Gluten-free Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
You guys. I made gluten-free Hawaiian sweet rolls.
And they were amazing (totally scary for me as it was my first foray into gluten-free bread but I was blown away by how well they turned out) and pretty darn lovely looking, too.
My friend, Nicole, of Gluten Free on a Shoestring fame is coming out with her 3rd gluten-free cookbook and it is entirely dedicated to gluten-free breads.
Which is kinda sorta amazing because when I think “eating gluten-free” I think “how the heck do I get my carb fix?”
Nicole has you covered.
While I don’t eat gluten-free as a lifestyle, I’m all for giving new recipes a try and I’m loving on these Hawaiian sweet rolls.
I can’t believe how accessible making your own gluten-free bread can be! Nicole gives, like, one zillions tips and tricks and step-by-step pictures for everything from bagels to baguettes, tortillas to scones in this new cookbook.
It is revolutionary (like no other gluten-free bread cookbook in the universe, really). You don’t want to mess around with these recipes – Nicole has tested and tested and tested these babies to make them foolproof and following the ingredients and instructions to the letter will ensure fantastic results.
On a personal note, I can count other food bloggers I’ve actually become real, live friends with on one hand.
Nicole? She’s the real deal. She has been a breath of fresh air in the blogging world for me.
She tells it like it is (read: she doesn’t have one fakety fake bone in her body) and I love her blogging guts. I’m so proud of what she’s created here and so honored to help her get the word out about her book.
One Year Ago: Nutella Butterscotch Crumble Bars
Two Years Ago: New York-Style Crumb Cake
Three Years Ago: Sky-Is-The-Limit Pudding Pie
Gluten-free Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
Hawaiian Roll Dough:
- 3 cups 420 g Gluten-Free Bread Flour (recipe below), plus more for sprinkling
- 2 teaspoons 6 g instant yeast
- ¼ cup 50 g sugar
- 1 teaspoon 6 g kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons 56 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon pineapple juice
- 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
- Egg wash, 1 large egg, at room temperature, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Gluten-Free Bread Flour:
- 100 grams about 11 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose gluten-free flour (71%) (read note above)
- 25 grams about 5 tablespoons unflavored whey protein isolate (18%)
- 15 grams about 5 teaspoons Expandex modified tapioca starch (11%)
High-Quality All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour:
- 42 grams about 1/4 cup superfine brown rice flour (30%)
- 42 grams about 1/4 cup superfine white rice flour (30%)
- 21 grams about 2 1/3 tablespoons tapioca starch (15%)
- 21 grams about 2 1/3 tablespoons potato starch (15%)
- 7 grams about 1 3/4 teaspoons potato flour (5%)
- 4 grams about 2 teaspoons xanthan gum (3%)
- 3 grams about 1 1/2 teaspoons pure powdered pectin (2%)
Make-It-Simpler All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour:
- 90 grams about 9 tablespoons superfine white rice flour (64%)
- 31 grams about 3 1/2 tablespoons potato starch (22%)
- 15 grams about 5 teaspoons tapioca starch (11%)
- 4 grams about 2 teaspoons xanthan gum (3%)
Instructions
- Place the flour, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, and use a handheld whisk to combine well. Add the salt, and whisk to combine. Add the butter, egg, pineapple juice, and vanilla, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined.
- Raise the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky, but should be smooth and stretchy. Spray a silicone spatula lightly with cooking oil spray, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or proofing bucket large enough for the dough to rise to double its size, and cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap (or the oiled top to your proofing bucket).
- Place the dough in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours and up to 5 days.
- On baking day, grease an 8-inch round baking pan and set it aside. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
- Knead until smoother as described below under general shaping tips. With a floured bench scraper, divide the dough into twelve pieces of equal size.
- Shape one piece into a round by following the directions for shaping small, round rolls below. Place the first roll in the prepared baking pan.
- Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, placing the rolls less than an inch apart from one another. Cover the baking pan with oiled plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm, draft-free location to rise for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan and brush the rolls generously with the egg wash. Allow the rolls to finish rising, uncovered, until fully doubled in size (about 20 minutes more).
- About 20 minutes before the rolls have completed their final rise, preheat your oven to 350°F. Place the baking pan on the lower rack of the preheated oven and bake until lightly golden brown, and the inside of the rolls registers about 185°F on an instant-read thermometer (about 20 minutes).
- Allow to cool briefly in the pan before serving.
Notes
General Shaping Tips:
Unless otherwise noted, always begin on a well-floured surface with floured hands.
