When I first looked for gluten-free recipes, I zeroed in on bread. What I found was mind-boggling. There were soooo many gluten-free bread recipes and each of them had their own flour blends. Plus, everywhere I read told me that gluten-free baking, especially bread baking, was a bit on the touchy side. I was almost afraid to try anything. But try I did, and I ended up feeding the garbage can more than the family.
I was really getting frustrated until I found Lisa, author of The Super Allergy Girl Cookbook. She had a bread recipe she claimed was easy. It was supposed to be versatile enough to make buns, rolls, bread, etc. I thought it sounded too good to be true. But, I didn’t have anything to lose. . .
I decided to try the dinner rolls first.
The batter was nice, fluffy, and its consistency made me think of buttermilk pancake batter. I was just a teensy bit hopeful. But I’d been down this road before. . .
I poured the batter into a large muffin pan and waited. I didn’t even peek. But when I finally opened the oven I just about fell over. Could it be!?
Allergy-free bread success!
Finally!
Bread. Wonderful, wonderful bread.
If Lisa had been in my kitchen with me, we would have happily danced together. The rolls were gorgeous, the texture was great, and they had their own pleasantly distinct taste.
This recipe is terrific for those with several allergies. I’ve made a few changes according to my family’s preferences. These are the easiest dinner rolls I’ve ever made. They also freeze very well.
Easy, Allergy-Free Dinner Rolls
These easy, Allergy-Free Dinner Rolls make a nice and fluffy dough. You’ll love these dinner rolls so much you won’t even miss the gluten!
- 3 cups GF Flour Mix
- 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
- 1 Tablespoon egg replacer powder
- 1 cup milk substitute
- 2/3 cups coconut oil ((I've also used butter))
- 1 cup club soda
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the milk and coconut oil.
- Slowly add club soda until the dough reaches the consistency of thick cake batter.
- Spoon the batter into a large, zippered gallon size bag. Cut off about 1/4″ of a bottom corner.
- Squeeze dough into greased muffin pan.
-
Bake for about 25 min. Let the rolls cool for a minute or two. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. (If you leave them in the pan too long the bottoms will get moist.)
P.S. If you’re looking for a yeasty, gluten-free bread-loaf recipe that tastes like wheat, look no further. This one is our favorite, hands down.
This sounds good. I’d like to try it, but have a few questions first. What is garfava flour? Would quinoa or rice flour substitute for it? Is there something magical about the ziploc bag or could I scoop the batter into the tins like I would if I were making muffins?
Garfava flour is a mixture of fava bean flour and garbanzo bean flour. I’ve used millet or sorghum in it’s place so I’m sure rice or quinoa would work just fine.
There’s nothing ‘magical’ about the ziploc bag. Lisa shows you in the videos how she uses them – I think it’s more the thought that you can pipe it out of the bag and kinda swirl it to a higher peak. (Like when Dairy Queen makes ice cream cones and swirls it around – of course, you don’t need the peak as high as a cone. :))
Thanks. If I were to use 1 egg should I decrease the milk to having 1 cup total of those liquids?
Ener-G egg replacer powder says to use 1 T. powder mixed with 4 T. water to replace an egg. So if I were to use a real egg, I’d probably decrease the milk by 1/4 c. (which is the same as 4 tablespoons.)
They came out great. Thanks for the easy recipe. I’m looking forward to using it more.
Oh good! I’m glad they turned out with the egg adjustment – thanks for popping back and letting us know!
These look awesome. Can it really be this easy? I bet this would work for hamburger or hotdog buns, eh? I can’t see paying $6 for 4 Udi’s hotdog buns.
Easy? Yes. Hamburger and hotdog buns? Yes. Paying for Udi’s – nope! 😉
I used a real egg, and since I didn’t have garfava flour I used 3/4 c besan (garbanzo bean flour) and 3/4 c sorghum. I didn’t have club soda and used 1 c tap water. The batter was really thick and maybe I should’ve used more water. These really puff up huge! I’ll have to watch the videos (can’t do it here at work dangit). Mine were very oddly shaped so I think more water, and maybe using the bag trick will help. I started out mixing by hand but had to get out the mixer.
Wanting hamburger buns I used a whoopie pie pan instead of muffin tins. They are shallower and wider than regular muffin tins. I think if someone has muffin-top pans they should be similar. (Amazon has the whoopie pie pans.)
The flavor is good and I’ll definitely be making these again – hopefully in hotdog bun shape! I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the recipe!
It’s me checking in again. I’ve made this recipe a couple times now – but always without the club soda. I keep forgetting to pick some up.
I’ve been using 1.5 c tapioca flour, 3/4 c white sorghum and 3/4 c garbanzo. Also, last time I put in two eggs instead of one. I use a whole cup of water and this batter seems to get thicker as I mix it. I wonder if the xanthan gum is causing that. I used the ziploc bag last time and made some decent looking hot dog buns, but the texture is not as good as yours. I got big holes in mine and it seems I have to cook them for 45 minutes – a long time – or else they collapse shortly after they come out of the oven. They also have a rather flat taste, so I upped the salt to 1tsp, but that didn’t help.
What could be causing the texture problems?
Part of the fun of gluten-free flours is that they tend to absorb water slowly so they gradually get thicker as they sit. They don’t always ‘show’ how thick they’ll be right away.
