Being a vegan is wonderful for so many reasons, we are working to right so many of the wrongs in our world with our fork and and our purchasing habits (i.e not supporting companies that test on animals). But every now and then something will come up, we'll remember something that we used to eat or buy and get a little wistful. Those moments just give me the inspiration I need to find creative ways to prove that vegans don't have to give up the things they love and crave.
When we first made the switch my husband was scared that we would be eating salads and tofu and not much else. Well we do eat a LOT of salads and tofu lol but we eat LOTS of other things too. AND I have found that aside from a bloody rare steak (which is just barftastic anyway) there is not much I have not been able to successfully recreate a vegan version of. Case in point King's Hawaiian Buns. We used to eat a lot and I mean a LOT of these things, a couple of packs a week easily. They have been quite a temptation for my oldest son who has been really really missing them so I thought I would give it a go and try to surprise him by making them at home.
I was so nervous about making these rolls because we all loved the originals so much, I wanted to be able to recreate them so we could have our happy sweet buns again! I am very happy to say they were a smashing success! Everyone LOVED them, they were SPOT on to the store bought ones, in taste, texture and aroma, except of course with everything homemade these were soooo much better! Not only were they vegan but I always try to make everything with organic whole ingredients, AND they were made with mama's love and no crap! You know we were buying these before my label reading days because once I stated reading labels there is NO way I would have bought something with this list of crap on it's label. They have butter, eggs, milk.. and whey? WHY? Well MINE have NONE of that junk and they lack nothing. So I ran across the recipe to make them at home here. It was not vegan or organic so I made a few tweaks to make it so. Also some people in the reviews mentioned trouble with the dough and the amount of flour. I had no problems with it. Mix your final 3 cups of flour in 1 CUP AT A TIME, your dough will be sticky and perhaps difficult at first but by the time you get all 6 cups mixed in it should be just perfect. I don't have a stand mixer or a bread maker so I just mixed it by hand and they came out divine! Also one final note: There is a lot of rise time involved here, so don't get all excited thinking you're gonna have that sweet doughy goodness in your mouth anytime soon... all good things to those who wait, or some crap like that right? Well the dough rises twice for an hour each time so patience is your friend here :)
This recipe makes 3 loaves or 3 pans of rolls.
King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls - VEGANIZED!
- 6 cups organic unbleached flour
- 1/2 cup organic unbleached flour for kneading
- Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs preblended
- 2 cups organic pineapple juice
- 3/4 cup organic unrefined sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract
- 2 (1/4 ounce) envelopes yeast
- 1/2 cup (one stick) Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine) melted
Directions:
- In a medium bowl mix your egg replacer, the pineapple juice, sugar, ginger, vanilla, and Earth Balance.
- Place 3 cups of flour in a large bowl. Stir in the wet mixture until well-combined. Sprinkle in the yeast, one packet at a time, and mix.
- Add the remaining flour one cup at a time and mix in. By the last cup mixing with your wooded spoon will be hard, so you may have to use your hands. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure it is thoroughly combined.
- Cover the bowl with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
- Remove from the bowl and knead in 1/2 cup flour. Knead about 10 times. Divide into three equal parts.
- If you are want to make the round loaves take 1/3 of your dough and shape into a greased and floured round and place it in a round pan
- If you want to make loaf shaped loaves take 1/3 of your dough and shape into a greased and floured loaf pan.- If you want to make the rolls each 1/3 of your dough here will make 1 pan of rolls so you can make 3 pans if you use all of the dough. Depending on how big or small you make your rolls will determine how many you get in each pan. The ones you buy in the store come with 12 rolls per package I think but when I made mine I made my dough balls about 2 inches and I got 21 rolls in a pan. Grease and flour your pan, roll your balls and place in pan. - Cover and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or golden brown.
The smell coming from your oven should be soooo good! We dove into ours right out of the oven we just couldn't contain ourselves any longer and we were rewarded with sweet warm Hawaiian happiness on our taste buds!
I decided to make a pan of rolls, a round loaf and the ones you see on the left there are filled with cream cheese to replicate these AMAZING cream cheese filled butter/sugar topped pastries you can only get at Filipino bakeries. I don't know their "real name" but every one seems to call them Filipino cream cheese buns. See the two final pictures for more detailed instructions on how to make these.
They had that perfect pull apart texture just like we remembered!
They disappeared VERY fast. I am going to make up a couple more batches this week to freeze so we always have some on hand.
Filipino Cream Cheese Buns
I have such fond memories of these pastries... my sons' father, his mama and I used to go to a farmers market about 10 years ago in a tiny little cow town called Tracy, CA on the weekends. We'd just had our oldest son and I'd push him around in his stroller and we would load up on fruits and veggies and then find the Filipino lady with her trays of pastries and hope she hadn't sold all of the cream cheese ones :) Such a simple memory but it always makes me smile. Well these pastries are pretty dang hard to come by, even when I was living in the Bay Area, which boasts a pretty large Filipino population. Which leads me to another awesome memory involving these same pastries (yes lots of my happy memories do center around sugary treats). My oldest was about a year old I think when we took him on his first BIG roadtrip from Livermore, CA to San Diego, CA to watch his uncle graduate from college. While we were down in San Diego we did some exploring and one of the places we ventured to was National City which is seriously like someone took a tiny chunk of the Philippines and dropped it off just south of San Diego. Well of course we found these amazing cream cheese buns there and I have to say, the ones we had in National City are probably the best ones I have ever had. Now it's been at maybe 6 or 7 years since I've eaten one of these buns but I remember how soft and sweet the bread was, how the butter on top, was covered in sugar and was so sweet and mixed with the cream cheese was just like a bite of heaven in your mouth. So when I decided to make the Hawaiian buns I figured I would give these a go as well. My first try at these was good but not exactly as I remember them so I am going to give you the advice to sweeten the cream cheese vs. just putting it in plain as I did. I think with that one little tweak these will be perfect!
Directions:
You need 1/3 of the dough from above (1 loaves' worth). Divide it up into 10-12 balls (depending on how big you want your final rolls to be)
Added ingredients:
1 tub vegan cream cheese
1/2 cup organic agave or other sweetener
1 stick Earth Balance softened to room temp
Unrefined organic sugar for sprinkling
In a mixing bowl mix cream cheese and sweetener.
Take your dough balls and stretch them out into discs.
Then spoon in some cream cheese and roll the dough up around it, pinch the ends to seal it.
Place onto your greased/floured baking sheet with the seam down.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or golden brown.
Take out of the oven and cool for about 15 mins
Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for another 10 minutes
Spread softened Earth Balance on each and sprinkle generously with sugar
Do you have a favorite recipe or dish you have been missing since going vegan? I have veganized just about everything my family used to eat from our prevegan days. If you would like some help converting an old family recipe to a vegan version or if there is something you used to buy (like these King's Hawaiian buns) that there is just not a commercially available vegan version of let me know, I'd be happy to help you revamp anything (aside from a bloody rare steak as I mentioned above) into a vegan version. To do so there is an appointment box over on the left there simply select "Meal Revamp" and fill in your details. There is no charge for this service, just happy taste buds!