1. With the help of an oiled bench scraper, keep moving the dough as you shape it, particularly if it begins to stick to the surface or your hands. The process of kneading the dough in this book will be done using the scrape-and-fold method: Scrape the dough off the floured surface with the bench scraper, then fold the dough over itself. Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour, scrape the dough up again, and fold it over itself again. Repeat scraping and folding in this manner until the dough has become smoother.
2. Keep the outside of the dough and the surface covered in a light coating of flour as you shape the dough. Handle the dough with a light touch to avoid kneading the flour into the dough, which might dry it out and result in a tight, unpleasant crumb.
3. It bears repeating: A light touch is the key. Repeat that to yourself as a mantra as you first learn to shape this bread dough. It’s the most important rule in shaping. More technique, less muscle.
4. You’ll notice that the recipes do not include instructions to allow dough that has been rising in the refrigerator to come to room temperature before shaping. Always begin with cold dough when shaping the dough in this book. It is much easier to shape.
Shaping Small Rolls:
1. On a well-floured surface, flatten the dough into a disk, then pull the edges toward the center of the disk and secure the edges together by pressing them between your thumb and forefinger.
2. Turn the dough over so that the gathered edges are on the bottom and cup your whole hands around the dough, to coax it into a round shape.
3. Place the round of dough on a lightly floured surface and cup only one palm around the dough with the side of your hand resting on the counter (the
side of your hand nearest your pinkie). Maintaining contact between the side of your hand and the surface, begin to move your hand in a circular motion
while gently coaxing the edges of the dough upward (toward the top of the round) with the tips of your fingers.
4. Slash the dough with a sharp knife or lame held at a 45 degree angle to the dough.
Recipe Source: from the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread: Biscuits, Bagels, Buns and More by Nicole Hunn. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2013.
*Giveaway provided by Da Capo Lifelong Books, all opinions expressed are my own!
Hi! I have been baking gluten free on and off for 18+ years now. I just love when I make something gluten free and it tastes like the real thing. Sounds like this cookbook could make that happen! Would love to give it a try. 🙂
I haven’t gotten into gluten free baking, but I would love to try!
I LOVE cooking gluten free! Not that every recipe turns out, but even gluten filled recipes fail. I have Nicole’s two other books and honestly she is a rock-star in our kitchen! LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Thanks for offering a Give-a-way… always a nice incentive!
I just found your website through Nicole’s and I love it – lots of great recipes to check out. I have a son with celiac and have been cooking GF for him for 7 years. Things have changed dramtically in the last few years for the GF population. Some products/recipes are excellent and others not so much. There is so much more available.
I haven’t done a lot of gluten-free cooking, but I love Everyday Reading’s easy almond-cranberry cookies that also happen to be gluten-free and vegan.
GF recipes are a hit or miss, with very little in between. I think breads are the hardest to succeed with – I would LOVE to have a GF bread cookbook.
As far as my experience with GF foods, I’m always eating plantains at work (it’s a Latin restaurant) and my favorite sandwich is a sandwich that is made on length-wise halves of fried green plantains (tostones) called a Jibarito. It’s TO DIE for, and while I’m not celiac – in fact I LOVE bread – I also do like to try to eat gluten only in moderation as it can really mess my skin up and I just know it’s not the best thing in the world. So I’ve been trying to experiment more with GF foods/recipes but I haven’t had the greatest success so far. (The gluten-free cake I recently ate, for example, was dry and nasty.) So a cookbook on gluten-free bread?! I would LOVE that so much you wouldn’t even know…
I had never heard of GF until about 3 years ago, and it blew my mind! I’ve become good friends with the girl who introduced it to me, and I can’t believe how satisfying it can be!! I’ve had the challange of making a few GF cookies and desserts when we get together, and they’re surprisingly good! I would LOVE to surprise her with some fresh homemade bread that she can actually enjoy and like! And hey, if it’s GF you can have two or three times the serving size, right? Haha
I don’t have a lot of experience with gluten free, other than trying to make sure we always have something for my cousin to eat at family get togethers. Having more ideas would always be useful!
I started drastically cutting down on gluten about a year ago after noticing digestive problems when eating wheat products. I have tried various recipes with almond and coconut flour but found the most success baking with rice and tapioca flours. Because I do all the cooking in the house, my family has become GF by default and my husband has actually seen improvements in his digestion too! Although I think my family is sorely missing their bread products, I would love to learn to make some tasty GF breads to help fill that gap.
With 3 Celiacs in my home, my gluten free experiments have been extensive! I’ve been cooking, baking and eating GF for 12 years and have a great collection of our favorite recipes – but we are ALWAYS excited to try new recipes too! The rolls look delicious and would be a fabulous addition to our Thanksgiving dinner!! Thank you!!
