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Easy vegan Panettone style Muffins

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To anyone who is not familiar with Panettone: it is a traditional italian brioche-like bread with raisins, lemon- and orange peel. However, these easy vegan panettone style muffins are a vegan and slightly simplified version of the original.

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What’s the difference?

Well, typical panettone is made from a dough based on sourdough. And everyone who has ever baked with sourdough knows that this takes a loooot of time and patience. And a pinch of practice. Unfortunately my skills in this area of baking are not yet ans expanded as I wish they were. Hence I needed to make a less complicated version—or at least suitable for an amateur like me.

So, here we are, the simpler way: making the dough with yeast. Now I have to admit, the texture will not be AS “fluffy” as the real thing. But honestly, that’s just a bit of cherry picking—they really make a decent replica. Plus while these easy vegan panettone style muffins still need some time (and love), this recipe is a bit simpler than the original.

I also wanted to note that they are not as sweet as the original which I find pleasant. However if you’d like them to be more sweet, add half of the of the amount of sugar in addition.

Ingredients you need

Here is a list of everything you need:

  • FLOUR
  • FINE BROWN OR COCONUT SUGAR
  • APPLE SAUCE
  • CASHEW BUTTER OR VEGAN BUTTER
  • FRESH YEAST
  • ORANGE-& LEMON PEEL
  • RAISINS
  • ORANGE-& LEMON ZEST
  • PLANT MILK
  • PINCH OF SALT
  • ALMOND SHAVES (OPTIONAL, AS TOPPING)

Maybe two handfuls of ingredients seem like a lot at first, but I promise, all of these aren’t that hard to find!

Instructions

So, as I mentioned, the base for my easy vegan panettone style muffins is a sweet yeast dough:

  1. First we need to warm milk together with the yeast until it is completely dissolved. Just make sure your milk doesn’t boil as this would irritate the yeast and possibly prevent your dough from rising later. Before moving on, we let the milk rest for a few minutes until the yeast starts to form little bubbles on the surface.
  2. Now we knead the milk-yeast mixture with the rest of the ingredients except for the peels and raisins. The dough should be smooth with no remaining clumps. Its best to do this with the dough-kneading attachments of your hand mixer.
  3. When everything is combined we add the peels and raisins and mix everything for around 10-15 minutes. Then we form a ball, put it into a bowl dusted with flour, cover it with a kitchen towel and let the dough ball rest for 1h in a warm spot (e.g. the oven, just with the lights turned on if its a little chilly in your house).
  4. After that 1 hour the dough should have doubled in size. We knead it a few more times and divide it into 12 equal sized balls.
  5. Then we put the dough balls into a lined muffin tray, cover again and let rest for another 20 min. in a warm place.
  6. Finally it is time to bake! All we need to do now is preheat the oven to 200C, brush the risen dough balls with plant milk, sprinkle on some shaved almonds and bake our muffins for 15-20 min. until slightly golden.

How to store these easy vegan panettone style muffins

Once ready baked and cooled you can store these muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days (they would keep longer, but the texture gets harder and they will not taste fresh anymore). You can also freeze them for about a month. These panettone muffins taste best straight out of the oven when still warm. Of course they are still delicious cold but In would definitely recommend warming them up a bit.

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vegan panettone muffins

These panettone style muffins are a slightly simplified version of the traditional recipes. Yet they taste quite close the original and are vegan and nut free if you use vegan butter instead of cashew butter.
Course Dessert
Keyword breakfast, dessert, oil free, snack, vegan
Servings 12 mufins

Ingredients

  • 340 g flour
  • 50 g coconut or fine brown sugar *
  • 40 g apple sauce
  • 100 g cashew butter **
  • 25 g fresh yeast
  • 30 g orange peel ***
  • 30 g lemon peel ***
  • 80 g raisins unsulfurated
  • 1/2 Tsp orange zest freshly grated
  • 1/2 Tsp lemon zest freshly grated
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup (240ml) plantmilk (I used soy)
  • shaved almonds optionally for topping, leave out if you cannot eat nuts

Instructions

  • Gently warm milk over low heat in a small saucepan together with the yeast. Stir until the yeast is completely dissolved, making sure that the mixture doesn't boil. Before moving on, let the milk rest for a few minutes until the yeast starts to form little bubbles on the surface.
  • Mix flour, butter, apple sauce, sugar, salt, zests and the milk-yeast mixture in a mixing bowl. Do it by hand or with the dough-kneading attechments of your hand mixer.
  • When everything is combined, add the peels and raisins and mix for 10-15 minutes. Form a ball, put it into a bowl dusted with flour, cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 1h in a warm spot (I left it in the oven, just with the lights turned on).
  • After that 1h the dough should have doubled in size. Knead it a few more times and divide it into 12 equal sized balls.
  • Put the dough balls into a lined muffin tray, cover again and let rest for another 20 min. in a warm place.
  • Preheat the oven to 200C. Brush the risen dough balls with plant milk, sprinkle on some shaved almonds and bake for 15-20 min. until golden. Enjoy!

Notes

* These muffins aren’t too sweet, which is perfectly fine in my opinion. However, if you’d like them to be sweeter, use half of the amount of sugar in addition.
**If you want to make these muffins nut free or buttery soft, then vegan butter is the better option. Just use 70g (vegan) butter instead of the cashew butter. I just want to note that the dough is a bit trickier to handle, but also fluffier!
***Not to be confused with zests. Orange- and lemonpeels are like little dried chunks of the citrus fruits.

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