I’d suggest trying it with the club soda. I’ve never made it without and I wonder if the carbonation has something to do with it. (?)
Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Could you use an egg instead of the egg replacer?
Hi Laura – I think you could. . .I’ve never tried it myself so I can’t say for sure . . . but if you’re willing to experiment a bit I’d give it a go!
Wow – those look so awesome!
Those look amazing! I’ll put them on my “to try” list!
these look beautiful! haven’t had a roll in 1.5 years!!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Workshop: TBA
6:30pm
LOL! It was NOT supposed to say that… somehow I cut and pasted. Anyhow, I was telling you that I love this post, you are making me starving lol… dinner time now! Your pictures and info is great. Thank you for linking up at H2W this week, this post was chosen as 1 of my top 3 and will we featured this week! Blessings to you!
Hey Rachel,
If the workshop is healthy food related I’m coming! LOL
Thanks for featuring this recipe – it was one of my first GF successes and so easy to make – great for beginners!
I just love this recipe! Wow! I’ll be featuring this recipe tonight on AFW. Thanks so much for sharing.
Be Well,
–Amber
So sweet of you, Amber! Thanks for featuring these rolls. I made them for our first GF Thanksgiving without ever having tried them before – and I was so amazed and happy they turned out great!
Hi There Paula,
Below is the link to this week’s AFW with your feature. Just love this recipe!!
http://www.thetastyalternative.com/2012/07/allergy-free-wednesdays-week-27-july-25.html
Please join us again this week for more allergy-free fun and inspiration.
Be Well,
–Amber
I’m looking forward to trying these (with a little adaptation). My boy is needing an alternative to pumpkin bread for breakfast. Thanks for sharing!
Can I leave out the xanthan gum? I’ve never used it and don’t have any reason to start now–but I’d like to try making “breads” with bean flour in them just for the protein. I would use powdered eggs and powdered milk, too. Tapioca flour, hmmm. Could I use home-ground whole wheat flour? Okay, I know I’m adultering this everything-free recipe, hahahha, but I’m just wondering if I can use it as a medium for the bean flour.
Thanks!
I have left xanthan gum out of recipes before, but that was when it asked for 1/4 t. or less. Xanthan gum holds the flours together like gluten does. I suppose if you used whole wheat you wouldn’t need it though.
My thought is – try it – you’ll never know unless you do. Maybe cut the recipe in half if you don’t want to ‘waste’ too many ingredients. 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly. Mine had a HORRIBLE gummy texture? Any ideas what in the world could have been the problem. I used Ener G egg replacer, and I’ve always had problems with texture when I use it. My daughter was SUPER excited about this recipe, as was I. Sooo disappointed to have them turn out so awful. Any suggestions or ideas. I watched both videos, and read through the recipe again…Just can’t figure out where I went wrong. Any input would be FABULOUS! Thank you very much!
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out!
Hmm, is your EnerG egg replacer getting stale? I really don’t know what to suggest – especially if you followed the recipe exactly. My thought would be to cut the recipe in half and try again – sometimes I sit and wrack my brain wondering what I did and it’s not until I’m in the middle of making the recipe again that it dawns on me.
If nothing else you can bake them for croutons if it doesn’t work again. 🙂
Thank you! I’m certainly going to give them another try! The ones that I made last night I’m going to turn into stuffing! That way it’s not a waste…I will let you know how the next attempt (with your reccomended 1/2 batch) goes!
Could I use ground flax seed instead of the egg replacer?
Either flax seed or chia makes good egg replacer. I’ve never tried it in this recipe, but I think it would work well. 🙂
Hello….just made these with tapioca, sorghum, and white rice flour (ol mother hubbard’s cupboards are bare, lol) Beautiful texture! I did use the coconut oil, but I’m starting to think my lil’ one may be sensitive to coconut as well (gluten, egg, dairy, peanut /treenut, soy free)….any suggestions on replacements? Could I do equal parts canola or palm oil?
Hi Katie,
I’ve never used another oil other than coconut, but most oils can be subbed in equal parts. I’d try olive oil or palm oil over canola though – canola isn’t the safest oil to use heath-wise. 🙂
Have made these several times now, my favorite is to substitute gf beer in place of the soda water. It adds flavor and there’s 4oz left to enjoy while waiting for the rolls to cook 😉
So excited to try these for my family … wondering if it is possible to use only coconut flour or a combo of coconut and almond for dealing with candida. If so, how much would you recommend? Thanks so much!
Good question – and honestly one I haven’t attempted before. Coconut flour is very dense and it needs a lot of eggs (about 6 eggs per 1/2 cup of flour) so I would definitely not try coconut flour alone. I’d first cut the recipe down to make 1/4th of the original recipe (3 dinner rolls) so that when tweaking it, you’re not wasting a lot of ingredients. Then I would make a flour blend with arrowroot powder, almond flour, and coconut flour.
The blend would be something to play with. Hmm. If you’re making only 3 rolls you need 3/4 cup (12 Tablespoons) of a flour blend. I’d lean towards more arrowroot powder than almond, and more almond than coconut – maybe something like 6 Tablespoons arrowroot, 4 Tablespoons of almond flour, and 2 Tablespoons of coconut.
This is all just guess work on my part – but I hope it gives you a good starting point! I’d love to hear how it turns out!