Gluten-free Dinner Rolls that taste like grandma’s holiday rolls! We enjoy these gluten-free rolls at the holidays and year-round! Be sure to read through the post for my tips! I think you’ll be adding these gluten-free buns to your go-to list of gluten-free bread recipes! After I had to give up gluten, I tried making my own dinner rolls at home, using my old favorite recipes, just substituting gluten-free flour, and each time they failed miserably. Thankfully, just a few months after my celiac diagnosis and transition to cooking & eating gluten-free, my local gluten-free store brought in Rachel (former owner of Gluten Free Mama) for a baking class. I sat there amazed as she whipped up super easy gluten-free dinner rolls, then when I got to sample them, I couldn’t believe it. They actually tasted like real homemade dinner rolls! These don’t taste like cardboard, crumble like sawdust, require a knife to saw through, or need to be toasted to be palatable. What a relief, right?! I knew I had to make these! Look at that texture: After learning how to make these from Rachel, and buying her fabulous cookbook, In the Kitchen with Gluten Free Mama (now out of print), I started making these at home regularly. These really are my family’s favorite gluten-free dinner rolls, and you will find them on our table at every holiday meal and at least once a month at dinner throughout the year. While Rachel’s original recipe is no longer available online; you’ll find my adapted gluten-free roll recipe below, used with her permission. I’ve cut the amount of time that the gluten-free rolls need to rise by about half by using instant yeast.The instant yeast I use is SAF Instant Yeast. You can buy Saf Instant Yeast from Amazon If you haven’t worked with gluten-free yeast dough much yet, it is important to note that it is very different from regular yeast doughs. When making gluten-free yeast dough, the end result is typically a very wet, sticky dough. Do not be tempted to add extra flour! You will not be kneading the dough by hand at all. Your mixer does all the work mixing the dough well. Once it is done mixing, then you use a large cookie scoop (about 2″ diameter) to scoop the dough in mounds in your baking pan. I recommend using a #16 scoop or a #20 scoop. Another important thing to note is that your pans will actually help you shape your gluten-free dough. For example. if you were making regular dinner rolls, you could get by having the balls of dough spread out on a big baking sheet almost like cookies. If you did that with gluten-free dough, you would end up with very flat breads. So here in this recipe, I definitely recommend you grab yourself a metal 9″ round cake or metal pie pan to bake your rolls in. I’ll talk more about your pans helping shape your dough when I share my french bread and hamburger bun recipes. Here’s a pic that shows how the gluten-free rolls look at the different stages: While some might like to brush their unbaked rolls with an egg wash, I prefer leaving them plain for baking, then after baking I brush on melted butter. Mmmm! Here’s a look at the ingredients I use every time I make these gluten-free rolls: If you need to make other substitutions to make this recipe suitable for your diet, feel free to try them. I always recommend making only one new change at a time so that if things go wrong you can isolate the problem and refine from there. If you do make successful substitutions of any kind, please do come back and let us all know! I’ve tested many flour blends and the three that work best for these gluten-free rolls consistently are: There are so many flour blends out there, that I simply cannot test them all. I can’t say whether your homemade blend or your favorite store blend will work in this recipe. Using any other gluten-free flour blend means you are bringing in a different combination of flours & starches, and I can’t guarantee that will work well. That said, please feel free to play with this and see if it works well with your favorite blend. I would recommend you be sure to measure your flour by weight, and be sure to use the same weight I have listed in the recipe. Read through the reader comments below to see what flour blends have worked well for other readers! Also, if you are using a blend that already contains xanthan gum, try adding an additional 1/2 tsp when making this. Note that some people have had great success using their favorite flour blend, and just removing 1/2 cup of the flour and replacing it with 1/2 cup of real almond flour. This makes it similar to the original Gluten Free Mama’s almond flour blend that I use. **UPDATE 4/2015. I tested these with Pamela’s artisan flour blend and they turned out okay. Not as fluffy as with GFM, but they worked. Cup4Cup also worked okay – again, not quite as good, but an okay choice for sure! Also tested with MANINIS Gluten Free Multi-Purpose Flour Mix Update: 11/2018: My friend Chrystal uses Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour and says it works well in these. She says to be sure to measure by weight, with a scale, just as I recommend! Several commenters have said that has worked well for them too. Update 5/2019: I do not recommend Namaste Flour blend for these. I do not recommend Pillsbury for these. Flour Farm worked pretty good for these I’d give it a B+. My friend gfJules flour does not work well in my recipe as written. If you’d like to use gfJules flour, go use gfJules rolls recipe here. I made this with Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour and it worked very well! This would be one I would recommend for sure! Update 11/18/20 worked beautifully with BakeGood Almond Flour Blend. If you’re using your own flour blend, if it doesn’t have xanthan or guar gum in it, use the 1 1/2 tsp. xanthan that I call for. If your blend already has xanthan or guar gum in it, use just 1/2 tsp. additional xanthan gum. These rolls just need more xanthan than what the default amount is in most flour blends. If you would like to use a different flour blend, please read through the reader comments below to see what flour blends have worked well for other readers! Make sure you measure the flour by weight! Common mistakes that would cause your rolls not to turn out well: Okay, enough details, I hope! Are you ready to grab one and dig in yet? We honestly like these with anything and everything, but I definitely like making them when we have soups, stews and casseroles like these: crockpot gluten-free beef stew gluten-free cheeseburger soup recipe gluten-free chicken rice casserole I hope you and your family enjoy these gf dinner rolls as much as my family does! Gluten-free Dinner Rolls that taste like grandma’s holiday rolls! We enjoy these gluten-free rolls at the holidays and year-round! Please see blog post for information on egg-free and dairy-free substitutions. If you would like to use a different flour blend, please read through the reader comments below to see what flour blends have worked well for other readers! Make sure you measure the flour by weight! I've tested many flour blends and the two that work best for this are Gluten-free Mama's flour blend - used in the recipe above as written, or Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour works very well in this as well. It has xanthan gum already in it, but I recommend adding an additional 1/2 tsp. xanthan to it. This is what I used recently and it worked very well! If you're using your own flour blend, if it doesn't have xanthan or guar gum in it, use the 1 1/2 tsp. xanthan that I call for. If your blend already has xanthan or guar gum in it, use just 1/2 tsp. additional xanthan gum. These rolls just need more than what the default amount is in most flour blends. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases. Old photo: If you love these dinner rolls, make sure to try my new recipe for gluten-free garlic Parmesan rolls. They’re so good with Italian style meals. Take a look: Make sure you check out my gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls recipe! Perfect for holiday brunch! Also, at Easter time, you can make my gluten-free hot cross buns recipe too! Happy Baking!! and you might even find it at your local store. I love using this product to cut the rising time down in some of my yeast bread recipes. When using instant yeast, you do not proof the yeast in water. You add the instant yeast with your dry ingredients, and the water with the liquid ingredients. My directions in the recipe card below reflect this change.
Notes on Ingredients and Substitutions for these gluten-free dinner rolls:
I tried this recipe with Gluten Free Mama’s Coconut Flour Blend as well, but alas I didn’t have good results. I wouldn’t recommend using any flour blend with coconut flour in it for this recipe. The problem is that coconut flour really absorbs the liquids in a recipe, and mine turned out like hockey pucks.
Which gluten-free flour blend should you use in these rolls?
and boy oh boy did that dough rise! Super big, then collapsed after baking! But they tasted great and had great texture, so I would recommend that one too.
What should you serve these gluten-free rolls with:
Gluten-free Dinner Rolls Recipe:
Gluten-free Pull-Apart Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Recommended Products
Yield: 9 rolls
Prep Time
1 hour 20 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Total Time
1 hour 45 minutes
Authentic Foods Multi Blend GF Flour - 3 Pounds
Gluten Free Mama’s: Almond Blend Flour 2lbs - Pack of 6 & - Gluten Free Flour
Authentic Foods Xanthan Gum
Saf Instant Yeast
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar - 32oz Glass Bottle
Taylor 3519 TruTemp Compact Digital Thermometer Pen Style
Solula 18/8 Stainless Steel Scoop, 3.4 Tablespoon #16
OXO Large Cookie Scoop #20
Basting Brush and Pastry Brush Set of 4
peri
Wednesday 20th of January 2021
Hi! I wanted to thank you for your great recipes! I have a question: I made these today, and, to my surprise, it hardly raised. Instead, it was hard, heavy, and the balls hardly touched each other. I did use good yeast, and warm water (though didn't have a thermometer). I was really disappointed, since the dough tasted so good, but was hard. What do you think was the problem? I really want it to wroke! Thanks!
Gail
Monday 18th of January 2021
Has anyone used honey instead of sugar?
Chris B
Saturday 16th of January 2021
I tried with a pre-mixed Robinhood flour and unfortunate the buns did not turn out. I followed the above instructions exactly and they were dry, crumbly and salty... I had high hopes for this recipe but I’m off to find another recipe now.
Deb Thoele
Saturday 16th of January 2021
I have tried 2 different flours and they both turned out like heavy biscuits that you could throw and break something. I can't figure out what happened. I just know that I followed the recipe to the tea and that's what I got. Any suggestions?
Deb Thoele
Saturday 16th of January 2021
my oven only goes to 170 degrees so what do you recommend on the best way to raise the rolls before baking?