Vegan Sweet Braided Coconut Milk Bread (Brioche)

This vegan sweet braided coconut milk bread is a delicious twist on the classic brioche. It is moist, soft, and super fluffy, as we know and love it. With the addition of coconut it turns out into something special in an instant, but is still very easy and fun to prepare. The best (ok, the 2nd best beside its great taste and fluffy texture) thing about it: it’s dairy-free and egg-free and therefore vegan.

Jack of all trades

One dish and many occasions to eat it (and variants to name it): The sweet braided bread. In Austria “Striezel”, as we call it, is typical to eat at Easter, on All Saints’ Day, or simply on a regular Sunday.

Speaking of Easter, here are a few more ideas for a successful Easter brunch: how about an eggless, dairy-free, and sugar-free, but still moist, fluffy, and sweet carrot cake, or a vegan lemon blueberry cake, a fresh sourdough “Wurzelbrot”, a vegan egg salad with chickpeas, an almond feta and an intense wild garlic pesto? Mmmmh!

Back to our sweet braided bread, or brioche (bread), as we can also call it. In this particular case, you can also call it coconut brioche, or coconut milk bread, as coconut (or products made from it) is one of the main ingredients, as is otherwise unusual for a sweet braided bread. Perfect if you happen to be looking for new brioche ideas.

Don’t get confused, because no matter what and when: making a soft, fluffy and sweet coconut milk bread yourself is pretty easy. Let me show you how and with what.

Tahitian-style brioche

Honor to whom honor is due: I got this recipe from an “Instagram colleague” called “Vai”. She had a vegan delivery service in Tahiti (her origin and ex-home). Yes, you read that right: Tahiti and vegan (it does sound like too much of a dream). She no longer lives there, but in Hawaii. Yes, you read that right again.

Anyway, this lovely and likable person posted her “Coconut Bread” on her old Instagram delivery service account a few years ago and thankfully shared her recipe with me when I asked her and was happy for me to spread the word. Thank you, Vai!

Since Vai used fresh coconut (how good must this already delicious brioche taste then?), I had to adapt the recipe a bit. I also tweaked the quantities a little and added lime juice and zest.

Simple ingredients

Speaking of limes. Let’s take a look at the few simple ingredients you need to make a moist, soft, and fluffy vegan coconut bread:

• Flour: Simple, regular all-purpose flour
• Desiccated coconut *): I find it in the bakery section.
• Sugar: Whatever you prefer. Coconut sugar is the obvious choice for a sweet coconut bread – please note that the result will be brown inside and outside. I use regular sugar, but replace most of it with xylitol *). Why this mixture: Yeast needs sugar to be able to work. It can usually produce this from the flour itself (roughly speaking), but it’s even easier, quicker, and better with sugar. And since birch sugar has little effect on yeast (although there is a difference between dry yeast and fresh yeast), I usually use a mixture to be on the safe side, according to the motto (as we say in German) “If it doesn’t work, it won’t hurt”.
• Dry yeast or fresh yeast: Whatever you prefer.
• Coconut milk: Coconut milk bread needs … right. But please buy the thick coconut milk for cooking *), and do not use thin coconut drinks such as from Alpro.
• Fresh organic lime: It needs to be organic as we also want to use its zest. You can also use orange and/or lemon juice or zest (also organic of course).
• A little maple syrup or agave syrup as a glaze (mixed with coconut milk and a pinch of turmeric, if you have some at home).

That’s right. This sweet braided bread contains neither oil nor butter (ergo a dairy-free brioche bread). However, it is not fat-free, because coconut milk and coconut oil contain fat. So please don’t fear that it will dust out of your ears. The opposite is the case, it is nice and moist.

No one needs eggs either, this eggless coconut bread is wonderfully just as it is. There are also no raisins in here. You can add them, but I think they belong in a classic sweet braided brioche bread and leave them out of this sweet coconut bread version, despite my love of raisins.

If you are looking for other yeast dough recipes, I recommend these moist and soft cinnamon rolls with apple and this fluffy sandwich bread.

