Easy Peasy Vegan Croissants

Being vegan doesn't change the fact that I love creamy and buttery things, especially baked goods. As a child I used to eat butter plain. My mother would often buy the softened tub buttery spreads which I would dig into with my tiny fingers then proceed to devour all ten buttery hats which graced them. 

But now I am vegan, and I don't know how my fiance would handle it if he came home to find me sobbing as I watched the Notebook while eating an entire tub, stick, barrel of butter. Move over ice cream! There's a new comfort food in town...

Too much?

Probably... But at least now you fully understand my butter fixation and I can continue on with my story. 

As I was browsing through Pinterest I found this delicious recipe for homemade Pillsbury croissant rolls (click here to see the original recipe).  Alas it was not vegan, but I figured I could fix that! 

Recipe

1 1/2 cup warm water (not too warm because it will kill your yeast and prevent the dough from rising)

3 tbs Earth Balance (or any other vegan butter)

1/2 almond milk (soy would probably work as well but rice might be too thin)

1 baking powder egg (2 tbs baking powder, 2 tbs water, 1 tbs oil mixed together to form a paste)

2 tsp salt
2 tbs dry yeast

5 cups of flour (you may need a little less or more) 

1/4 cup of sugar

Instructions

1. Add all of your ingredients except the flour into a large bowl and mix at a low to medium speed (I used my standing mixer). 

2. Once all those ingredients are completely mixed together turn your mixer down to a low speed and slowly add your flour in one cup at a time.

The final dough should be slightly sticky but thick.

3. Place a warm towel over the bowl and allow the dough to rise until it is has rise very close to, if not at, the top of the bowl (approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hours).

4. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Work the dough into the floured surface (sprinkling more on it if necessarily) until the dough is no longer sticky. It should look and feel like pizza dough at this point. 

5. Cut the dough in half and place one half off to the side for now or store it in the fridge for croissants on another day.

6. Whole out one half into a circle on a floured surface. The dough should be about a quarter of an inch thick.

7. Then with a knife or pizza cutter slice the dough like into 8 "pizza slices" (I lied to you. We are really baking a raw vegan pizza. It's so raw we don't even cook the dough). Warning: I cut the dough into 8 because I like BIG croissants. If you like smaller more Pillsbury sized croissants, I would recommend cutting the dough into 16 slices. After this step you can repeat steps 6 & 7 for the other half of the dough at this point so they can all rise at the same time, or you can save the dough in the fridge for fresh croissants later on in the week.

Now it's time to roll each slice up! 

8. Start from the "crust" of each slice and roll it inward towards the center of our pizza. 

9. Place all 8 rolls on a greased cookie sheet and allow them to rise until they are double in size (approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours).

10. Once the rolls have doubled in size bake at 375 for 10-13 minutes.

11. After you have taken the rolls out of the oven, and while they are still warm, brush them with some melted earth balance.

Now grab yourself some jam, tea and a good book. You've earned it!