So, how do we feel about cinnamon buns? More specifically, super soft, ultra-fluffy, perfectly sweetened and spiced, 100% VEGAN cinnamon buns complete with a sticky pecan raisin glaze AND a drizzle of creamy maple cashew icing?
I’m guessing that most of us are probably feeling pretty good about this intensely decadent cinnamon bun idea. (PS: All you raisin haters can pipe down already, just leave ’em out okay??)
I promise you, these foolproof cinnamon buns will not disappoint. The no fuss dough is an absolute dream to work with, it’s soft, satiny and easy to roll out. After the second rise (before and after, shown below), you’ll know that these buns are gonna be good. Real good.
I tried these filled with both brown sugar and coconut sugar. I loved them both equally! Brown sugar offers the familiar molasses sweetness while the coconut sugar imparts a lovely caramel flavour that is just a slight updated twist on the original. If you’ve got coconut sugar on hand, I suggest you give it a shot!
It’s been years since I’ve eaten a properly decadent cinnamon bun so I went all out with these guys and included both a glaze AND a drizzle. The glaze is a simple simmered mixture of coconut oil (or vegan butter), coconut or brown sugar, pecans and raisins. The creamy maple cashew drizzle is made up of soaked raw cashews, non-dairy milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, and icing sugar. Feel free to follow my ultra-decadent example, or if you’re prefer something a little simpler opt for just the glaze or just the drizzle. Oh! And with a few slight alterations to the drizzle recipe (included), you can top these with a maple cashew frosting instead. Yum!
These delicious buns freeze perfectly, just leave them out to thaw at room temperature or pop them in the microwave for a minute or so to reheat. It’s been lovely having such a delicious treat tucked away in our freezer for midnight sweet cravings and afternoon coffee breaks. I hope you enjoy these delicious cinnamon buns as much as we have!
Perfect Vegan Cinnamon Buns
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 8
Intensely decadent pecan raisin cinnamon buns complete with a sticky glaze and a creamy cashew drizzle. 100% vegan and delicious!
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp warm soy or almond milk
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup + 1 tsp coconut oil, melted
- 3 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
Filling:
- ¼ cup vegan butter or coconut oil (plus extra)
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar) (plus extra)
- 1/3-1/2 cup raisins
- 1/3-1/2 cup pecans, chopped (plus extra)
Pecan Raisin Glaze:
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vegan butter or coconut oil
- 2 tbsp pecans (optional)
- ¼ cup soy or almond milk
Cashew Drizzle
- Cashew Drizzle:
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- ¼ cup icing sugar
- 2-4 tbsp almond milk (plus more to thin, as necessary)
Instructions
Cinnamon Buns
- Combine all dough ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Knead for 6-8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Coat the dough ball in a light amount of canola oil, place in a large bowl and cover with a damp dish towel. Let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in size.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into an approx. 19" X 16" rectangle. Spread evenly with 1/4 cup vegan butter or coconut oil, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup coconut or brown sugar, raisins and pecans.
- Starting from the longest edge closest to you, roll the dough away from you (encasing the filling inside.) Place the rolled dough seam side down and cut into 8 equal pieces.
- Line an 8" cast iron skillet or baking pan with parchment paper, spread with a little bit of vegan butter or coconut oil, top with a sprinkle of coconut or brown sugar and some chopped pecans. Place a single cinnamon bun, cut side facing up, into the center of the pan and group the remaining buns around the center one. Cover with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel and refrigerate overnight to rise.
- The next morning, take cinnamon buns out of the fridge and bring them to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300F. Bake cinnamon buns for 35-40 minutes. Important: About 1/3 of the way through cooking, cover them with a layer of aluminum foil to prevent them from getting too brown.
Pecan Raisin Glaze
- Combine all ingredients, bring to a simmer in a small saucepan and cook for 5-10 minutes over low heat. Pour immediately over warm cinnamon buns, working some of the pecans and raisins into the crevices on top.
Cashew Drizzle
- Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender, blend until smooth and creamy. Add more almond milk to thin if necessary. Drizzle over nearly cool cinnamon buns for the best appearance. (For cashew frosting: Reduce almond milk to 1 tbsp. Do not thin with additional almond milk. Chill before whipping with a whisk and spreading over cooled cinnamon buns.)
Notes
Eat within a day or 2 or freeze any extras.
Courses Dessert, Baking
Cuisine Vegan
What a delicious recipe. Love the sequence of photos with step by step instructions.
