I was experimenting with some vegan milk and came up with the recipe for these vegan chai tea milk cinnamon apple buns. I infused some vegan milk (I used a thick one) with spices and tea and then used it to make the dough. I left the spices in the milk over night to make the flavour really noticeable in the dough and then made the dough with it and let it rise slowly over night so the process to make this was over a few days, but you can just make the milk in the morning and leave it to infuse all day and make the dough before bed and let it rise slowly over night. I like to make dough and leave it to rise in the fridge over night I feel like it improves the flavour. I made the topping with vegan milk also, it almost reminds me or custard. It will set in the fridge a bit like a crème caramel or panna cotta and then when your ready whisk it and it will be runny again. The topping on its out can also be made into a delicious pudding.

I tried to make it refined sugar free that is why I used coconut sugar, but if your not bothered about that and don’t want the fuss of making the custard you can use icing sugar and a little milk and make a drizzly frosting. But the custard was very delicious. If you can find a brand of vegan milk that has different thickness like whole, semi skinned ect then I suggest using the whole milk, or alternatively use a can of full fat coconut milk.

To make the chai infused milk I used the whole spices and some Darjeeling tea, I suggest a normal black tea or alternatively you can just use 2 chai tea bags and not all any extra spices.

drizzling the frosting over is always my favourite part.

Milk infusion

• 2 cups vegan milk
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 5 cloves
• 2 black tea bags

Frosting

• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 4 tsp corn flour
• 2 cups vegan milk (a thick almond milk or a tin of full fat coconut milk)
• 1 tsp almond extract or vanilla
• Seeds from 1 small vanilla pod
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Dough

• 4 cups strong white flour
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 2 7g sachet fast action yeast
• 5g salt
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 300ml of the chai tea infused milk
• 100 to 200 ml water (you may not need all of it)

Filling

• one large apple grated or two small
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar (add more if you like it sweeter)
• ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Step one.  Make my chai infused milk

In a sauce pan add the milk I used 2 cups, add the spices and tea and bring to the boil. Remove tea but leave the spices and pour into a bowl, let cool and cover and leave to infuse. You can do this the day before and leave in the fridge if you want.

Make the custardy topping

Add the sugar and corn flour in a sauce pan and add a few tbsps. of the milk and stir into a paste, heat gently and add the rest of the milk gradually, add the vanilla seeds and almond extract and stir whisk over the heat until thick. Then whisk in the cinnamon. Pour into a bowl and let cool then cover with cling film or bees wrap ( a plastic free alternative) and leave in the fridge for 2 hours or over night, I like to leave it over night so it sets like a panna cotta then when ready to use, whisk up.

Make the dough

In a mixer fitted with a dough cook (or in a bowl if making by hand) Add the flour, sugar and then add the yeast to one side of the bowl and add the salt to the opposite side so it does not touch the yeast (it can cause the yeast to not rise properly else) then warm the chai infused milk up so it is warm but not boiling and pour through a sieve into a jug to remove spices and pour in, then add the oil. then gradually add warm water until you get a soft dough (you made not need all of the water just add a little at a time). Knead for 5 minutes in a stand mixer or 10 minutes by hand. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap ( or bees wrap if you don’t want to use plastic) then leave In the fridge to rise slowly over night, or if you are in a hurry let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

If you have let it rise in the fridge, take it out an and leave it for 1 hour so it can come back to room temperature.

Knock out the air and roll out into a large rectangle. brush with some of the vegan milk then sprinkle over some coconut sugar and cinnamon and some grated apple, then add some finely chopped pecans and roll up tightly into a log and cut into buns. place on a lined baking tray and leave to rise for 1 hour.

preheat oven to 180c/350f add some milk in a jug and mix in 1 tsp coconut sugar and a pinch of turmeric, brush it on to the buns and bake for about 25/30 minutes. to make them look shiny I added some coconut sugar to a little water and heated it up and brushed it on, finally top with the frosting and enjoy.

tips

• use the thickest vegan milk you can
• feel free to white or brown sugar if you don’t want to use coconut sugar
• you can use chai tea bags to infuse the milk if you don’t have all the whole spices
• make the custard topping in advance or just make a drizzle frosting with icing sugar
• vegan bread doesn’t really get the good shine that brushing with eggs will give you so I did two things, the first was to brush it with milk mixed with sugar and a little turmeric to get the colour, then once baked I brushed over a thin syrup made with sugar dissolved in water.
• if you are not vegan you can make this with regular milk and use melted butter to brush the rolled out dough with before you add your filling a brush with a beaten egg.