Vegan Strawberry and Cream Buns
Make soft, fluffy vegan strawberry and cream buns filled with dairy-free vanilla cream. An easy homemade summer treat.
A Tiny Bit Vegan strawberry and cream buns
Welcome to this summery twist on cinnamon buns. These gorgeous, doughy knots are usually filled with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon to create the classic cinnamon buns we all know and love. With a few little tweaks to that recipe, I’ve created these vegan strawberry and cream buns for a delightful bakery-style treat that is bursting with summer flavour.
These buns take a bit of planning ahead and involve a few steps, but they’re pretty easy to make. Made with enriched dough, they’re incredibly soft and tender laced with sweet, sticky, strawberry jam and filled with a deliciously light plant-based vanilla cream.
Now, some of the jam does ooze out during the baking process because jam contains a lot of sugar and it’s not sealed in any way. However, that doesn’t take away from the flavour you’ll get and the hint of strawberry jam here and there is really delicious, without being overly sweet. And if you enjoy jammy bakes, you’ll love our vegan puff pastry jam tart recipe.
The cream filling
To get the cream in the middle of the buns, you do need a long piping nozzle but it’s not essential at all. You can simply serve your cream on the side as a dip then people can help themselves to as much or as little cream as they like!
Recipe highlights
- Wow family and friends with this bakery-style treat
- Who doesn’t love a sweet bun? Anyone who likes strawberries and cream will love these!
- A soft fluffy dough that needs you to follow a few steps, but it’s really not difficult
- Egg-free and diary-free
- Perfect for getting together for a summery elevenses or afternoon tea
- Don’t have a piping nozzle to fill the buns? Just serve the cream as a dip for your buns. It’s easy and fun!
Ingredients you’ll need to make these bakery-style vegan strawberry and cream buns
Plain flour – you don’t need to worry about using strong bread flour here. Plain flour works well and you’ll probably already have it in your kitchen.
Salt – just a pinch of salt helps bring the flavour out in the dough – it won’t taste salty at all so do add it.
Dried yeast – it’s really difficult to find fresh yeast here in the UK so I used dried yeast. Be sure to read the instructions on your yeast on how to use it. Some dried yeasts need activating whereas the easy bake types you can mix straight into your dry ingredients.
Caster sugar – a staple for baking, caster sugar is perfect for lot of sweet treat recipes. It’s super easy to find in grocery stores. But this isn’t cake so if you only have granulated sugar, so ahead and use it, it’ll work just fine.
Plant-based butter – as with most of our baking recipes, use a block-based plant butter and not the spreadable type. We’ll be enriching the dough with butter, adding a little at a time until it’s all incorporated.
Unsweetened soya milk – Soya milk contains a decent amount of protein when it comes to plant milks, closely matching dairy milk. The higher protein helps provide structure and moisture in bakes. We use soya milk in the dough and then brush the tops of the buns with a little too just before baking.
Vanilla extract – I add vanilla extract to the dough to give the dough a lovely flavour. If you don’t have any, don’t worry, it’s not essential but it does help give this sweet dough an even better flavour.
Strawberry jam – you’ll need a good strawberry jam to spread onto your dough before you create your buns. Buy the best quality you can and of course, one you like as the flavour will run throughout your baked buns.
Cornflour – we use just a teaspoon of cornflour to thicken the plant-based double cream. This helps to give it a custard like consistency and taste. Remember to dissolve it in just one tablespoon of cream first before adding it to the pan of cream. This prevents clumping.
Plant-based double cream – for a good thick cream, make sure you use plant-based double cream and not single cream. There are a few really good vegan double creams to choose from.
Powdered sugar – we use powdered sugar in the cream to sweeten it and to dust our baked, completely cooled buns. A dusting of powdered sugar always makes bakes look so much more inviting.