Thank you!
Thank you Cheryl!
These look lovely! Now, I don’t have a stand mixer with a dough attachment, how long would you recommend me mixing it for with a wooden spoon?
And just to clarify, for step 4, you roll it for a bit, then cut that bun off, roll the strand, cut off the new bun, roll, cut 8 times?
It looks delicious and I look forward to making it!
I’ve updated the recipe, I hope it’s a little more clear now! You’ll want to knead the dough on a floured surface rather than mixing it with a wooden spoon. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (maybe 10 minutes.) I’d reduce the flour in the recipe to 3 cups and use the remaining flour for your surface. In step 4, you’re only rolling out the dough into a large rectangle, topping it with the filling (vegan butter/coconut oil, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and pecans), and then rolling up the dough like a rug with the filling rolled inside (like the 3rd picture). You’ll end up with one looong log of dough that you’ll slice into 8 equal pieces. No multiple rolling/cutting times! Let me know if you have any more questions or if I can clarify anything for you!
These are just so beautiful, so perfect, my heart beats with joy!
Thank you so much Ksenia!
I must admit, I have tried many vegan cinnamon buns from bakeries and they are nearly always a disappointment. However, your photos are so gorgeous, I am almost tempted to try making them at home instead. Looks great!
Thank you so much Janet! Unfortunately I have yet to come across any vegan cinnamon buns at all but I hope these ones blow those bakery buns out of the water!
You have to make them. Promise you won’t be disappointed!
TAKE THAT Cinnabon! These look AMAZING! Love that you made them with coconut oil and raisins! Will definitely be trying these soon 🙂 Gorgeous pictures too <3
Haha, oh my goodness, thank you Sofia!! I hope you love them!
Oh. My. Gosh. These cinnamon rolls! And they’re vegan! Holy heck, they look just like the usual butter and egg soaked variety. I love the addition of nuts and raisins—truly a controversial subject in the world of cinnamon rolls, but some of my favourite toppings. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thank you SO SO much Cassie! I love raisins and pecans in my cinnamon buns 🙂
Hi Brittany,
can I use a rice milk instead ?
I’m sorry I haven’t tried rice milk in them yet! I imagine it would work just fine as both almond and soy work. Let me know how it turns out!
Wow! I’m definitely trying this! Would you mind if I review it on my site please?
I’m trying to find more ways to help people become vegan, and I think beautiful recipes like this are certainly useful! Any other suggestions are welcome!
Feel free to review the recipe on your site, I just ask that you please include a link to my site, use a max of 1 of my photos in your post and please do not repost the recipe. Thank you and I’m looking forward to checking out your site!
How can I make this gluten free? i’m nervous to just substitute the flour with a gluten free version because usually the taste and texture if affected.
Hello! I know very little about gluten free baking so I don’t have any suggestions for making this recipe gluten free. I think you’d be better off finding a cinnamon bun recipe that was developed to use gluten free flour.
Do you not have to scald/ warm the milk for this recipe? It’s not in the steps.
Yep, just warm the milk and the water (it’s just in the ingredients as “warm soy or almond milk”, rather than in the directions as a separate step.)
How long does it typically take for the dough to double in size after covering it with a damp paper towel? Trying the recipe as a trail for thanksgiving!
Hi Dale! It should take about 1-2 hours. It’s usually around an hour for me.
About how long does it take for the dough to double in size? (step 2)
Hi Kimina! It should take about 1-2 hours to double in size. It’s usually around an hour for me!
I made it for the first time last Saturday and again on Monday and , from now on, again and again. I can’t stop eating!!!! The recipe is AWESOME, super easy to make and sooooo tasty. I am in love!!!!!!! <3
That’s so wonderful to hear Simona! I’m glad you loved them so much, they’re such a wonderful treat!
I made these last night and was soo pleasantly surprised! I just couldn’t believe my taste buds.
So, so delicious and relatively healthy too.
Thank you very much for the recipe, will be making them for years to come.
Thank you so much Maia! I’m so glad you love these rolls, they’re one of my favourite recipes on the blog! 🙂
Made these today and they were a big hit!! I loved how airy they were compared to the denser type cinnamon buns that my family is used to. The new family verdict is that light and fluffy is SO much better 😉 Oh and the cashew drizzle was honestly the perfect touch. Thank you for sharing this wonderful Vegan recipe Brittany!!
Ah! Thanks so much Natalie! I’m so glad your and your family loved these fluffy cinnamon buns 😀 Thank you for commenting!
