Classic Vegan Cinnamon Buns

Directions

• Warm up your milk to about 110 degrees F. Pour into a large bowl and sprinkle yeast over the milk. Give it a light stir with a fork and set it aside for a minute. In a separate small bowl, make your flax egg. Combine the ground flax seed and cold water and let thicken for 3-5 minutes.
• To your milk/yeast mixture, add sugar, flax egg, and melted butter. Whisk to combine. Then, using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour & salt until a dough forms. Dough will be sticky and tacky — but don’t worry. It’ll absorb more flour on the countertop.
• Transfer your dough to a floured surface, and knead for 7-10 minutes. It takes time to form the necessary gluten. (You can also do this in a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 5 minutes.) Every minute or so, you can add more flour to the countertop as needed. At the end, your dough should be smoother, and feel a bit firmer to the touch. Shape it into a ball, put it in a greased bowl (I just used the bowl that we melted the butter in). Cover with plastic wrap, set in a warm place for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. In the meantime, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon for your filling mixture.
• After dough has risen, transfer dough to a well floured surface, and roll it into a ~7″x5″ rectangle, the longer side parallel to your body, or facing you. Try to make it the same thickness throughout, and make the corners as square as you can — I use a bench scraper for this. Spread the butter for your filling across the entire dough, and then sprinkle your brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over it. Spread the mixture evenly across the dough by just patting it gently with your hands, or use a spatula if you’d like. You only need a thin even layer of filling — you may not need to use it all. If you make it too thick it will melt out of the rolls when cooking.
• Now, starting at the long side closest to you, roll the dough tightly. You can grab the corners and pull on them a bit to make sure they reach the ends of the roll. Push the ends together a bit to try and make the ends as flat as you can. Then, cut this roll into 6 rounds using a serrated knife, or floss. If the dough is too warm, you should chill it for 20 minutes before cutting.
• Set your rolls in a greased 8” cake pan, spread apart evenly. Cover with plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30-45 more minutes. Once they’ve risen (they should be touching each other), bake for 20-24 minutes at 375F. Take out and let rolls cool almost completely on a cooling rack, at least 15 minutes.
• Now, combine your icing ingredients, and beat on high until smooth. Spread icing over cinnamon rolls, and enjoy them sooner, rather than later.