Every culture has its own type of bread and ways to eat it, making it an important part of everyday life. In our search to find new recipes and develop them to be gluten-free, we run into a very classic English bread, the dinner rolls.
As good Chileans, we really love bread. It is not uncommon to see bread in every meal of the day, as toasts on breakfast (or as a snack between lunch and dinner), or some fresh bread to accompany lunch and dinner. That is why it is a big deal to find good gluten-free bread for Chileans (we are kind of obsessed with it jajaja).
Shaped and presented in many ways, these rolls have a really nice presentation, and when they are fresh, they are the perfect complement for every meal due to its neutral flavour.
Although they might seem like a not complicated bread to make, it has its own challenges. These rolls have to be soft, fluffy, yet firm with a nice soft crust. This structure is a particularly hard combination to achieve for gluten-free bread, so special measures have to be taken.
First of all, the xanthin gum had to be eliminated. Since it is a gum, it would make the bread to develop a gumminess that doesn’t go well with the soft and fluffy structure. Second, the flour mix has to be one that yields a soft, yet firm and not extremely arrested structure. Lastly, we need to incorporate a milky and buttery flavour to the rolls without interfering in the structure (butter and milk can make bread denser).
To achieve our objective, the psyllium husk, dry skim milk powder, and our gum-free flour mix come into play. The psyllium husk provides a not gummy structure to our rolls stay firm, the dry milk powder will provide an extra fluffiness and softness, while the flour mix is low on fibre achieving overall a tender crumb.
Also, baking powder and lemon juice are used to help the bread rise without developing a strong yeast flavour (remember that we are looking for a neutral flavoured bread). The result is a nicely presented gum-free dinner roll that can be pulled out, perfect for any occasion!
As with any bread recipe, I recommend having a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to make your work easier. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, you can still make the recipe. Just be sure to mix everything pretty well!
To make this recipe, you will need to have a 9-inch round cake pan to leave the dough to rise and form the dinner rolls and a scale to make every roll the same size, so have them handy!
Here we go with the recipe!
The Softest Dinner Rolls
Course: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerCuisine: EnglishDifficulty: Easy8
servings20
minutes35
minutesHere we present you the softest gluten-free dinner rolls that are perfect to eat them with any meal!
Ingredients
430 g of our gum-free flour mix
50 g dry skim milk powder
20 g powdered psyllium husk
12 g salt
12 g baking powder
300 g warm water (around 105-110ºF/40-43ºC)
30 g honey
10 g instant yeast
90 g melted and cooled unsalted butter
1 large egg + 1 yolk beaten up
2 tsp lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar as a substitute).
1 egg + 1 tbsp of water for the egg wash
Directions
- Mix the water, yeast and honey and let it rest for 5 minutes to activate and make sure that the yeast is alive. If you can see foam on top, it means that everything is ok!
- On the stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, mix and homogenize all the dry ingredients (flour mix, dry skim milk powder, psyllium husk, salt, and baking powder).
- Once the yeast is foaming, add the rest of the wet ingredients (butter, egg and yolk mixture, and lemon juice) to the dry mixture and start beating the dough up, first at medium speed for two minutes and then raising the speed to high for at least 5 minutes.
- Using a silicone spatula, remove the dough from the bowl borders and put everything together.
- Spray/oil the 9-inch round cake pan and put a piece of parchment paper (or a plate) over your scale.
- Wet with water your hands and start taking dough pieces of around 110-120 g. Give them a rounded shape with your hands. If they start sticking, just wet your hands a bit more.
- Try to give it your best shot rounding them and place them on the round cake pan! Your objective is to form a flower shape with the dough balls! Leave an even space between the balls on the border and the one in the middle so they can rise evenly.
- Once you have all the balls in place, cover them with a plastic wrap. Now it’s time to proof the dough. Leave the dough on a warm and draft-free place for around 1 hour.
(I use the oven, I preheat it to 120ºF/49ºC, leave the oven door open for a minute, and then I place the dough inside with the door closed and the oven light turned on) - Once the time has passed, take out the dough and preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC.
- Once it’s preheated, brush carefully the dinner rolls with the egg and water wash and bake them on the middle rack for 35 minutes. The internal temperature of the center roll has to be at least 195ºF/91ºC.
- Take the dinner rolls and leave them to cool inside the cake pan for 10 minutes. After that, turn over the dinner rolls over a wire rack, and quickly turn them upright again. Leave them cooling in the rack for another 15 minutes.
- Now it’s time to pull one out and enjoy! These dinner rolls are best if served fresh during the same day!
