129 cal, 19C/4F/3P/6S.
Move over cinnamon rolls! These vegan whole-grain treats filled with tahini and brown sugar might become everyone’s new favorite breakfast treat.
This was my second time ever working with yeast and, well, it wasn’t a disaster. These hit the craving for my favorite not-super-healthy childhood breakfast pastry: Turkish Tahini Rolls.
You know me, I’m always craving treats of my childhood. It’s part being a homesick ex-pat, part being a mom I think. I just watch Austen live the BEST time of her life every day (except she’s living it kicking and screaming toddler-style, one day she’ll know LOL) and I get this intense desire to try to bring my childhood back. I miss Turkey every day but I’m also glad that I don’t live there anymore, so it’s kind of an in-between-forever kind of bittersweet situation.
So until next time I visit home for an amazing vacation filled with amazing food and beautiful countryside, I’ll just daydream about some of my favorite pastries, and Tahini Rolls are one of them.
Authentic tahini rolls are not quite easy to make. You not only make the perfect dough and filling (full of butter, sugar, tahini everything, you know it), you have to roll them by hand, one, by, one… Mama’s got no patience for that so I made mine Cinnamon Roll style! Make a single roll, cut into slices, bake. Voila! Easier, healthier, vegan tahini rolls. Craving fulfilled, everybody stayed healthy, triple win!
By the way, yeast is freaking intimidating. That thing is live, man! And it bubbles! Totally weird! But don’t worry, if I can pull this off on first try, so can you. Just follow the steps.
Dough ingredients:
- 2 3/4 cups white whole wheat, all purpose flour or gf all purpose (330 g)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup (84 g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 tsp active yeast (1 packet)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (180 g)
- 2 tbsp any oil, I use avocado oil (28 g)
Filling ingredients:
- 3 tbsp tahini or other drippy nut/seed butter (42 g)
- 1/4 cup brown or coconut sugar (48 g)
Makes 16 rolls.
Make the dough: Whisk together flour, salt, yeast in a large bowl. Combine milk, oil, syrup in a microwave dish or stove top. Heat until it’s warm to touch. Pour warm mixture into the dry ingredients, stir until it forms a soft dough. On a floured surface knead the dough for a few minutes. Place in a greased bowl, cover loosely and let it rest about 10 minutes.
Make the rolls: Roll the dough out in a rectangle (about 16×8), drizzle the tahini and sprinkle the brown sugar. Roll up the dough and cut into 16 rolls. Arrange in a greased pan (mine was 15×7). Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let the rolls rise in a warm draft-free environment for about an hour (I just stick mine in the oven with the oven light on for warmth). They will get much bigger and fill up the dish.
Bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 375F and bake for 25 or so minutes until the rolls are nicely browned.
Devour with a little tahini drizzle or not. I stored leftovers in the refrigerator. I’m sure they would freeze well and in fact I’m kicking myself now for not freezing some because I’ve got the intense craving for these from writing all this up and staring at the photos LOL.
I hope you’re not intimidated by YEAST and give these a try. So worth it!
And if you’re ever in Turkey, forget being healthy and go and have a gigantic unhealthy Tahini Roll the size of your head! OK maybe share it with some people you love!
Tag me on insta with your photos! ❤
Plenty Sweet 