Giant, fluffy, puffy strawberry cheesecake cinnamon buns!
Seriously this is the stuff dreams are made of!
Cheesecake icing gets slathered all over these warm fluffy buns!
But before we get to the recipe can I just say, I am obsessed with freeze dried fruit powders!
Imparting a vibrant color and intense strawberry flavor to any recipe ~ I just love this stuff! *not sponsored
If you can’t get the freeze dried fruit powders you can sub in chopped fresh strawberries instead
A drop of food color to the dough for a light pink hue gives it a really pretty subtle color
So there are a few different ways to approach this if you don’t have the fruit powder
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THESE STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE CINNAMON BUNS!
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Notes for Success:
Pressed for time? You can baking the buns the next morning
Simply stop at the step in the instructions after you have formed the buns and then placed them into the greased pan.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- The buns will not have risen too much in the refrigerator so you will have to take them out and bring them back to room temperature and give them their second rise.
- This could take an hour or longer depending on your room conditions
- Once they have fully risen to fluffy *see video* preheat the oven to 350°F and pick up at the step below for baking
As with any bread and yeast dough recipe the amount of flour being used will vary based on a few variables
Often times in humid climates you will need much less flour than places that have drier and cooler temperatures
It is important to get a feel for making dough to determine if you will need to add more or not.
IN RETROSPECT:
The cheese filling that I used for this recipe seemed to get lost inside the dough
There was no clear swirl of cheesey-cinnamon throughout the center as I had expected
Traditional melted butter with cinnamon sugar spread on the dough before rolling is a much better option
I’ve switched to a shelf stable cream cheese icing as well!
And this made up for the error of trying to put it inside the dough!
Below I have provided the recipe for exactly how I made these
But you can probably save yourself a step and omit the cheese filling altogether
Yield: 6 Jumbo Buns
Strawberry Cheesecake Cinnamon Buns
Prep Time
3 hours
Cook Time
35 minutes
Total Time
3 hours 35 minutes
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- All Purpose Flour 2-2½ cups (250-325g) *see notes above
- Ground Cardamom ½ teaspoon
- Strawberry Powder ¼ cup (18g) *see notes above
- Plant Milk ¾ cup (177ml)
- Dry Yeast 1½ teaspoons
- Sugar 3 Tablespoons (42g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Softened Vegan Butter 4 Tablespoons (55g)
- Pink Food Color 1 drop *optional
- For the Cheesecake Filling: *see notes above
- Vegan Cream Cheese ¾ cup (160g)
- Vegan Butter 1 Tablespoon (14g)
- Confectioners Sugar 3 Tablespoons (22g)
- Cornstarch 1½ Tablespoons (12g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
For the Cinnamon Sugar:
- Light Brown Sugar 2 Tablespoons (28g)
- Ground Cinnamon 1 teaspoon
For the Icing:
Additional Ingredients
- Freeze Dried Strawberries for the filling & the topping 1 cup (27g)
Instructions
- Grease a 9″ X 9″ X 2″cake pan, set aside for later.
- Combine the brown sugar & cinnamon together in a small bowl, reserve for later
- Mix the cheese filling by hand with a spatula, cream the soft vegan butter with the vegan cream cheese, sift the confectioners sugar & the cornstarch into the cheese mixture and blend to combine, add the vanilla extract Set aside in the refrigerator until needed
- For the Dough: Combine the yeast with the warm milk (approx 115F) and a pinch of sugar and let stand for 5 minutes
- In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and blend well
- Add the milk with the yeast, the strawberry powder and the softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and then add all the sifted dry ingredients.
- Mix with the dough hook ~ you may need to help it along with a spatula until it forms a soft mass, then let it knead for 5 minutes on medium speed
- Add more flour to adjust the consistency with more flour as needed *see video demonstration
- Turn mixer speed to low and mix for another 3 minutes
- Once it is to desired consistency and properly kneaded for a total of about 8 minutes
- Turn out to a lightly floured surface and continue to knead until it is no longer super sticky to your hands on the table
- Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl covered and let rise to double in a warm spot
- Roll out on a lightly floured surface to approximately 12″ x 10″ and about ¼ thick
- Brush with the cheese filling OR traditional butter **see notes above recipe and then spread evenly with the sugar spice mixture
- Then add a layer of the freeze dried strawberries
- Roll up then cut into desired portions ~ cutting the log into 6 even pieces for giant bakery size buns or 12 for smaller buns
- Place them into the greased pan & cover loosely to let rise again in a warm spot. for 35 – 60 minutes depending on the conditions in your area
- Once they are light & fluffy and puffy & almost doubled in size & the buns are almost touching each other, bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approx 35 – 45 minutes depending on the size of your buns
- To make sure your buns are completely baked, pull away a piece from the center of the pan to make sure there is no raw dough
- While the buns are baking you can prepare the cream cheese icing recipe according to the recipe link
- Cool the buns and then top generously with the shelf stable Cream Cheese Icing and a sprinkle of crushed freeze dried strawberries
Notes
As with any bread or yeast type pastry, they will go stale before they go bad so it is always best to bake them fresh daily.
Keep them wrapped airtight and they will stay fresh for up to 3 days at room temperature if you are using the shelf stable cream cheese icing
