These alluring whole wheat saffron buns are soft and fluffy with the delicate aroma and color of saffron.
Now on to today's recipe, saffron buns. These are just regular whole wheat buns, fluffy, soft, with a slightly chewy crust, and you can serve them either with burgers or as dinner rolls. The saffron adds a delicious warmth and aroma to these buns, and a lovely tint of orange color.
It's a weird irony, but summer makes me want to bake. Yes, the idea of starting up the oven in 90-degree weather may sound odd, but there are other reasons why I actually enjoy baking in summer. To cite just one, I actually am up and about and in the mood to do something more besides snuggling in front of the television set. Besides, the bananas ripen easily making it a perfect time to make some vegan banana cake and the zucchinis just call out to be baked into some delicious vegan zucchini bread. Even yeast multiplies rambunctiously, sending breads mushrooming into big, fat, happy loaves.
I'd been wanting to make a vegan Saffron Bun for the longest time, and although the kitchen was unbearably hot while they baked, I'm sure glad I did.
Enjoy, all!
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Recipe card
Whole-Wheat Saffron Buns
Ingredients
- 1-2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoon vital wheat gluten (if you're not using this, flip the proportions of all-purpose and whole-wheat flours and you should be fine)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- ¼ cup warm water
- ½ cup nondairy milk
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil or any neutral oil
- â…“ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon flaxmeal + 3 tablespoon water, whisked together
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon saffron threads (use more if you want more color and flavor. I used ¼ teaspoon and the flavor was very exquisitely mild)
Instructions
- Mix together the yeast, water and saffron and let stand about 10 minutes. Make sure the yeast has started multiplying, or flowering, before you move on with the recipe.
- Add the all-purpose flour and one cup of the whole-wheat flour, vital wheat gluten, soymilk, oil, sugar, salt, and flaxmeal mixture, and knead by hand or in a stand mixer until well-incorporated. Add the remaining whole-wheat flour slowly, until you have added enough to make a smooth dough. (I needed two and a half cups of flour altogether)
- Continue to knead another 10-12 minutes until you have a smooth dough.
- Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel, and let it rise for two hours until doubled.
- Now turn the dough onto your work surface and punch it down. Cover and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll them into balls or rectangular loaves.
- Place in an oiled 9 X 12-inch baking sheet, close but not touching each other. Cover the baking dish and let the rolls rise for another two hours.
- Brush the tops of the rolls with a mixture of 1 teaspoon soymilk + 1 teaspoon oil for some added gloss. Sprinkle some sugar on top.
- Preheat an oven to 370 degrees. Bake the breads for about 20-22 minutes until the tops are all richly golden.
- Cool for at least 10 minutes on a rack before you pull the rolls apart and eat 'em!
Nutrition Information
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Vaishali says
Miri, leave our the flax -- I like adding it because it adds more nutrition and some moisture, but I'd guess the bread would be okay if you don't add it.
Miri says
Does the flax seed usually replace eggs? and if so how many do I need to substitute? Im just wondering whether I can get away without the gluten AND the flax seed or will it be tampering too much with the recipe? The crust looks amazing!
Vaishali says
Nisha, visit http://www.blogger.com and follow the steps to set up a blog.
Anonymous says
Thanks for the information.
Nisha.
God Bless
Anonymous says
Hi vaishali,
I too wanna to have my own blog. Can you guide me how to go about it?
Nisha,
Take care, God Bless
Vaishali says
Hi Anthony, nice to read about your vegetable garden-- you are already way ahead of me!
Divya, thanks!
Desi, this would be an interesting project to turn gluten-free-- looking forward to it!
Sharmilee, Priya, Thanks!
Mel, thanks for the award, and hugs.
Nisha, you are so kind and sweet. I am glad you enjoy the writeups because I enjoy writing them just as much as I enjoy making the foods. And kudos to you for attempting to make vegan recipes in a small Indian town where vegan substitutes are surely hard to find.
Anonymous says
m surely going to try these, once i have successfully baked the laadi Pavs. I would like to lovingly confess that initially when I started surfing your holycowvegan.net it was always the recipes which I wanted to read. But gradually m getting addicted to your write ups. I have to visit your site at least once a day. nad you what M not reading all the articles at once. M scared of finishing them reading too soon. Since it is quite lonely and no social life at this place (korukonda, small village in AP) I find them really refreshing and interactive. Your articles describing Mumbai brings a hearty smile on my face.
Nisha.
God bless.
Mel says
Saffron is delicious but I haven't heard of it being used in buns before - how inventive.
I have just presented you with a stylish blogger award as your blog has been one of my favorites for a long time -
Priya says
Rich looking beautiful buns, simply inviting..
Sharmilee! :) says
So fluffy and soft, luv those buns
Desi@ThePalatePeacemaker says
These look SO DELICIOUS. I've never heard of saffron buns before! I'm making this my next mission to turn gluten-free. Many thanks to you for doing half of my usual work making a recipe vegan! 🙂 Yum!
divya says
Mouth watering buns......looks so perfect and soft..
anthony stemke says
Those whole wheat saffron buns look wonderful in the photos, I'm going to bake some, I've never used saffron in baking before.
I'm considering using "bread flour" for the white part. I have gluten, but bread flour is already high-protein. I'll use the gluten with it.
My kitchenaid K45 gave out a few years ago, have a small cuisanart processor that takes 1.5 cups flour maximum and a bigger very noisy Black & Decker which I can use for this.
Used to bake pizzas every friday for a few years and got away from hand kneading.
My tomatoes are growing (right over the septic tank) but my snow pea plants are three feet tall with only a couple pods on a dozen plants. I am baffled.
I keep my compost covered and stir it when I add a 4 gallon pail to it every month.
So happy to read your blog, Thank You.