Cinnamon Swirl Traybake — a plant-based American recipe by BOSH!
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Cinnamon Swirl Traybake

This one is properly dangerous to have in the house. We first made these Cinnamon Swirl Traybake squares on a lazy Sunday and ended up eating half the tray before they'd even cooled down. You get this incredible flaky puff pastry base, sticky cinnamon sugar running through every layer, and little bits of pecan adding just the right amount of crunch. It's basically a cinnamon roll in traybake form, which means less faff and more of the good stuff. Make these tonight and thank us later.

Cook: 35 min
Serves 4

Before You Start

  • Preheat oven to 180°C
  • Pestle and mortar
  • Small bowl
  • Baking dish or tray lined with parchment paper

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp plant-based milk
  • 15g plant-based butter
  • 1 sheet of plant-based pre-rolled puff pastry sheet (around 320g)
  • 50g light brown sugar
  • 50g pecans
  • 50g sultanas
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 70g icing sugar

Method

1

Melt the butter

  • Put the plant-based butter in a small bowl
  • Put the bowl in the microwave and heat on full power for 30 seconds until it has melted
2

For the pastry

  • Roll the sheet of puff pastry out and brush it with the melted dairy free butter
  • Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon evenly over the pastry sheet
  • Break the pecans into small pieces with the pestle and mortar and sprinkle them evenly all over the pastry sheet
  • Sprinkle the sultanas evenly all over the pastry
  • Carefully roll the pastry up from one of the long sides to the other, making a long and thin sausage
3

Baking the swirls

  • Cut the pastry sausage into 10 evenly sized pieces
  • Pack the pastry swirls into the dish
  • Lightly brush the swirls with the plant based milk
  • Put the baking sheet in the pre-heated oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the pastries are puffy, golden and crispy
4

Make the icing

  • Combine the icing sugar and vanilla extract in a small bowl
  • Add the warm water, a little at a time, stirring continuously, until you get a drizzling consistency and stir well
5

Time to serve

  • Take the dish out of the oven, let the pastry cool down to room temperature
  • Drizzle over the icing as neatly as you can, let the icing set, rip pull swirls off the pastry and serve immediately

Tips & Variations

  • Swap the nuts: We love pecans here but walnuts work brilliantly too. If you've got a nut allergy in the house, just leave them out and add a little extra sugar instead.
  • Don't skip the chill: If your pastry is getting a bit soft and sticky while you're working with it, pop it back in the fridge for 10 minutes. Cold pastry is so much easier to handle and gives you cleaner layers.
  • Serve warm: These are genuinely next level when they're still slightly warm from the oven. A little drizzle of icing made from icing sugar and a splash of plant-based milk takes them somewhere very special if you want to go all out.

Why This Works

The trick here is getting that butter brushed all the way to the edges of the pastry before you add the cinnamon sugar. It helps everything caramelise properly as it bakes, so you get those gorgeous sticky, golden layers rather than dry pastry. The pecans are a big deal too. Breaking them roughly in a pestle and mortar rather than chopping them keeps some bigger pieces in there, which gives you proper texture in every bite.