Hello! 🙂
I have to confess that my husband and I have started shouting “Merry Christmas!” while jumping around the house and cooking for two weeks now (possibly more). This year Christmas is bittersweet. We have been together for 6 years now, married for 1, and we have never managed to spend a Christmas together, because our families live 50kms apart and we live in another country, so when we go back it’s difficult to spend much holiday time together, which is sad. This year we managed to organise everything here: I bought the Kew Gardens tickets for our parents and found a lovely maisonette for them to stay (we live in a small 1 bedroom apartment where we can fit only one side of the family at the time, and they fit extremely tightly). We were so happy, it would have been the perfect Christmas, I was already picturing myself baking huge cakes in the bigger kitchen in the maisonette I booked while watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks on repeat and nothing, the pandemic came back. I knew it could have happened but I hoped it wouldn’t have. So we have rescheduled everything to the next year and we will see each other when it’s safer to do so.
So I am compensating with baking and baking festive.
This is definitely one of the most addictive things I have baked so far. These pull apart buns are supernaturally fluffy and light, and the gooey delicious filling goes so well with the softness of the dough. I am so glad I made a small bread because we couldn’t stop eating it! The recipe is simple and super satisfying and I love how the turmeric pairs well with the Biscoff spread.
I kept the fat level for the dough to a minimum given that the filling is quite rich and it wouldn’t be as pleasant to eat (and easy to overeat) if the dough was too buttery.
Let me know whether you try this here or on instagram @cake_files_ !
Vegan turmeric-biscoff pull apart bread (I love how the names sounds like a roller skating figure)
(Makes 7 buns)
For the dough:
280g flour
35g sugar
Pinch of salt
7g dry yeast + 25g lukewarm almond milk
2 tsp turmeric
90g almond milk
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp vegan butter (soft)
For the filling:
Biscoff spread – 10 tsp
Add the lukewarm milk to the yeast and let sit for 10-20 minutes, until it’s all bubbly and ready to be used.
Mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the yeast and mix well, then stir in the turmeric and mix. Finally add the vanilla and the milk until the dough comes together nicely. If it’s too wet add a bit of flour. Finally, push in the vegan butter, and knead on a lightly duster surface until the dough looks like a smooth ball. Let sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour (I left mine overnight because I had to go to the movies and it looked great).
Divide the dough in 7 balls, each weighing ~45g, flatten each out with a rolling pin and using a teaspoon place in the filling. Close the dough in a ball by pinching it in a way to have a small ball in the end – I usually pinch it several times where I closed it, so that it is as seamless as possible. Repeat this for all your buns. Now, my baking tin is quite small (~18 cm diameter), so eventually I used only 5 buns and baked the other 2 in muffin tins. It is crucial that the buns do not touch each other but are ~1cm distant.
Let prove at room temperature for 2 hours.
Preheat oven at 160C static.
For the “egg” Wash: 25g agave syrup or date syrup (it’s darker, so you will have a darker top if using the date syrup)+ 50g almond milk. Lightly (very lightly) brush the surface of your buns and then put them in the oven.
Bake at 160C for ~35/40 minutes.
To decorate:
Sift a bit of icing sugar on top when still warm.
These buns are best eaten when still warm or on the same day. We tried the 2 buns I baked separately the day after, and they were still delicious after being a couple of minutes in the oven! 🙂
Miri's Cake Files 