Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the next six dry ingredients, making sure to pour the salt away from the yeast.
Whisk together dry ingredients, then whisk in zest.
Place cashew butter on top of the flour mixture and mix in with your hands. The goal is to rub in the cashew butter and coat it with the flour. Pieces should be smaller than pea sized; this should take about a minute or so.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the cashew cream, 75ml of the water, aquafaba and vanilla.
Pour the liquid on top of the flour mixture and stir with your hands until the liquid is fully absorbed. Pour in the remaing water a little at a time unil all the flour is pulled in to the dough.
Dust your work surface with flour and place your dough on otop.
Knead by hand for a good 10 minutes. It's a bit of a workout! The dough should be smooth and not break apart easily when stretching it.
Proof #1: Place dough in a large bowl, cover top of bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room tempurature until doubled. This should take about 90 minutes.
Prepare your fruit and set aside.
After dough has doubled, remove palstic and pour fruit in top.
Pull the sides of your dough over the fruit, covering like a blanket. With your hands. push the fruit into the dough until it is relatively evenly distributed.
Dust your work surface with a little flour and place dough on top.
Knead for about 5 minutes until smooth again and fruit stops falling off!
Proof #2: Place dough back in bowl, cover with plastic again and let rise until doubled. This should take about one hour.
Prepare two baking sheets by covering with parchement paper.
After dough has doubled, remove plastic wrap.
Lighlty dust work surface again with flour.
Cut off a piece of dough about the size of a pool ball. Weigh it; you want it to be about 75g.
Roll lightly with your hand to a smooth ball and place on your baking pan.
Repeat with remaing dough. You will get about 16 rolls as shown.
Proof #3: Cover lightly with a towel and let rise again for one hour. At this time the rolls should touch as shown.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Prepare your flour paste by mixing 75g of flour with 5-6 tablespoons of water. Start with 4 tablespoons and add rest as necessary to create a thick glue consisitency.
Spoon paste into a piping bag or sandwich bag and set aside.
After final proof, remove towels and pipe crosses as shown.
Bake for about 20-22 minutes until deep golden brown.
While baking, make the glaze (optional). For the refined sugar-free option, simply mix the wtoe ingredients together in a small bowl or ramekin.
For the other glaze option, mix ingredients together in a small sauce pan over medium heat. While stirring well, reduce mixture by half and place in a small bowl or ramekin.
Remove buns from oven. Lift with parchennt paper to a cooling rack.
Optional: brush with desired glaze.
Cool a bit and eat.
After cooling, serve immediately. They also reheat beautifully.
Place in plastic container and cover. Keep in refrigerator up to a week or freezer for a month (maybe more). Let come to room temp and reheat in a 325F oven or slice and toast.