These Turtle Brioche Bread Buns are so fun and relatively easy to make. Perfect for your kids parties (but not only!) I'm sure they're going to wow both children and adults!
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Completely vegan friendly (despite the look!) these buns are:
soft
fluffy
buttery
which makes them a perfect base for sandwiches both savoury and sweet.
Thanks to their neutral dough, in fact, you can go extra wild with the fillings, from vegan burgers to decadent spreads, or even serve them as they are, nicely arranged in a basket.
Steps to make these beautiful turtles are no that many compared to making normal buns, I'll drive you through their step-by-step making.
How to make Vegan Friendly Turtle Brioche Bread Buns
THE DOUGH
First we need to have a dough to work with. This is the regular dough that I use for my homemade burger buns consisting in a mixture of white and wholemeal flour that, as you might have noticed in my Focaccia and Pitta Bread, is my absolute favourite! You can, however, make them with all plain flour or use your favourite flour mix.
Along with flour, this dough also contains:
- margarine or vegan butter. I used a light margarine spread to cut off the amount of calories and it works like a charm
- agave syrup or any syrup or sugar you like or have at hand. It will improve the proofing as well as balancing the flavour. Sugar also has an impact on the final flavour; that doesn’t mean it will make your bread go sweet, do not worry.
- Yeast – I used instant yeast for this recipe, easy and straightforward. I highly recommend to use instant yeast especially if you are a beginner. However you can use any yeast you like as long as you follow each instruction accordingly.
- Flax Seeds - ground - as egg replacement.
- Plant Milk - I used unsweetened soy milk, but any other plant based milk will do the job just fine.
– Salt and Water. Last but not least, they are essential to balance the flavour and to bring our dough to life!
For the dough I used my beloved dough mixer by simply adding all the ingredients to the bowl and work it on medium speed with the hook for 10 minutes.
However, if you don't own a mixer, you can still make the dough by hand. Measure the flour and the yeast in a bowl, make a little hole in the center and add salt, flax seeds, syrup, melted butter and slightly warm water and plant milk. Mix with a fork until the dough comes together, then transfer on the table with a pinch of flour if needed, and work energetically for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cover the dough with a cloth and allow to proof until it doubles in size. This might take a couple of hours in general, more or less depending on the season and the temperature of your house.
After the first proof, we have to divide the dough into 7, 6 of which will became our turtle buns, and the remaining portion is going to be used to shape their heads and legs.
Form a smooth ball with each portion of dough and allow to proof for another hour or 1 hour and half.
Shape the remaining dough into heads and legs and carefully put them in place, underneath each bread bun. Add black sesame seeds for the eyes.
THE CRAQUELIN
Now it's time to prepare the green craquelin mixture that will give our burger buns the realistic turtle shell effect.
For our craquelin we are going to need:
- Spinach for the green colour
- Water
- Rice Flour recommended, if not available you can use plain flour
- Vegetable Oil
- Sugar
- Instant Yeast
You omit the spinach if you don't have them or you just don't want to go through the extra effort.
If you are planning to use them just:
a) Blend an handful of fresh spinach (fresh is ideal, but frozen will work as well) with ½ cup of water.
b ) Filter the green liquid through a sieve.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, then set aside for 5-10 minutes.
Scoop around a tablespoon of spinach craquelin on each bun and spread it evenly on top of the turtle "shell".
THE BAKING
Now that our turtle brioche bread buns are looking gorgeous, it's finally time to bake them.
Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F) and bake for 20-25 minutes. You will see that, as their shell puffs up, the green spinach glaze will start to crack and give the gorgeous cracked effect.
I always find myself in front of the oven waiting for this to happen every time! Haha!
Allow the turtle buns to cool at room temperature, then use as you like 🙂
PLEASE NOTE that to prevent the buns to merge up, resulting in ruining the final outcome, you MUST place them very apart on the oven tray. Do not place it as close as I did in the pictures, these were arranged like that ONLY for blog purposes. The turtle buns in this post were baked on two separate trays, only three buns per tray!
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Turtle Brioche Bread Buns Recipe
Ingredients:
...for the dough...
250 g All Purpose Flour
100 g Wholewheat Flour
130 g Water (Warm)
100 g Plant Milk (Soy - Warm)
40 g Margarine (or Vegan Butter)
½ tablespoon Agave Syrup
1 teaspoon Flax Seeds
5 g Salt
3 g Instant Yeast
...for the spinach craquelin...
1 handful Spinach (blended with water)
50 g Spinach Water
50 g Rice Flour
1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil (Sunflower)
½ teaspoon Caster Sugar
2 g Instant Yeast
Method:
1. Work the ingredients for the dough by hand or using a dough mixer (for at least 10-15 minutes).
2. Cover the dough with a cloth and allow to proof until it doubles in size (around 2 hours).
3. Divide the dough into 7 parts: 6 will be our turtle buns, and the remaining portion will be used to shape their heads and legs.
4. Form a smooth ball with each portion of dough and allow to proof for another hour or 1 hour and a half.
5. Shape the remaining dough into heads and legs and carefully put them in place, underneath each bread bun.
6. The green craquelin. Blend the spinach with ½ cup of water. Filter the liquid through a sieve. Measure the water for the crackling in a bowl and combine the rest of the ingredients. Set aside for 5 minutes.
7. Scoop around a tablespoon of spinach craquelin on each bun and spread it evenly on top of the turtle "shell".
8. Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F) and bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. Allow to cool at room temperature and use as you please.
For other bread and baked goods ideas do not miss:
- Homemade Speedy Pizza
- Fluffy Courgette Stuffed Brioche Bread
- Easy Homemade Pitta Bread
- Ratatouille Pizza Bites
- Quarantine Vegan Croissants (not the classic recipe)
- Vegan Casatiello - Italian Stuffed Bread
- Pull Apart Stuffed Brioche Bread
- Homemade Naans
- Mediterranean Empanadas
- Classic Focaccia Barese
- Taralli Pugliesi
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