Summer is sadly coming to an end, and I’m trying to soak up the last of daylight savings time before it disappears forever. This weekend was primarily spent getting our coop and brooder ready for the new babies we’ll be getting soon (yay!), but I did manage to get a bit of cooking in somehow. We went to a vegan pot luck on Sunday and I was a little stumped on what to bring. I see cooking vegan as a fun challenge in creativity, so I jumped in head first and didn’t look back.
One of my favorite vegan foods to make it Pulled “Pork” Jackfruit Sandwiches, which I usually serve on Hawaiian rolls. One quick look at the ingredients in those delicious rolls and I realized that store-bought was not going to work in this vegan recipe. I decided that I couldn’t live without some kind of sweet roll, so I dug my KitchenAid mixer out of retirement just for the occasion.
These turned out more fabulous than I could have hoped for. And despite the amount of time it took to make them, a lot of that is just sitting around waiting for the dough to rise. I promise you can make these with a little determination and very little bread-making knowledge. You got this!
This recipe is based on the fabulous one from Eff Yeah It’s Vegan.
Makes 12 hamburger bun-sized rolls.
Ingredients:
for your yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water (not hot!)
- 4 ½ tsp active dry yeast (or two packets)
- 1 tbsp sugar
for your dough
- 8 cups all purpose flour – plus more for dusting
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
- 2 cups pineapple juice
for the top
- 2 tbsp pineapple juice
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
Kitchen Tools: Stand mixer with dough hook and whisk attachment, parchment paper, baking sheet, pastry brush, tea towel
Prep Work:
- Test your water first to make sure it’s not too hot. It should be around 95° – 100° F, but any hotter than 110° will kill the yeast.
- Stir your yeast and sugar into the warm water until it’s a milky color. Let sit for about ten minutes until it starts to foam. If you don’t get any foam after ten minutes, toss it out and start with fresh yeast and cooler water.
- Melt the vegan butter in the microwave. Mix the salt, sugar, and pineapple juice into the melted butter until dissolved.
- Once your yeast has finished proofing, pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer with the melted butter mixture. Whisk until combined.
- Using the dough hook attachment, set the mixer on low speed and slowly add your flour, one cup at a time until you hit the 7 cup mark. If your dough is still super sticky slowly add the 8th cup until it your dough pulls away from the mixing bowl. I used the whole 8th cup, but you may not depending on the brand/quality of flour. (I used a straight up generic brand)
- Once dough is no longer wet and sticky, set mixer to medium speed and knead with the dough hook for about 2 minutes. Make sure it’s scraping itself off the sides of the bowl and turning into a dough ball around the hook. You can add a little more flour to it, 1 tbsp at a time, if it’s still sticking.
- Flour a flat surface and scrape out your dough ball. Flour your hands and knead the dough for 5 or so more minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep it from sticking.
- Shape the dough into a large ball and place on a freshly floured surface (a cutting board works great). Cover with a tea towel and let rise for about an hour at room temp, or until it doubles in size. It’s done proofing if the top bounces back when poked.
- After the first rise, punch your dough down to remove any large air pockets. Divide and shape into 12 more or less even round loaves.
- Place parchment paper over baking sheet and arrange your little rolls evenly. 4 across and 3 down works on a standard 18″ x 13″ baking sheet.
- Cover with the tea towel and let rise for another 40 minutes or until doubled in size.
Baking:
- While the dough is rising for the second time, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- When the 40 minutes is up, melt the remaining vegan butter and stir in the reserved pineapple juice. Brush the mixture on the tops of your little rolls.
- Place in the middle of your oven and bake for about 17-20 minutes until tops are golden brown. (Mine took the entire 20 minutes)
- Let cool for 15 minutes, pull apart, and enjoy!
Tips and Tricks:
- This recipe makes a dozen large rolls. To make them smaller and more like the King’s Hawaiian Rolls, Divide the dough into 24 balls instead of 12 and cut your baking time down by a few minutes.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, simply use a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients and knead by hand for a total of 8 minutes before moving on to the first rise.
