Does anything beat a freshly baked Belgian bun topped with icing and a cherry on top? Filled with an easy homemade vegan lemon curd and sultanas, these vegan Belgian buns are really easy to make and taste even better than the shop-bought variety!
For more puff pastry goodness, make sure you’ve tried these gorgeous Chocolate Twists as well as these apple cinnamon buns.
What is a Belgian bun?
A Belgian bun is basically a Chelsea bun, just with icing and a cherry on top. It’s a sweet bun with the delicious addition of lemon curd and sultanas spread across the dough before being rolled up, baked, and topped with delicious white icing and a sticky sweet glace cherry.
How to make these vegan Belgian buns
This is one of several attempts to make the perfect vegan Belgian bun (unbeaten even by the Greggs accidentally vegan ones!). The trickiest part was getting the buns to be the right balance of soft and yet able to hold their shape, which I eventually achieved by using a blend of plain flour and bread flour.
To start with, you’ll make the dough. Combine the two flours, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large mixnig bowl.
Then you’ll add the warm milk and olive oil, and combine the ingredients until they start forming a sticky dough.
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 3 – 5 minutes, just until the dough starts springing back in on itself. Place the dough back in a clean, oiled mixing bowl, cover, and leave to prove for one hour.
Once the dough has proved, tip it out onto a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 25 x 33 cm (I never measure it though, just roll out the dough nice and flat and aim for a rectangle shape!).
Spread over your vegan lemon curd and sultanas, then roll the dough length-ways to form a log. Use a serrated knife to cut the log into 8 – 10 rolls, and place in a baking tray that you’ve lined with baking paper. Cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for another hour.
After the second prove, simply remove the clingfilm and bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. The buns will have puffed up nicely after the second prove and even more while baking!
Make sure you let the buns completely cool before icing.
Filling
I used my homemade vegan lemon curd recipe for this recipe as most shop-bought lemon curds have eggs and butter in them. The recipe is really simple to make and easy to whip up while you’re waiting for your dough to prove!
These vegan Belgian buns are filled with the fresh vegan lemon curd and lots of sultanas. You could also add brown sugar and cinnamon as an alternative with vegan butter for something closer to a cinnamon bun.
Topping
The topping for these vegan Belgian buns is a simple white icing and a glace cherry. As you might notice from the photos, I was running out of icing sugar so had to do more of a drizzle than a thick layer which I think would work even better!
Simply mix your icing sugar with a little water (add a little at a time – you need less than you think) until you have a thick white icing. Spoon over the buns and spread with the back of your spoon.
Top with a glace cherry and enjoy!
Other bakes you might want to try:
Vegan Belgian Buns
Vegan belgian buns with a sweet, soft dough, home-made vegan lemon curd, and plenty of sultanas. Finished with a classic drizzle of icing and topped with a cherry!
Ingredients
- 150g plain flour
- 200g strong bread flour
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 240ml plant-based milk
- 7g (1 sachet) easy bake yeast
For the filling:
- 6 - 7 tbsp vegan lemon curd
- 100g sultanas
Topping:
- 200g icing sugar
- 10 glace cherries
Instructions
- In a jug, warm up your milk until it's lukewarm (it shouldn't burn your finger, for example)
- In a large mixing bowl, combine your flours, sugar, and yeast, then add the olive oil and milk.
- Combine the ingredients until they form a dough, and then tip the dough onto a floured worked surface and knead for 5 minutes, until the dough springs back on itself.
- Wash out your mixing bowl, dry it, and then coat in a little olive oil. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to prove somewhere warm for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
- Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C.
- In the meantime, make your vegan lemon curd. Line a large baking tray with non-stick parchment paper.
- When the dough has finished proving, tip the dough out onto a floured work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle shape - don't worry about getting it the perfect shape or size!
- Spread the lemon curd evenly over the dough and sprinkle over the sultanas.
- Roll the dough into a swiss-roll lengthways to form a roll, and use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 8 - 10 buns, depending on how thin you rolled your rough out. The buns should be roughly 4 - 5 cms.
- Place the buns spiral-up on your prepared baking tray, and cover with cling-film. Leave to prove for a further 1 hour - the rolls will puff back up.
- Remove the cling film and brush the buns with a little plant-based milk, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- Sieve the icing sugar and mix with 2 - 3 tbsp water or milk (adding slowly), until a thick white icing forms. Drizzle the icing over your buns and then top with a cherry.
Notes
These buns are best enjoyed the day you make them, but should also keep for a couple of days in an air-tight container!
Richard
Saturday 29th of May 2021
Hi Nice and simple recipe, but I don't see oven temperatures