Description

Vegan sweet dough is a fabulous base recipe to master if you enjoy homemade breakfast pastries, rolls, buns, and more treats- sweet or savory! This is a vegan enriched dough recipe to use again and again!

Ingredients

Scale

Activate the yeast:

1.5 cups warm milk, about 100* (Coconut, cashew, or soy preferred but any non-dairy will work)
2.25 teaspoons yeast (1 packet is 2.25 teaspoons, this works fine)
1 teaspoon sugar

Remaining Dough Ingredients:

1 tablespoon neutral oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons fine salt
4 cups all-purpose flour (520g)
1/2 cup vegan butter, sliced into 1/2″ sections (removed from the fridge as you begin the recipe)

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Instructions

Wake up your yeast. Combine 2.25 teaspoons yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1.5 cups warm plant milk in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Leave for 5 minutes until frothy and slightly thickened.
Make the base dough. After the yeast is frothy and thickened, add the 1 tablespoon oil, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix a few times to combine. Then add 2 cups of the flour and mix to combine. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix to form the dough.
1. The dough should be cohesive at this point, it may stick a bit at the bottom as it mixes- that’s ok. If sticking a lot or on the sides of the bowl add 1 tablespoon more flour at a time and mix for 30-60 seconds before adding another tablespoon.
Add the butter. With the mixer running and the dough hook still attached, add 1-2 sliced butter pieces at a time and give the mixer a few seconds to get them moving, then add 1-2 more until all butter has been added.
Knead the dough. Knead the dough on medium speed for 4 minutes. The dough should be smooth and very cohesive after kneading but will still be a bit tacky, this is fine. As the dough chills, the butter will solidify and become less sticky.
Ferment / 1st rise. Cover the mixing bowl and dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight for a slow first rise. The dough will be ready to use in 8-10 hours.
1. To use the dough faster, you can do the 1st rise at room temp. Cover the dough with plastic and leave at room temp to rise for 1.5-2 hours, until doubled in size. When the first rise is complete, place it in the fridge for 3 hours to chill, or the dough will be very sticky to shape and work with.
Shape & 2nd rise. Remove the dough from the fridge and punch down to release the air. Shape as the recipe details and leave to rise once more at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, until evenly puffed.
Bake as directed. Most baked goods using an enriched dough have the best texture if left to cool for 8-10 minutes before cutting or consuming as they will firm up.

Notes

We recommend rising the dough inside of the oven with the oven turned off, but the light on if you are doing a short 1st rise.

For best results use a firm vegan butter stick like Trader Joe’s or Miyoko’s. Any vegan butter stick may be used- more greasy sticks like country crock or melt may require the addition of 1-2 tablespoons flour. Do not use vegan spreadable butter, the kind sold in a plastic tub.

Sweet Dough is easiest to work with after it has been thoroughly chilled in the fridge. If the dough softens to room temperature it may become sticky from the added butter.

Either Active dry or instant yeast may be used interchangeably. We don’t recommend RapidRise yeast.

The dough can be left in the fridge for 2 nights.

To freeze the dough, let 1st rise complete, then punch the dough down and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Place inside a plastic bag in the freezer and use within a month.

A small flour dredger is perfect for very lightly flouring the work surface. A large bowl with a lid (the 4.5q one in this set) is my preferred method for overnight rise in the fridge- no plastic wrap or oil needed!

Using Trader Joe’s vegan butter, this recipe yields about 1000kg of dough. The final measurement may differ based on what type of oil, butter, and sugar you use but will be near 1000kg.

The weights of various all-purpose flours are different by brand– for this site, 1 cup of flour weighs 130g.

Keywords: Vegan Enriched Dough, Vegan Sweet Dough