Vegan pumpkin pie and cheesecake-stuffed breakfast braid with vanilla glaze

vegan pumpkin pie cheesecake breakfast braid with vanilla glaze

Hey. Hey. Guess what today is.

Someone’s birthday? An obscure unofficial food holiday? The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (no, that was yesterday)? The day the music died (bye, bye, miss American pie)? Armageddon?!

Nope—it’s the hundredth post on this here blog, the hundredth block of text and pictures plastered on my little corner of the internet. It really is. Even if I haven’t made birthday cake with candles and confetti and shit.

vegan pumpkin pie and cheesecake-stuffed breakfast braid with vanilla glaze

Ah, fuck it. Have this.

As you can see, this is very serious business. Note the use of Old English Text; the candles carefully positioned on top of the glaze-covered, golden-brown crust (I would have used a hundred candles, but that would take kind of a long time).

Today, we celebrate not only my own resilience against adversity, ability to continue production of coherent sentences and such despite criticism, etc., but also you all hanging out in front of your computer screens across the world. We celebrate you who take time out of your commute or your workday or—and really, I commend you for this—even your beauty sleep to read this blog, this internet home filled with sugar and buttercream and too many words, for reasons that I still struggle to understand but which I will not question because frankly it’s all warm and fuzzy around here. And I love that.

C'mon now baby. source

They say blogs are not just internet journals but communities. It’s true. When I first started out, I didn’t quite grasp how this could be; there’s the writer, the sole producer of content, and then there are the readers. I thought it was a one-way relationship. How wrong I was.

In reality, this blog, or any blog, is dependent on its readers. Without readers, a blog is just a URL filled with pictures and words; but with them, it is a place to share ideas and inspiration, a meeting space for internet friends, a club that anyone can join. And so this place has become. I have learned how to improve my photography, write better, make cooler recipes, and design a website from fellow bloggers; in return, I hope you have gleaned a bit of inspiration, or maybe you’ve been convinced to try making doughnuts at home.

All of that over one hundred posts.

Wow.

Much inspirational. source

There’s really nothing else I can ask of you guys out there. Just...just keep being awesome, you know?

So thanks.

And now—wipes tears—we must take a good, hard look at this breakfast braid.

I see it has crust.

You see, my family used to be rather fond of those Butterbraid pastries that the public schools would hand out for fundraisers. Aside from the fact that they were clearly ploys to weasel money out of butter ‘n’ sugar-loving families, they were a special breakfast treat that we got once in a long while and savored for all they were worth (and then usually finished the whole thing in an hour).

The cause of making students' families fat is very important. source

But no longer. The tables have turned—oh, how they have turned—and now Baby June has the power to make her own Butterbraid, with not a single fundraising flyer involved.

HA! Suck on that!

Of course, my own braids are never as perfect as those of the mass-produced fundraising company. Particularly this one, a pumpkin- and cheesecake-stuffed variation made with coconut oil and not a single egg in sight.

But it’s all good. Great, actually. The pumpkin filling is richer and spicier than a corporation’s recipe could be; the cashew cheesecake creamier than any reduced-fat faux-cream cheese stuffin’, the glaze sweeter than that grayish glop that comes in the little baggies with each ice-crusted loaf.

Not to mention the satisfaction. And the smell. Oh, that oven smell is pure perfection, I’m telling you.

Basically: you’ve got to try this. Soon. Just skip right over those pumpkin cinnamon rolls and make this glorious braid. You might never forgive yourself if you don’t.

Here’s the recipe.

__________

Vegan pumpkin pie cheesecake breakfast braid with vanilla glaze

Ingredients

Dough (adapted from Pastry Affair)

80 grams • warm water • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

25 grams • all-purpose flour • 3 tablespoons

5 grams • granulated sugar • 1 teaspoon

3 grams • active dry yeast • 1 ½ teaspoons

75 grams • vegan yogurt or sour cream • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

50 grams • coconut oil, softened • ¼ cup

45 • granulated sugar • ¼ cup

50 grams • silken tofu, blended until smooth • ¼ cup

4 grams • vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon

3 grams • salt • ½ teaspoon

265 grams • white bread flour • 2 cups

Pumpkin filling (adapted from The Green Forks)

250 grams • pumpkin puree • 1 cup

60 grams • powdered sugar • ½ cup

30 grams • nondairy milk • 2 tablespoons

7 grams • coconut oil • 1 ½ teaspoons

2 grams • vanilla extract • ½ teaspoon

5 grams • cinnamon • 2 teaspoons

1 gram • ginger • ½ teaspoon

1 gram • nutmeg • ½ teaspoon

Pinch cloves

1.5 grams • salt • ¼ teaspoon

10 grams • cornstarch • 1 ½ tablespoons

Cheesecake filling (adapted from this cake)

70 grams • cashews, soaked for a few hours and drained • 70 grams

2 grams • lemon juice • ½ teaspoon

4 grams • apple cider vinegar • 1 teaspoon

7 grams • coconut oil • 1 ½ teaspoons

30 grams • maple syrup • 1 ½ tablespoons

2 grams • vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon

Pinch salt

Glaze

120 grams • powdered sugar • 1 cup

15 grams • nondairy milk • 1 tablespoon

2 grams • vanilla extract • ½ teaspoon

Pinch salt

Wash

15 grams • nondairy milk • 1 tablespoon

20 grams • maple syrup • 1 tablespoon

Instructions

To make dough, start by whisking together water, all-purpose flour, sugar, and yeast together in a small bowl. Let sit for 12 to 15 minutes.

Pour this sponge mixture into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and combine with sour cream / yogurt, coconut oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, and salt. Beat to combine. Add bread flour and combine on low speed until a dough forms. Using the dough hook, knead for about 5 minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise for an hour in a warm place covered with plastic wrap. Alternatively, you can let it rise overnight in the fridge. By the end of this period, the dough should have doubled in size. If you use the fridge, let it warm up a bit before using the next day.

To make pumpkin filling, simply puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Same with cheesecake filling—just blend it all in a food processor and set aside.

Turn risen dough out onto a well-floured surface and punch down gently. Roll out to a 10 by 15-inch rectangle and transfer to a large, parchment-lined baking sheet. Using the tine of a fork, make light lines down the dough dividing it into three even columns. On each short side, make lines about two inches from the end of the dough, giving you three large sections and six small sections. Remove the four small corners of the dough (see this blog post for photos). Spread pumpkin filling in an even layer on the large center rectangle; swirl in cheesecake mixture. Fold each small flap at the top and bottom in. Using a serrated knife, divide the remaining two columns into twelve flaps, about one inch each. Fold each flap in on a diagonal, alternating sides to give a braid-like appearance. Tuck any end pieces under the braid. Cover the whole thing with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another 45 minutes to an hour, or until doubled in size.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine milk and maple syrup (amounts under “wash”) in a small bowl. Once the braid has risen fully, brush this wash on top of the dough. Bake for about 22 to 25 minutes, or until it turns a rich golden brown and sounds somewhat hollow when topped (knowing that the filling will alter the sound slightly from a regular loaf of bread). Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.

To make glaze, simple whisk together all ingredients in a medium bowl. Drizzle over braid; slice and serve.

_________