Soft Dinner Rolls (GF)

Probably if you aren't gluten free you won't make these.  Actually even if you are, you might not bother.  I've been GF for 13 months.  Some people think it's a fad.  For me, it's definitely not.  But I am glad that it's a fad because you can get so much gluten free stuff now!  About half of it isn't worth trying, but the other half has made eating GF so much easier.  I've tried several GF biscuit and dinner roll recipes.  The biscuits come out good, but you have to roll dough, which is one of my least favorite things to do.  So I wanted to try these because you don't have to roll anything out.  This recipe came from a magazine/cookbook my sister gave me called Simply Gluten Free Fall Baking, put out by some people named Topix Media Specials.  When you look at this ingredient list, you might be like whaaaaa??? I'm not buying 42 things to make one batch of dinner rolls.  And I used to think that too.  But over the last several months I've bought a little here and a little there, so I only had to buy one thing to make these, which was the sweet rice flour.  Here's the recipe:

Soft Dinner Rolls
2 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 cups warm milk (about 110*)
1 ½ cups superfine white rice flour
½ cup superfine sweet rice flour
¾ cup potato starch
½ cup tapioca starch
3 tsp xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp kosher or fine sea salt

1 tbsp baking powder
3 eggs, divided
¼ cup melted butter
¼ cup honey
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm milk and whisk to dissolve the sugar.  Let sit for 6-8 minutes, or until the mixture is foamy and has increased in volume.

In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, combine the flours, starches, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder.  Mix for 30 seconds on low to combine and break up any lumps in the potato starch.

Add the yeast mixture, 2 eggs, melted butter, honey and vinegar.  Mix on medium low til combined.  Scrape down sides of bowl, turn the mixer on high and mix for 3 minutes.  You should have a very thick smooth batter.

Brush 2 muffin tins with melted butter or spray with cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 375.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans, filling about 3/4 full.  Cover with clean kitchen towels and let rise in a warm place for 35 minutes or until dough has almost doubled in size.

Beat remaining egg with 1 tsp water very well with a fork.  Gently brush the tops of each roll with the beaten egg.

Bake for 17-18 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool in pans 15 minutes.

The finished product looked more muffin-ish than I wish it did.  The kids kept calling them muffins, and I was like "dinner rolls."  They tasted good, and the texture was light.  Maybe a bit too egg-y, but overall very good.  We had these with Farmhouse Ham Chowder, and the rolls tasted very good dipped in the chowder and eaten that way.  I put butter on mine but Steve didn't and said they were still good.

The main thing with GF baking that makes it a pain in the butt is that instead of 2 cups (or whatever) of one type of flour, you need 4 or 5 different things to get to that same point.  It takes a few extra minutes, and it can definitely be overwhelming when you are first starting out.  I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it now, and for when times that I don't have time to be a chemist and mix things properly, I have GF Bisquick on hand, which comes together very quickly.  But it has taken many months to get to this point.  Worth it though for the health benefits for me :)