Just made these for Easter brunch and they were so delicious!!!! Not a single crumb was left! Will be makjmg these again and again!!! Thank you!!
So wonderful to hear Mary! Cinnamon buns are PERFECT for Easter brunch!
As a big cinnamon roll fan, I’ve been looking for the perfect vegan recipe for quite sometime and I am so happy I finally found it.
Yay! I’m so glad you love them 😀 Thanks for commenting!
a couple of things, first, I made them and they were good, but I think there is a typo and they should be cooked on 350 degrees.
Also, has anyone tried this using a double batch.
sorry I did not rate.
Tried this a it worked on the first go!! I’m so excited because I’ve been through 5 recipes already (not exaggerating), trying to find the perfect cinnamon rolls, and this one delivered! I’m a lover of Cinnabon and this totally met my expectations of the perfect combination of a moist, soft & fluffy dough, and sweet cinnamon.
I made it in one day, allowing it to rise a second time at room temperature, and it doubled in 45 minutes! Haven’t tried refrigerating it for rising, but just wanted to share that you don’t have to wait overnight for these 🙂
The glaze is also wonderful, and is a wondeful addition to rolls, I highly recommend including it when making! Keeps the rolls nice and moist.
Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this 🙂
Wow, thank you for the thorough comment Catherine, I really appreciate it! I’ll add a note about it letting them rise at room temperature too, thank you 😀
Is there a way to not use refined sugar in the dough?
You’ll need some kind of sugar to feed the yeast but you can use evaporated cane sugar, maple sugar, coconut sugar, and probably even liquid sweeteners like maple syrup!
It looks so yummy. I can’t eat it. beacause it is beautifull.
Hahah, nooo!! Nothing’s too pretty to eat, enjoy!! 😀
Can I freeze leftovers with glaze on or should I freeze them without the glaze?
Should be just fine with the glaze!
I came across this recipe a few days ago and have been dreaming about it since. I gave it a go today 🙂 still in the process , but I have a question ; my dough came out very sticky (I mixed it by hand). Is that normal or should I add more flour?
If the dough is very sticky you should add more flour. But you’re always better off with a dough that’s stickier rather than drier so if you moved on in the process you should still be okay!
I want to make these awesome vegan buns but I don’t have a stand mixer. Can I knead the dough by hand ? And is there a special secret if kneading with my hands?
Hi Patrick! There’s no special secret, just go crazy and knead them really good, it’ll take a little longer to get the dough nice, smooth and elastic.
Great thank you for such a quick response.
You are so welcome! I hope you love them 😀
Hi Brittany! I wanna try this recipe soooo bad! I was wondering if the “left overnight in the fridge to rise” part could be shortened by any way, like for example, letting it rise at room temperature again for few hours? would that work?
Absolutely! I do find they’re best overnight but you can just leave them at room temp until they’re nice and fluffy!
Would I be able to cut them smaller to make miniature rolls?
Yes you can! Just adjust the cooking time to be shorter 😀
Oh my!
This is the best cinnamon buns I have ever tasted!!
I couldn’t stop eating it!
Deffinetly doing this again!
Thank u so much for this great recipe
Haha, wow, thank you SO much Naama, I’m so glad you loved them!! 😀
This is the best cinnamon roll recipe ever. I’ve made this recipe 3 times already and it’s always perfect, thank you!
It’s totally the glaze + drizzle that won us over!! I made them (without the raisins and nuts per hubbys request) for only two people so we had a lot leftover. Verdict is: we like them even better leftover, if you can believe that! Like the glaze soaks in even more and they are just heavenly!! The cashew drizzle is soooooo good! Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe. Only cinnamon roll I will make from now on!
This recipe was awesome!!! I tried so many times with different ones, and this is the first time that im so happy with the result! They were finally soft and they grew perfectly!
Is it possible to use vegan butter instead of the coconut oil in the dough? I was curious to know the advantage of oil over butter.
Absolutely! Vegan butter works very very well here. Typically, coconut oil is cheaper and a lot of people like the use it (especially in baking!) I made sure this recipe would work with coconut oil, which can easily be substituted with vegan butter (because it doesn’t always work perfectly the other way around!)
Thank you!
its amazing recipe my boss love it.thank you very much
Aww, thank you so much. I’m so thrilled to hear that you were so confident with the recipe that you decided to share it with your boss. I feel honoured! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with others, I really appreciate it. ♥