This recipe post was commissioned by Eating Amsterdam Tours.
While housesitting in the Netherlands, I went on a bit of a baking rampage.
Somehow, I decided that baking something almost every other day was not only the best use of my time (read: form of procrastination from my work), but was indeed the only way fully take advantage of having access to a kitchen so well equipped that things were almost falling out of the cupboards.
When we started travelling, I used to think of having a kitchen as a luxury. Nowadays (especially since starting to eat vegan) I consider it a necessity, at least half of the time. The ability to experiment with new recipes, and make my own vegan cakes is a nice side benefit!
Naturally, I had to try making something typically Dutch, and so when I came across this recipe, I set to making it right away.
Dutch food is not typically very vegan friendly, and indeed the recipe for these is not traditionally vegan, but vegan baking is really not all that scary.
While the original recipe uses wheat flour (both whole grain and white), I’ve had this thing for spelt flour lately, and wanted to try it out to see how it would work. Since the gluten in wheat flour does the job of binding that people often rely on eggs for in regular baking, I was a bit worried that by using spelt flour (which indeed does contain gluten, but not nearly as much as wheat flour), the buns wouldn’t stick together, but I was proved wrong. Also, instead of using vegan butter, I used coconut oil, because it's amazing and can be used for everything.
So here's my version of this veganised recipe for Dutch buns.
Makes: 8
Total time required: around 2 hours
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup fat (I used melted coconut oil)
- ½ cup milk (I used soy milk, but any unsweetened kind will do)
- 2 tsp dried yeast
- 3 1/3 cups of flour (I used spelt flour)
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1/3 cup sultanas or raisins (I used a mixture of brown and golden sultanas)
- 1/4 cup cranberries
Method
1. Melt the butter or oil in a pan, then remove from the heat, add the milk and yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, then stir in the oil, milk and yeast mix.
3. Mix well until fully combined into a ball, then turn it out onto a floured surface a knead for a full 5 minutes*
4. Put the ball back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1½ hours.
5. Turn the risen ball out onto a floured surface and divide into 8 equal parts. Roll them in to balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
6. Heat the oven to 180C and bake for 15-20 minutes.
7. Let cool just enough so they don't burn your mouth and enjoy! (Because really, who is going to wait for them to cool fully anyway?!)
*The kneading is really only necessary if you are using flour with a high gluten content (like wheat flour). Otherwise, just give it a few pokes and move on.
