These vegan blueberry knot buns with a golden apricot glaze are soft, bouncy and super easy to make. The perfect show-stopper recipe for beginners finished off with a hint of lemon, cinnamon and apricot.
Why You Need To Make These
- They’re so incredibly easy
- Everyone will be impressed by them
- You can customise them
- They use cheap, cupboard staple ingredients
- No need for any special tools or equipment
- Perfectly shiny glaze
- Learn tips that will make you an overall better baker
The Ingredients
You’ll find the ingredients you need for your vegan blueberry buns listed in the image below.
Some notes about the ingredients.
Plant milk: feel free to use any plant milk such as soya, almond, oat, etc.
Flour: for best results, use strong white flour (also known as bread flour).
Blueberries: I recommend frozen.
Almond flakes: can be substituted for a different nut.
Cinnamon: can be left out or substituted for a different spice.
In terms of equipment, you won't need anything special, but the following will come in handy:
- measuring cups or scales
- rolling pin
- muffin tray
Step-by-step Photos
To make things even easier for you, I created a simple visual guide below. These step-by-step photos will be your helping hand during the process.
For all measurements and a more detailed guide, check out the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
1. Combine all dough ingredients and knead for approx. 10 minutes
2. Once you've kneaded the dough, cover it with a damp cloth and let rise for 1 hour.
3. In the meantime, prepare your simple blueberry filling in a small pan.
4. The dough has doubled in size. Knock it back to get it ready for rolling.
5. Start rolling out the dough.
6. Your dough is rolled out (approx 0.5 cm thick) and ready to be filled.
7. Spread your blueberry filling evenly across the dough.
8. Fold the upper third of your dough downwards.
9. Fold the lower third of your dough upwards to create a dough 'pocket'.
10. Cut into 6 equal stripes.
11. Roll into a simple knot of your choice.
12. Brush with almond milk, cover and let rise again for 45 minutes. Then brush again, sprinkle with nuts and bake.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 356°F / 180°C (fan oven).
When ready to serve, glaze with apricot jam glaze and serve with a sprinkle of lemon peel if desired.
Expert Tips
Don’t skip these tips - read them before baking to avoid any potential mistakes.
1. Use bread flour
This is super important. Using bread flour will bring you the best results - a soft and bouncy roll.
2. Wait it out
Want to rush through the baking process and shorten the rise time just a little? I encourage you not to do that.
If you want the best results, make sure you follow the two rising (proving) instructions to the dot.
Don’t be tempted to think, ‘oh well, rising for 10 minutes less can’t make that much of a difference’. Trust me, your taste buds will thank you for your patience later!
3. Dust it well
As part of this recipe, you’ll need to roll out your bread dough (step 5 and 6 above) Make sure you’ve dusted the working surface with plenty of flour.
There’s nothing worse than trying to roll out your perfect dough and then having it stick to the surface.
4. Get messy
Don’t be afraid to get messy! The blueberry filling is moist and thus meant to leak out into your dough. This is how you’ll get the beautiful marbled effect.
Yes, your hand will get dirty and you might have to spend an extra 5 minutes cleaning, but oh it’s just so worth it!
FAQs
Any kind of knot shape is completely fine and will work just as well. You can simply just shape it into any type of knot you find easiest.
If you’re really looking to experiment with shapes, I recommend this YouTube video to help you perfect the knot technique.
But just remember, these’s no need at all to stress over the knot shape.
When baked according to instructions, these should turn out perfectly moist.
However, if you’re experiencing this issue, there’s still a way to fix them. You can do that in two ways.
First, pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This will soften them and help release some moisture.
Secondly, make sure you glaze with plenty of your apricot (or other fruit) glaze.
Simply add 1 tsp of water at a time to your dough. Keep adding until the dough sticks together and forms into a perfect dough ball.
Just add 1 tsp of flour at a time. This will make it less sticky and easier to shape.
Yes, absolutely. You can use the handy recipe card below to choose the number of portions you’re making.
Remember that adjusting the portions will also affect your time of baking. Cutting the portions in half will cut the baking time in half. Doubling the portions will double the baking time.
Yes, absolutely. In fact, I have two more recipes that are based on the same dough - my vegan orange cardamom knot buns and my lemon curd rolls.
Storing For Later
You can easily store these delicious buns for later.
Simply pop in an airtight container and store at room temperature for about 2 to 3 days.
