If you are a bread lover but want an animal-friendly version of your favourites without compromise, I've got your back! In this post, I will show you how to make vegan brioche buns, ideal for your plant-based burgers. These vegan brioche buns are light, airy and slightly sweet. Elsewhere on my blog, you will find delicious vegan focaccia and various flatbreads.
Making your bread is very satisfying, and you don't have to worry about all those strangely named ingredients that appear on the packets of shop bought alternatives. Granted, much more effort is involved in making your own bread, but the feel-good factor is worth it.
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Ingredients
- Strong bread flour
- Castor sugar
- Dried instant yeast
- Vegan block butter
- Soya milk
- Salt
See the recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Warm the milk. It needs to be warm but not hot. It is too hot if you can't comfortably keep your finger in the milk.
Transfer the milk to a jug/bowl, and add the sugar and yeast. Allow the yeast to bloom for a couple of minutes.
While the yeast is blooming, measure out the flour and salt in a separate bowl.
Add the cubed butter (room temperature) to the flour and rub with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the yeast/milk mix, and mix everything to form a dough.
Transfer onto the worktop and knead for about 10 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and prove for about two hours.
It will double in size.
Once proven, knock back the dough (see FAQs).
Transfer the dough to the worktop and knead for about 2 minutes.
Divide the dough into equal-sized portions of about 40g for mini vegan brioche buns. Roll into balls, cover and prove for one hour until doubled.
Once the balls are proven and doubled, preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Glaze the dough with plant-based milk mixed with a dash of soy sauce for colour.
Sprinkle over sesame seeds (optional).
Bake for 20 minutes.
Set aside and cool.
Substitutions
Using soya sauce is not completely necessary for the glazing; however, in my experience, it gives the closest colour to an egg wash. You can either do without it or replace it with maple syrup.
Variations
If you want larger vegan brioche buns, divide the dough into bigger portions.
Storage
These vegan brioche buns keep well in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three days.
You can make these buns in bulk if you have enough freezer space. Just freeze them in an airtight silicone bag and spread them out in a single layer. They can be kept frozen for up to three months.
Top tip
If you live in a cold country or make these buns in winter, prove the buns in the oven. Set the temperature to 30ºC, add a tray with water to create humidity, and close the door.
FAQs
Brioche is a type of French bread. Its characteristic qualities are achieved by enrichening the dough with extra amounts of butter, milk, and, if desired, sugar. It has a fluffy texture and a slightly sweet taste. The sweetness and lightness of the bread make it an excellent choice for pairing with burgers.
A well-kneaded dough can be recognised in a few different ways. Before kneading, the dough will be sticky and saggy, but after kneading, it will become more stretchy and hold its shape and not tear. What you are doing by kneading is developing the gluten in the dough. This gluten development facilitates the rising of the dough when it is baked by trapping gas released from yeast. Poke your dough with your finger - if it springs back, it has been well-kneaded.
This is an essential step in bread making. It allows the developed gluten in the bread to relax so that it is easier to work with and shape. It also gives time for fermentation of the yeast in the dough, improving the flavour and making the bread less dense.
Proving happens after the final shaping of the dough and before baking. Proving the dough is similar to resting the dough in that both are concerned with supporting the fermentation process from the yeast. As you can see in the photographs in the instructions, the dough doubles in size. The resulting baked bread will be lighter and airier.
After proving dough, it is "knocked back" or "punched down" to deflate it, releasing trapped air from the fermentation during proving. The words "punched down" are a little misleading - you only need to press down with your fist gently. Knocking back the dough removes larger air bubbles, further improving the texture of the baked bread and making it more uniform. Knocking back also additionally supports the fermentation of the yeast.
Related Recipes
Looking for other bread recipes? Try these:
Pairing
These are some of my recipes to serve with these mini vegan brioche buns:
📖 Recipe
Mini Vegan Brioche Buns
Equipment
- Digital scales
Ingredients
- 250 g Strong bread flour
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 25 g Castor sugar
- 7.5 g Dried instant yeast One tbsp
- 180 ml Soya milk
- 60 g Vegan block butter
- ½ teaspoon Soy sauce
Instructions
- Cut the vegan block butter into cubes.
- Warm the milk. It needs to be warm but not hot. It is too hot if you can't comfortably keep your finger in the milk.
- Transfer the milk to a jug/bowl, and add the sugar and yeast. Allow the yeast to bloom for a couple of minutes.
- While the yeast is blooming, measure out the flour and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add the cubed butter (room temperature) to the flour and rub with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the yeast/milk mixture and mix to form a dough.
- Transfer onto the worktop and knead for about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover, and prove for about 2 hours hours, until the dough has doubled.
- Once proven, knock back (see FAQs) the dough, transfer it to the worktop and knead for about 2 minutes.
- Divide the dough into equal-sized portions of about 40g. Roll into balls and prove for 1 hour or until doubled.
- Once the balls are proven and doubled, preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Glaze the dough with plant-based milk mixed with soy sauce, add sesame seeds (optional) and bake for 20 minutes.
- Once ready, set aside to cool.
Nutrition
NOTES
Food Safety
In a professional kitchen, food hygiene and safety are top priorities, and from the beginning of my training, I practised good habits and routines. Here are some fundamental practices to adopt in the kitchen at home.
- Wash your hands regularly while preparing, handling and cooking food.
- Wipe down countertops and high-contact points regularly.
- If you cook meat and fish, do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat. Use separate chopping boards for meat and fish. Wash your chopping boards immediately after use.
- Thoroughly cook food to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C).
- Don't leave food at room temperature for extended periods (more than 2 hours).
- Store food correctly.
For more details regarding food hygiene and safety in the home, visit the UK Government's Food Standards Agency webpage.
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