Ingredient quantities you’ll need to make these vegan strawberry and cream buns
For the buns
300g plain flour
7g dried yeast
60g caster sugar
½ tsp salt
50g plant-based butter (cut into small chunks)
200g unsweetened soya milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tablespoons strawberry jam
Extra 2 tbsp plant-based milk to brush the tops
1 tsp powdered sugar (for dusting the baked and fully cooled buns)
For the cream filling
150ml plant-based double cream
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp powdered sugar
Equipment you will need to make our vegan strawberry and cream buns
Whisk – to make the cream
Small pan – to make the cream
Large bowl – to make your dough
Rolling pin – to roll out your dough
Sharp knife or pizza cutter – to cut your dough
Muffin tin – to bake your buns
Pastry brush – to brush soya milk on the top of your buns before baking
Optional equipment
Piping bag and long nozzle – to insert cream into buns. If you don’t have these, don’t worry, simply serve the cream as a dip on the side.
How to make our bakery-style strawberry and cream buns
To make the dough
- In a large bowl mix the plain flour, dried yeast, caster sugar and salt.
- Add the soya milk and vanilla and mix and fold in the bowl for about seven minutes until it comes together. It will remain quite sticky and that’s fine.
- Next, to enrich the dough, we want to add the butter a little at a time. Make sure it’s all kneaded in before adding in more. Repeat until all the butter is used up.
- Once all the butter is added and kneaded in well, cover the bowel with cling wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
- Your dough should have doubled in size after the overnight proving. To start the next stage, grease and lightly flour nine holes of a muffin pan and set aside.
- Now turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and roll into a rectangle, roughly 30cm x 25cm in size.
- Use a spatula to carefully spread the jam all over and then we want to take the top third of the rectangle and fold it forwards and then take the bottom third and place it over that. You can watch me make it on Instagram!
- Now use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut nine strips. Then, to create plaits, we want to make two vertical cuts, on each strip, leaving about a 1cm at the top.
- Now plait each piece and then starting at the bottom, roll each one up towards the 1cm to create the bun shape before placing it in the muffin pan.
- Repeat the process until all nine buns are prepared then cover the top of your muffin pan with cling wrap and leave your buns to rise until they double in size. Now’s a good time to make the cream filling.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180oC at least fifteen minutes before you start baking and gently brush the tops of the buns with plant milk using a pastry brush.
- Bake the buns in the middle of the oven for 18 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
- Once baked, allow the buns to cool completely before piping cream into the centres and finishing with a dusting of powdered sugar.
To make the cream filling
- Mix one tbsp of cream with the cornflour then add this and all the remaining cream into a small pan.
- Heat the cream on a stove on low/medium for about three minutes, whisking it all the time to prevent any lumps from forming. Once you feel it thicken, add the powdered sugar and vanilla and give it a good whisk.
- Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool completely.
Tips to make the best vegan strawberry and cream buns
- The jam filled dough can become messy and the jam can ooze out. However, that sticky, strawberry flavour will still be there and it’s really delicious! Try to handle your dough as gently as possible to keep as much of the jam in place as is possible.
- Find somewhere warm to let your buns rise once they’re in the muffin pan. On a hot day, they can be ready to bake in as little at 45 minutes. On a cooler day, it may take double this time or sometimes more.
- The jam becomes very sticky after baking and will act like glue! To prevent the buns from sticking to the muffin pan, carefully loosen them in the pan as soon as you safely can. Use a butter knife to go around each bun and remove them from the pan within 10 minutes to cool completely, preferably on a cooking rack.
- If you’re filling the inside of the buns with cream, fill them just before you’re going to serve them and only fill the number you know will get eaten. Any remaining cream will easily keep in the fridge ready for whenever you want to eat more buns!
- Use a sieve to dust powdered sugar onto your baked, completely cooled buns. If you add it while they’re still warm, it will just melt into a sticky layer.
