I really felt like making a nice dessert for the upcoming Easter and for the holidays, but of course I wanted to make something light. That’s when I had the idea to experiment with a vegan sweet Danubio.

The Danubio originates in Campania as a savoury cake. It’s made of many leavened dough balls, a kind of brioche dough but less fatty, which are filled with cheeses and cured meats and baked close together. They remain attached and can then be pulled apart and eaten. It can also be made in a sweet version, plain or filled.

I chose to make it sweet but without filling so everyone can pull a ball off the Danubio and eat it as is or maybe with a bit of jam for a tasty and light snack. They’re also good for breakfast; I did the math and one ball has 4 WW points for carbs, half a point of protein and half a point of sugars. Just add some protein for a complete morning meal.

Also, instead of using only white flour, I used half whole wheat flour. I’ll try making it entirely with whole wheat and if it comes out equally good and soft I’ll note it here in the recipe.

Another particularity: I baked it in an air fryer but of course you can use the oven. Using the air fryer means you can make it even in summer without overheating the kitchen. I’ll stop here and move on to the recipe. There are many steps, but it’s actually very simple. Try it and you’ll see.

Other light desserts for the holidays are these:

Vegan sweet Danubio, Mangia senza Pancia

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Very inexpensive
Rest time: 5 Hours
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Cooking time: 30 Minutes
Portions: 11 Pieces
Cooking methods: Oven, Air Fryer
Cuisine: Healthy
Seasonality: All seasons, Easter

Ingredients

2 cups + 1 tbsp Manitoba flour
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup + 2 tbsp soy milk (unsweetened)
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp vegan butter
1/4 cup (packed) whole cane brown sugar
1 tbsp (ground) flax seeds (ground, about 1 tablespoon)
3 tbsp water
1 tsp salt
Total points = 58 WW points
Points per ball = 5 WW points

Tools

Whisk
Immersion blender
Stand mixer
Air fryer

Steps

First prepare the preferment: emulsify 80 ml of lukewarm milk (about 1/3 cup) with 1 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast and 2 tsp of brown sugar. Set it aside and wait for the yeast to react: after about 15 minutes you’ll see many bubbles on the surface.
If the bubbles don’t form it means the yeast wasn’t good or the milk was too hot. Better to find out now so you can remake only the preferment.
Now prepare the vegan egg substitute. First grind 1 tbsp of flax seeds in an immersion blender. Then put them in a small cup with 3 tbsp of water. Stir and set aside.
The flax seeds will absorb the water and become gel-like, a bit like egg white.
Now make the Tang Zhong, a technique used in Japanese recipes to give softness to bread. It’s basically a roux of flour and water or milk that acts as a natural thickener, very easy to prepare at home.
In a small saucepan put 40 g of Manitoba flour (about 1/3 cup) and pour 200 ml of soy milk (about 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) in a thin stream while cooking gently, stirring constantly with a whisk. When it reaches a boil, stir for another 2 minutes, just enough to thicken. Then turn off the heat and let it cool.
Now prepare all the other ingredients: 200 g of Manitoba flour (about 1 2/3 cups), 200 g of whole wheat flour (about 1 2/3 cups), the preferment, the bloomed flax seeds, 1 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup sugar and the roux.
Put the cooled roux we prepared and the preferment into the bowl of a mixer or stand mixer and mix well. Then add the flax gel, the sugar and the salt. Now you can add the two flours little by little.
When the dough becomes a ball you can move it to a large lightly floured bowl for the first rise. It’s still a bit chilly here, so I spread a very warm fleece sweatshirt, put the bowl with the dough on it, covered it with plastic wrap and then folded the sweatshirt over to cover everything well. Let rest for one hour: it doesn’t have to double, just relax and rise a bit.
Now you need to shape all the balls. My dough at this point weighed about 830 g (about 1.83 lb), so I divided it into 11 pieces of about 75–76 g (about 2.6–2.7 oz) each.
You can make more or fewer; it’s up to you. If you make a different number, divide the total WW points by that number to know the WW points of a single ball.
Before continuing, butter a 22 cm (about 9-inch) pan with 5 g of vegan butter (about 1 tsp) and flour it.
Return to the dough and, helping yourself with a little flour, stretch each piece of dough, roll it up and shape a ball. Repeat until all the balls are formed.
As you shape the balls, place them in the buttered and floured pan, slightly spaced. As you can see, there is room for proofing.
And here I got a bit technical: I spread the sweatshirt again, put the pan on top, covered the pan with a cellophane bag, then to prevent it from touching the dough I placed an inverted colander on top, a towel to keep everything stable and then folded the sweatshirt closed.
It may seem silly, but it worked great!
In fact, after just over 3 hours, our balls had puffed up enormously, almost too much! I didn’t dare brush them with milk. If you want, you can.
Now you can put the pan in the air fryer basket and bake at 155°C (311°F) for 20 minutes and then at 140°C (284°F) for another 5 minutes.
I haven’t tried it in the oven, but I believe it would take about 30 minutes at 180°C (356°F). If you try it, let me know how you adjusted the timing.
Once slightly warm, unmold it and let it cool on a wire rack for pastries.
And here our vegan sweet Danubio is ready to be served. A dusting of powdered sugar and what a wonder… and I won’t even tell you the aroma!
Here’s how I enjoyed it: I tore off a ball, cut it in half and spread it with my strawberry compote. A real delight.
Now I have to make it again for Easter. Here the traditional colomba is not easy to find and vegan options are out of the question. I want to remake it adding raisins and millefiori flavoring so it becomes a mix between a colomba and a pastiera. Well, at least it will smell like it!
Let me know if you try making it and if you liked it. I’ll be waiting for you here in the comments or on Facebook.
Enjoy!
by Giovanna Buono