These vegan cinnamon kouignettes are small pastries that consist of layers upon layers of flaky dough coated in cinnamon and sugar. They are a hand-sized version of the Breton kouign-amann. We decided to add some cinnamon to the sugar to put a bit of a different spin on them, but feel free to leave it out if you’d like. These vegan cinnamon kouignettes pair really well with coffee.

The method for making this dough is very similar to our recipes for vegan croissants and vegan cream cheese danishes. Some of the pictures in this recipe are recycled from our croissant recipe. (:

Make sure to check out the recipe notes for additional information and tips.

If you try this recipe, leave us a comment below to let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you!

Vegan Cinnamon Kouignettes

Little Lighthouse Baking Co.

These are small pastries that consist of layers upon layers of flaky dough coated in cinnamon and sugar.

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Prep 40

Cook 25

Rest 4

Total 5 5

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine French

Servings 24 pieces

Equipment

1 or 2 twelve-cup muffin tins
rolling pin
stand mixer (optional)

Ingredients

Dough

¼ cup water (60g)
½ cup unsweetened soy milk (plus one tbsp) (135g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp softened vegan butter (42g)
1 packet active dry yeast (about 2 ¼ tsp)
2 ¾ cup bread flour (343g)
3 tbsp sugar
½ tsp kosher salt (if using unsalted butter)

Butter Block

¾ cup vegan butter (168g)

Cinnamon Sugar Mix

¾ cup sugar (150g)
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon (use more or less to taste)

Instructions

Make the dough.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, add in all of the dough ingredients.
Mix on low for 2 minutes or until ingredients are incorporated. The dough will look dry and rough at first, but it should come together.
Increase speed to medium-low and mix until a smooth, soft dough forms. This should take about 10-15 minutes. If the dough is too sticky and continues to stick to the sides and bottom of the bowl, add in flour one tablespoon at a time, allowing the flour to fully incorporate into the dough before adding another.
You should be able to stretch the dough into a thin membrane before it rips. The dough should not stick to your hands.
Lightly oil the bottom of a large bowl or the bowl you mixed the dough in. Remove the dough, form it into a ball, and place it into the oiled bowl. Roll the ball around to coat the top with oil as well. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
If you have a bowl with a lid, you can also use that instead of plastic wrap.
Once the dough has doubled in size, lightly punch down the dough with your fist. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 16 hours. A longer rest will add more depth of flavor to the dough from the fermentation process.

Make the butter block.

Cut the remaining butter (¾ cup) into small pieces. Fold a sheet of parchment paper from all four sides to form a 7" x 7" square. Unfold the parchment paper and place the butter pieces in the middle.
Fold the pachment paper along the creases you made earlier. Flip the butter packet so it is seam-side down. Use a rolling pin to gently and firmly roll out the butter to create an even block of butter. The butter block should fully fill the parchment packet, including the corners.
Place the wrapped butter block in the freezer until you are ready to laminate the dough.

Lamination

Mix the ingredients together for the cinnamon sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into an 10" x 10" square. You can square out the corners with your hands first before and after rolling the dough to keep the corners from rounding too much.
Remove the butter block from the freezer, unwrap it, and place it in a diamond position on top of and in the center of the dough.
One corner at a time, fold the corners of the dough in towards the center of the butter block. The dough corners may slightly overlap. Pinch along the seams to seal the butter block into the dough.
In our experience, since vegan butter is typically not as firm as non-vegan butters the butter might start becoming soft. If that is the case, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes to give the butter time to firm up before continuing.
Flip the dough so it is seam-side down. Lightly flour the top and bottom of the dough. Use a rolling pin to gently press down along the length of the top of the dough to create little indents in the dough. Turn the dough 90º and gently press down along the length of the dough again. The goal here is to make the butter inside the dough a little more pliable so it is easier to roll.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly three times longer than it is wide, dusting more flour as needed and occasionally moving the dough to ensure it doesn't stick to the surface. Make sure to roll both towards you and away from you to ensure the butter is evenly distributed inside the dough. Roll until the dough is between ¼ inch and ½ inch thick.
Fold the dough into thirds like a letter by lifting one end (a third of the dough) of the rectangle up onto the center of the dough, followed by the other end of the rectangle. The resulting dough will be three layers stacked on top of each other. This is your first "turn" of the dough.
Place the dough in the fridge and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Repeat the rolling and folding process, except spread a layer of the cinnamon sugar over the surface of the dough before folding it. This is your second "turn". Wrap and chill again, if necessary.
Rotate the dough 90º a final time. Repeat the rolling process and spread one more layer of cinnamon sugar again before doing the same fold as before. This is your third and final "turn".
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

Shaping

Prepare the muffin tins by greasing them with butter. Then cut 24 thin strips of parchment paper, grease them as well, and place them inside of each cup in the muffin tin. This will make it easier to pull out each kouignette in case the caramlized sugar on the bottom sticks to the pan. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of the cinnamon sugar into each cup and shake it around to coat the bottom.
Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it, and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 12" x 18". If you'd like, you can slightly trim the edges of the dough.
Cut the dough using a pizza cutter or sharp knife into a 6 x 4 grid.
Take one square of dough. Spread some cinnamon sugar over one side, then flip it over and spread more cinnamon sugar on the other side.
Fold each coner of the square into the center. Pinch them together and press them down into the center of the dough.
Carefully place the folded square into the center of one of the muffin tin cups.
Repeat the same process with the remaining squares.
Allow them to rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake

30 minutes before the kouignettes finish rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.
Place the kouignettes in the center of the oven and reduce the temperature to 350°F.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until they are evenly dark golden brown.

Cool

Pull each kouignette out of the tins by pulling on the parchment paper strips. Allow them to cool on a wire rack. Do not let them rest in the tins or else the sugar can harden and stick to the tins.

Notes

The kouignettes pictured in this recipe were made using four folds and turns of the dough. We changed the recipe to only use three folds like our croissant recipe. For us, the layers of dough are more defined after baking this way.
You can save the squares of dough in the freezer before coating them in sugar and shaping them. Place pieces of parchment paper in between each piece of dough to keep them from sticking together. Store them in an airtight container or reusable bag.
We actually only baked half of our squares, and froze the other half to bake at another time. We didn’t need 24 kouignettes, and we also only have one 12-cup muffin tin haha.
We make our dough and butter block the night before and then shape and bake the kouignettes the next day.
The butter we use is Earth Balance buttery sticks. It stays firmer for longer compared to other vegan butters we have tried.
Using a stand mixer makes kneading the dough a lot easier, but you can also knead these by hand. It just takes more work, of course.
It’s okay if butter starts breaking through your dough and getting all over the place while you are rolling out the dough for the final time. You can still cut and shape the kouignettes. They just might not look as nice in the end. Please don’t throw away your dough.
Folding the parchment paper into the 7×7 inch square first helps with figuring out where to place the pieces of butter.