Simple preparation

This vegan sweet bread is prepared in no time at all, in terms of the time you have to invest. There are two resting phases in between, followed by the baking time and a little time for cooling.

Let me start by showing you how to make the brioche dough:

First, you want to add all the dry and wet ingredients to a bowl and knead them until you have a smooth dough. At this point, as so often, I praise a kitchen machine *), as it makes everything so much easier. It comes with a special dough hook.

Now you have two options:

1. Cover the bowl with the ball-shaped dough inside and place it on a warm (room temperature up to max. ! 40 degrees / 104 F) spot so that the dough can rise for approx. 1-2 hours until it has visibly increased in size. Then it’s time to braid.
2. You start braiding straight away and leave the dough to rest later. This is particularly suitable if you want to prepare your brioche for breakfast the next day. More information follows after the braiding chapter.

Braiding the Sweet Coconut Milk Bread

Just as there are many ways to name and eat this delicacy, there are also several ways to braid your coconut brioche. Three, four, … up to eight (and theoretically probably even more) strands can be used for braiding.

We don’t want to overdo it: I braid with three strands. I used to braid the coconut milk bread with four strands (the link will take you to an old Instagram post of mine). Here you can also see that I baked it in a loaf tin, so it’s more of a hybrid version of coconut bread and brioche bread. It’s a shame, though, as the braided pattern doesn’t come into its own. Without a loaf tin, it is somehow too “slim” (long and thin) with four strands, so I braid my vegan sweet bread with three strands.

Start by dividing the risen dough into three (or however many) equally sized pieces.

Then roll each of these pieces into strands of the same length and lay them down so that you press them together at the top. Next, braid your plait.

Taking a nap

Once your sweet bread is braided, it can rest for a while.

At this point, we return to our two options:

1. If your dough has already rested before braiding, just leave it to rest for approx. 30 minutes before putting it in the oven.
2. If you have braided the dough immediately after kneading, leave it to rise overnight in the fridge. Either use a loaf tin or place it on a piece of baking paper, ideally on a baking tray if that fits in your fridge. The next morning, take it out of the fridge about 1/2 hour to 1 hour before baking to acclimatize (preheat the oven in the meantime).

Pat a Sweet Braided Bread, Baker’s Woman

Either way, the coconut brioche is placed in the preheated oven at 170 degrees (340 F) top and bottom heat. The door is now closed and remains closed for approx. 30 minutes until the top is nicely golden brown. Please note: The more strands you have used for braiding, the slightly shorter the baking time. When it’s ready, open the oven door and leave your brioche to cool slightly.

Incidentally, I prefer to eat my vegan brioche with nothing, with vegan butter, with vegan butter and jam, or with a chocolate nut spread.

Storage

If you want to bake your vegan brioche bread in the evening for the next morning, cover it loosely with a clean tea towel after it has come out of the oven.

You can store your brioche for around 3 days. After it cooled down you can prevent it from drying out, by putting it into something airtight such as a storage tin or a large freezer bag.

Speaking of freezer bags: Yes, you can even freeze brioche bread, but it’s better to freeze it whole than as individual slices (which might then stick together and get freezer burn). When you want to enjoy it, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw at room temperature, which can take a few hours or even overnight.

You can then reheat your coconut brioche bread in the oven: Preheat the oven to 150 degrees (300 F), place the defrosted brioche on a baking tray and heat it for 5 to 10 minutes until it is nice and warm.

@plantbased.redhead

🐰💚 Vegan Sweet Braided Coconut Milk Bread (Brioche) / Kokosstriezel (veganer Germstriezel aka Hefezopf, mit Kokos) 🥥🍞 Recipe in 🇦🇹 & 🇬🇧 on plantbasedredhead.com #vegan #plantbased #plantbasedredhead #ostern #easter #vegansoftiktok #fyp

♬ There’s Nothing Too Good for My Baby (Brunswick 6220) [Recorded 1931] – Ben Bernie And His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra