The other day I wanted to make rolls to go with dinner, and I decided to use my gluten-free French bread recipe. I made a couple of small changes, but the original recipe should work also.
I’ve been experimenting with using millet flour, and I really like the results. If you don’t have millet, just substitute sorghum. These French bread rolls are wonderful. They absolutely taste like a “normal” bread, although keep in mind that I have been on a gluten-free diet for almost 9 years. Everyone enjoyed these, though. It was difficult to stop eating them.
French Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup millet flour
- 1 1/2 cups potato starch
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons instant yeast
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 3 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
- 1 cup warm water (105 – 115 degrees)
Instructions
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine the dry ingredients.
- Add the olive oil and egg whites and mix to incorporate.
- Add the vinegar and most of the water. Beat for 2 minutes, adding the remaining water if needed to make a soft dough.
- Using an ice cream scoop or spoon sprayed with non stick cooking spray, scoop the dough onto a large greased cookie sheet. Spraying the scoop helps, but I had to respray every couple of times.
- Put the cookie sheet into a cold oven. Set the temperature at 400 degrees and bake about 25 minutes, depending on the size of the rolls. The rolls should be light brown on the outside.
- Remove from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
Courses Bread
This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom.
I tried your drop biscuits, with very good results. But I'm going to have to try these next time. They look just as good, if not better!
Yum! These look delicious =D. I love the look of them, and how they rose!
These look fabulous! Any suggestions as to how I might make them without the egg (we have egg allergies at our house)?
me too, and it is in soooo many gluten free breads.
Those look really good 🙂
These will go great with my stew this weekend, thanks!
Fayinagirl, I don't have experience with baking egg free. You could try
using egg replacer. I think Ener-G sells it. I think some people use flax meal also. I have used both of those in baking, but not without eggs. Let me know if you get it to turn out well.
Thanks Linda! My 16 year old informed me in the grocery store this morning that we need to use flax seed. Silly me…apparently I am not watching enough food t.v. 😉
I'll let you know how they turn out. =)
Looks delicious! I've uploaded pics of my bread recipe now as you requested. 🙂 It too makes delicious rolls, just brush the top with olive oil and bake the same as yours.
http://wp.me/pqCPo-hN
Jessie at Blog Schmog
That’s not nice…you advertise your blog but there is no recipe on your website.
Made these tonight and they turned out AWESOME!!! I also made the "fake out" Carraba's herb and olive oil dip to dip them in and it was like a real Italian feast. I have SO missed dipping bread into olive oil and this was like gluten free heaven! Even my gluten eating hubby was impressed.
Michelle ~ Thanks for letting me know. I love that kind of story!
I made your french bread rolls and they taste good but came out very hard. Do you have any idea what I did wrong? Thanks!
French bread is supposed to be hard on the outside and it is putting the bread in a cold oven and then turning it on that produces the hard crust. Maybe your oven heats up more slowly than some and makes it even harder. You could try preheating the oven partially or completely before putting the rolls in and see what that does.
If I freeze these, how do I reheat and maintain the great texture and taste?
I haven't frozen these before, so I'm guessing here. Usually breads are best if thawed slowly in the frig, but leaving them out at room temperature will work too. The microwave does a pretty good job of reheating and softening.
Hi Linda,
This one looks awesome. Do you have also recipe for filled bread (soft bread) that we put chocolate, frankfurters or ham in it? Thanks 🙂
Hi Lita, This recipe makes a soft bread that we use with fillings: Hamburger Buns & Focaccia Bread
These french bread rolls were amazingly good. I made them last night and the crust was crisp, inside soft and chewy. I buttered one and ate it hot out of the oven and saved the rest for cold cut sandwiches. My husband has been so tired of all the commercial GF breads. Finally – real bread. You are a genius! Thanks for sharing!
Linda,
Tried your French Bread Rolls for Easter, I made them yesterday and my first batch I did the 12 pictured on this post and I was thrilled with them. Comments from the rest of the house were mmmm good, but maybe a bit smaller and they look kind of light. So next batch after the oven cooled off I added an extra egg white and made 20 instead of twelve…um yeah mistake there! Egg was good addition they colored nicely, that small if not eaten immediately was the mistake.
Two questions, I have a few left from the first batch and they are only about an inch high. Is that normal or about right? I used red star quick rise yeast, you refer to instant yeast in the ingredients…being 5wks into cooking gluten free that is the yeast I should be using correct?
Mine rise more than an inch. Quick rise yeast should work. Generally quick/rapid rise and instant yeast can be used interchangeably. Maybe your oven heats up more quickly so they have less time to rise before they start baking. Try giving them a little rise time before you turn the oven on.
Was wondering if you can make these without the xanthan gum?
No, I really think you would have problems with the bread not holding together. You can always experiment, but I think something else would have to be added as a binder. Let me know if you figure out what works.
These look amazing – so making these ??
Can’t wait to try this. I actually have dreams about hot crusty bread with sweet butter.
Lol! That’s not unusual to dream about foods you miss. I’ve done it!
I usually have good results reheating frozen rolls by wrapping the roll(s) is a paper towel that was sprayed lightly with water. I put them in the microwave about 10 seconds minimum and keep going in 5-second increments until they feel like they did when the first came out of the oven.
These look awesome and I can’t wait to try the mouton Mr. Chef ( aka my husband). Yes he is actually a chef but not GF, that’s me. I test ALL my new experiments on him and I either get a thumbs up or a sour face, LOL. The sour faces are getting fewer, thank Heaven!
I thought i would have all the ingredients but i dont have the first two ingredients. Not even seen them yet. I am still fairly new to gluten free baking. My daughter was just recently diagnosed. Could the first two flours be replaced with some different flours?
Also i have noticed that most gf breads are of somewhat cake moist consistency. But so far i have only tried to bake two. :). I am eager to learn though.
It’s hard for me to suggest substitutes that I haven’t tried. Brown rice flour might work, but sorghum and millet give the bread a softer texture. Yes, gluten-free bread dough is much more soft and moist than regular bread dough. This recipe should be thicker than cake batter, but still pretty soft.
Hi Alex, I just made these with a finely ground rice flour I source from Asian grocery stores to replace the sorghum and the millet flour and they turned out great. Thank you Linda for the recipe, definitely a keeper. GF baking has given me a few spectacular fails but this was easy and really good. I’d give it 5 stars but it won’t let me. ?
These look great! Has anyone tried these with egg replacer yet? Also, Linda- do you think this would work without the olive oil? I need a fat free recipe.
Thanks!
Gosh, I don’t know about the oil. It’s not very much, but cutting it out would probably make some difference. It’s worth a try though.
I will try your recipe. Sounds good Linda.
These are amazing! I felt like I was having warm bread at a restaurant again! What a treat! I don’t eat grains very often, but this will be a great occasional treat.
Thank you, Linda!
What’s the best way to store these? I put them in a Ziploc bag and plan to keep them on the kitchen counter for a couple of days. Do you think that will be good?
Yes, that would be a good way to store them. However, these rolls are definitely best when fresh.
Hello! I just made these and the batch did not come out at all and I’m not sure where I went wrong.
I didn’t have millet flour so used sorghum as suggested. I used a stand mixer with the bread knead tool. I noticed by the last step that the dough was super dry, not coming together at all, so I had to add at least another half cup of water to get it to be soft and come together, but it was still fairly chunky when I got it on the pan; and my dough did not look shiny at all like yours does in the picture. I live in a dry climate at higher elevation, not sure if this affected it?
The bread did rise, but the rolls are chunky and not at all useable for roast beef sandwiches, which is unfortunate considering the amount of ingredients used and the expense. Any ideas?
Hi Jenn. I’m sorry the bread didn’t turn out for you. First of all, I never use a dough hook for gluten-free bread. I always use the regular paddle. The reason is that gluten free dough doesn’t have to be kneaded like wheat dough does. And gf dough is usually much more wet (more like a batter), which is why I wonder if something was off in your measurements. The dry climate could be a factor too.
I’m also wondering if I measured in weights (as I’m used to doing for my gf baking) would have alleviated my previously mentioned problems.
How many rolls does this make?