How to store your strawberry and cream buns
As with most bakery-style buns, these vegan strawberry buns are best eaten on the day they are baked. However, they are still very good the next day, just not as good! Store them in an airtight container and unless you’ve filled them with cream, they don’t need to go in the fridge. Do follow my tip above to only cream fill the buns just before serving – if you’re using a nozzle to insert cream into the middle.
Vegan Strawberry and Cream Buns
Equipment
- 1 whisk (to make the cream)
- 1 small hob pan (to make the cream)
- 1 large bowl (to make your dough)
- 1 Rolling Pin (to roll out your dough)
- 1 sharp knife or pizza cutter (to cut your dough)
- 1 muffin tin (to bake your buns)
- 1 Pastry brush (to brush soya milk on the tops of your buns before baking)
- 1 piping bag and log nozzle (optional – to insert cream into buns. If you don’t have these, don’t worry, simply serve the cream as a dip on the side)
Ingredients
To make the buns
- 300g plain flour
- 7g dried yeast
- 60g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 50g plant-based butter (cut into small chunks)
- 200g unsweetened soya milk (plus 2 tbsp extra to brush the tops of your buns before baking)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp strawberry jam
- 1 tsp powdered sugar
For the cream filling
- 150ml plant-based double cream
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp powdered sugar
Instructions
To make the dough
- In a large bowl mix the plain flour, baking powder, dried yeast, caster sugar and salt.
- Add the soya milk and vanilla and mix and fold in the bowl for about seven minutes until it comes together. It will remain quite sticky and that’s fine.
- Add the butter a little at a time. Make sure it’s all kneaded in before adding in more. Repeat until all the butter is used up.
- Once all the butter is added and kneaded in well, cover the bowel with cling wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
- Your dough should have doubled in size after the overnight proving. To start the next stage, grease and lightly flour nine holes of a muffin pan and set aside.
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and roll into a rectangle, roughly 30cm x 25cm in size.
- Use a spatula to carefully spread the jam all over and then we want to take the top third of the rectangle and fold it forwards and then take the bottom third and place it over that.
- Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut nine strips. Then, to create plaits, we want to make two vertical cuts, on each strip, leaving about a 1cm at the top.
- Plait each piece and then starting at the bottom, roll each one up towards the 1cm to create the bun shape before placing it in the muffin pan.
- Repeat the process until all nine buns are prepared then cover the top of your muffin pan with cling wrap and leave your buns to rise until they double in size. Now’s a good time to make the cream filling.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180oC at least fifteen minutes before you start baking and gently brush the tops of the buns with plant-based milk using a pastry brush.
- Bake the buns in the middle of the oven for 18 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
- Once baked, allow the buns to cool completely before piping cream into the centres and finishing with a dusting of powdered sugar.
To make the cream filling
- Mix one tbsp of cream with the cornflour then add this and all the remaining cream into a small pan.
- Heat the cream on a stove on low/medium for about three minutes, whisking it all the time to prevent any lumps from forming. Once you feel it thicken, add the powdered sugar and vanilla and give it a good whisk.
- Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool completely.
Notes
- The jam filled dough can become messy and the jam can ooze out. However, that sticky, strawberry flavour will still be there and it’s really delicious! Try to handle your dough as gently as possible to keep as much of the jam in place as is possible.
- Find somewhere warm to let your buns rise once they’re in the muffin pan. On a hot day, they can be ready to bake in as little at 45 minutes. On a cooler day, it may take double this time or sometimes more.
- The jam becomes very sticky after baking and will act like glue! To prevent the buns from sticking to the muffin pan, carefully loosen them in the pan as soon as you safely can. Use a butter knife to go around each bun and remove them from the pan within 10 minutes to cool completely, preferably on a cooking rack.
- If you’re filling the inside of the buns with cream, fill them just before you’re going to serve them and only fill the number you know will get eaten. Any remaining cream will easily keep in the fridge ready for whenever you want to eat more buns!
- Use a sieve to dust powdered sugar onto your baked, completely cooled buns. If you add it while they’re still warm, it will just melt into a sticky layer.