As a reminder, I do want to encourage you to try and eat these (or share with others) on the first day of baking. They will be by far the most delicious when fresh.
You can technically store these for longer than 2-3 days but, again, their quality will deteriorate as time goes by.
Remember, if you’re storing for later, you’ll also want to leave out the glaze. You’ll want to add the glaze straight before serving as opposed to before storing.
If you liked my vegan blueberry knot buns, I have good news for you! My lemon curd rolls and orange cardamom buns use the exact same dough recipe - super delicious and easy to follow. For more baking inspiration, you can also check out my full desserts section here.
Vegan Blueberry Knot Buns
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Measuring cups or scales
- Muffin tin
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGH
- 60 ml water equals ¼ cup of water
- 50 ml plant milk equals just under ¼ cup. use almond, soy or other plant milk
- ½ tsp white sugar caster sugar
- ½ sachet dry yeast half a sachet equals 3,5g
- 30 ml oil any light oil such as olive or sunflower
- 200 g bread flour also called strong white bread flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon optional
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- ½ tsp salt
FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 9 tsp water
- ¾ cup blueberries frozen
- 100 g sugar equals approx. ½ cup
- 1 pinch cinnamon
TOPPINGS
- 1 tbsp flaked almonds
- 2 tsp plant milk for glazing
- 30 g apricot jam
- 20 ml water or orange juice equals approx. 3,5 teaspoons
- 2 tsp lemon zest to sprinkle on top when serving
Instructions
FOR THE DOUGH
- Add warm milk and water to a large mixing bowl.
- Stir. Add the remaining dough ingredients in this order: sugar, yeast, oil, four, cinnamon, lemon zest, salt. Make sure the salt isn't touching the yeast.
- Combine the ingredients into a dough and knead for appoximately 10 minutes (by hand or in a breadmaker) to create an elastic, loose ball of dough.
- Cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour until doubled in size.
- In the meantime, prepare your easy vegan blueberry filling (see below)
- Sprinkle plenty of flour onto a flat surface.
- Remove your dough from the bowl/pan and knock it back (knock it with your fist or knead for anbout 30 seconds). This will help get rid of excess air that was formed during the rising period.
- Once you've knocked it back, use a rolling pin to roll out your dough until it measures approx. 0,5 cm in thickness (this is the equivalent of 0,2 inches)
- Use a knife or spoon to spread with the blueberry filling.
- You will now need to fold your dough. Take the top third of your dough and carefully pull it over the second third.
- Finally, pull the lower third of your dough over the second third to create a dough ‘pocket’. Press down the top side gently.
- Cut dough into 6 equally-sized stripes.
- Now is the time to form your knots. Hold one strip of dough, one hand at each end. Very gently stretch the strip length-wise to create a longer more compact strip of dough.
- Hold the left end still whilst twisting the right end of the dough three times. Keep a hold of the left end of the dough and wrap the right end around the back of your fingers.
- Keep moving the right end to fold all the way around and over your left end of the dough.
- Finally, push the right end under the left to make your knot. Place all your buns on parchment paper.
- Brush them over with plantmilk, cover in cling film and let rise for at least 45 minutes. Ensure that your cling film is NOT touching the buns at all.
- When the second rise is over, pop the buns into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes at 356°F / 180°C (fan oven).
FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING
- Add all your ingredients to a small pan.
- Heat up slowly on low to medium heat untill all your sugar dissolves and the blueberries have largely fallen apart.
FOR THE GLAZE AND TOPPINGS
- To create your apricot jam glaze, simply combine apricot jam with water or orange juice.
- Transfer to a pan and heat up until desired consistency. Serve your buns with fresh apricot jam glaze and top off with lemon zest if desired.
Notes
- Use the step-by-step photos above as your visual guide.
- This recipe has been tested using weight measurements (not cups). I always strongly recommend using weight measurements (both EU and US weights are stated in the recipe card). Cups vary in size and are thus considerably less exact.
- For best results, make sure to use strong white bread flour.
- Make sure your salt isn't touching the yeast before you start kneading. To do so, create a small well in your flour. Then add salt to the well.
- Don't alter the rise time: make sure you wait for a full hour for the first and full 45 minutes for the second rise.
- When rolling out your dough, make sure to coat your work surface liberally with flour.
- Do not overbake: this will result in a dry bun.
- You can store these for later in an airtight container for 2-3 days at room temperature.
- If you want to store the rolls for later don’t glaze them yet. Only glaze when serving.
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