Vegan Milk Rolls with Chocolate or Raisins

When Isa thinks of milk rolls, her mind travels waaaay back to her elementary school days and lands right in her lunch box for break time. That’s where the super soft rolls were just waiting for little Isa to eat them. And what can we say: Isa may not bring a lunch box to the office, but she still loves pillowy-soft vegan milk rolls today, whether for breakfast or as a snack.

So two things aren’t all that surprising. Number 1: Isa started tinkering with a purely plant-based milk roll recipe pretty quickly after going vegan. And number 2: this recipe landed riiiight in our first cookbook „Vegan durch den Tag“.

What Are Milk Rolls and How Do You Make Them Vegan?

A milk roll is a sweet, soft yeast dough pastry that you could use as a pillow if you weren’t about to eat it right away, it’s that fluffy. Classically, the dough contains flour, milk, butter, sugar, and yeast. In our version, soy milk (half vanilla, half plain) and neutral vegetable oil take over. We rarely use vanilla soy milk in recipes, but it’s absolutely perfect for these rolls because it brings a sweet vanilla flavor along with it. For Isa, this ingredient was actually a game changer, because it’s what finally made the rolls taste like the store-bought milk rolls from back in the day. We mainly use it for the flavor, though, so you could also just use plain soy milk or another plant-based milk.

What Should You Keep in Mind When Baking?

Yeast likes it warm, but not hot. That’s why you should only heat the plant-based milk until it’s lukewarm, to a maximum of 37 °C/99 °F. You don’t need a thermometer for that, by the way. Since 37 °C is about your average body temperature, the milk should feel neither cold nor hot when you touch it with your skin. If the milk is too hot, the yeast cells die and the dough won’t rise.

Let the dough rise, covered, in a warm place for approximately one hour, until it has doubled in volume. After shaping, the dough balls get to rest in the baking dish for another 20 minutes. While baking, it’s best to cover the rolls after 10–15 minutes so they don’t get too dark and end up truly ultra-soft. You can store them in an airtight container for up to five days. In our case, though, they rarely make it that long and get eaten much sooner.

From Chocolate to Raisins

Milk rolls come in all kinds of sizes, shapes, and variations, and this recipe is a pretty great starting point for all of them. You can make smaller or elongated rolls, or even crescents. You can leave them plain or knead in chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts. With chocolate chips, make sure they’re bake-stable, though. Otherwise they might melt completely into the dough.

If you’re still in the mood for baking after this, check out our vegan Franzbrötchen (sweet cinnamon pastry), our stuffed pretzel rolls, or our easy Sunday rolls. And now: let’s get to the dough!