pan over medium-low heat, add in your chopped hazelnuts. Cook these, stirring often, until they smell fragrant and are lightly golden brown. Add in the vegan butter and allow it to melt completely. Turn heat down to low and let the hazelnuts simmer in the butter for about 10 minutes. Once done, take the pot off the heat and let it cool completely.
- Next, let's start on the dough. Pour the nondairy milk in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat for 30-45 seconds. You want the milk to be warm, but not burning hot... a little warmer than body temperature is perfect.
- To the warm milk, add the oil, brown sugar, and yeast. If you are using active dry yeast, set this mixture aside for 10-15 minutes to allow the yeast to bloom. It is ready once it starts to get foamy and bubbly on the top. If you are using instant yeast, you do not have to wait and can go directly to the next step.
- In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients with the 2 cups of flour until a soft dough forms. Now it is time for the first rise. Cover your bowl and put it somewhere warm for 1 hour.
- After the first rise, add in the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and additional flour. Also add in the orange zest. Knead until all the flour has been absorbed, and add more if needed. You want the dough to be soft and smooth but not too sticky!
- Now it is time for the second rise. Cover the bowl with a tea towel again, and let rise for an additional 3+ hours. I like to let it rise overnight at this point.
- After the second rise, it is time to shape your yeast dough.
- Lightly flour a clean surface, and dump the dough on top. Knead it for 2-3 minutes, adding more flour as needed. The dough should be smooth and easy to work with, so add flour if it's too sticky! Divide your dough into even portions and roll into even buns. I decided to make 8 buns, but you can divide it more for smaller buns.
- To prepare the topping, combine the cooled hazelnut-infused vegan butter with the brown sugar, cinnamon, orange zest and vanilla. Mix until smooth and creamy.
- Grab your desired baking vessel (I used a 10 x 7 dish, 8 x 8 would also work) and spread about ⅓ of the cinnamon butter mixture on the bottom. Place your prepared buns on top, and then spread the remaining butter mixture on top. Sprinkle on additional chopped hazelnut pieces.
- At this point, cover the pan and let it rise one more time for 30 minutes.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F. Bake the rolls 30-35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and no longer doughy. If the top is getting too brown at the end, cover the pan with a piece of foil to avoid burning!
- While the rolls cook, make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice and powdered sugar until thick and smooth. Add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness. Make it thicker than you think, as the glaze will melt slightly when poured over the warm morning buns.
- Let buns cool slightly before glazing, and enjoy!
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