My sister’s little boy is diabetic and now has to eat gluten free. I would give this cookbook to her!
My daughter and I have been eating gluten free for about 8 months now, and it’s definitely gotten easier as I learn how to cook some new things (and some old things in different ways). I still haven’t taken more than baby steps away from mixes when baking, though, because all of the different types of flours and such are overwhelming, not to mention expensive when you’re first getting started. But I love homemade bread and have missed it!
I am an occasional gluten free baker. My mother-in-law and friend have celiac disease so I have to be prepared when they are around. I have had several not so great gluten free things and several tasty ones. It takes practice and experimenting–and a good starter recipe!
I don’t have any experience with gluten free food, but my friend has been in the hospital for three weeks and now has to eat gluten-free. I would love to win this book for her!
Oops… That should be “my” not “me” experience….
Me experience with gluten free cooking is that it is expensive.
I love Nicole and all of her GF recipes. I have made tons of them and they all are pretty darn good! We are 100% GF at home and it takes time to get there. It can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to – get Nicole’s books and you’ll see!
I have yet to successfully make a gluten-free bread and these look like just what I am craving for my first gluten-free Thanksgiving. I am going to have to try these and would love to win a cookbook that has recipes that work well!
Chocolate cake made with blended garbanzo beans. Delicious. Rolls look yummy.
Nichole Hunn has been a lifesaver to me. I LOVE her recipes, but more than that, her warmth and sense of humor reach right out and hug you as she guides you to making great food. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I have Nichole’s other two GF on a Shoestring cookbooks and would love to have a copy of the new one, to share with my interested friends and relatives, since I’ve already got a copy on preorder.
Just starting to dabble in the Gluten Free world Mel, this would be a huge HELP!!
I have been doing almost GF for about 2 years now. It is amazing some of the recipes out there that are GF. Gluten is bad for you so we try to avoid when possible.
Thanks for all you do!!!
I would love this cookbook! My niece and Sis-in-law both avoid gluten. It would really help when they come to visit.
I’ve just started baking GF. So far it’s been a lot easier and tastier than I thought it would be.
My father in law is gluten-free and at first I hated! But as we all are figuring it out the food is getting better and easier! Always love finding new, good recipes!
Like you, I am a mom of 5. Four of my babies have left the nest and the remaining “baby” and my husband recently found out they were both gluten sensitive. As I am the only cook in the family, this has been a real big challenge. I was so overwhelmed at first that I practically stopped cooking (and I am the kind of girl who grinds her own wheat, makes her own breads and basically everything else from scratch). So this gluten thing has thrown me for a loop! I have tried a few bread recipes and none have turned out. There are so many more ingredients required! I recently counted my flours and I had 8 different kinds of gluten free flours!!! I am very excited to try this recipe as I feel like I am going to hit it right at some point. Maybe this is it!!!! Thanks so much for sharing it.
Gluten free isnt nearly as hard as it used to be. Surprisingly now days you can find good recipes. I have a coconut cookie recipe that is a favorite in our home, but I cant seem to nail down bread. Would love this!
I am an Excellent Cook. Ehh Baker (although, I used to make a mean loaf of gluten-filled bread). So this gluten-free baking is like a mystery within a puzzle to me. My successes are getting more frequent, but I sometimes wish that I could just go back to gluten living. Your recipes look amazing and I trust what I read here in your posts. I’d love to have this cookbook and learn how to get back to baking edible bread again. Thanks for your cookbook giveaway!
I haves baked several GF bread recipes and my son will not eat them.
I’ve been at this for quite awhile now. Some recipes work, some do not! Almost every recipe I have tried from Nicole has come out pretty well. I always open a newsletter from her first!
No experience but have a sister-in-law and her daughters that have celiac so this would be great!
My daughter is gluten free and some of the recipes she has tried are not very good! I’m sure she would love to try a great cookbook!
My son stopped eating gluten last spring (and if you can get an 8 year old to give up pretzels, goldfish, donuts, regular pizza willingly he must feel better). I found some good recipes (including gluten free on a shoestring light and crispy waffles), but some things just aren’t the same! Looking forward to trying these rolls (and maybe more from the book)!
I have made gluten free baked goods before (including bread) and they have all been terrible! I didn’t care for the texture of the gluten free products or the flavor. I’m excited to try recipes from this cookbook because I know if this recipe ended up on your blog, it must be good!
Wow… that sounds like an awesome cookbook!
I have been living GF since early this year and have had great results as far as my health goes. Only problem, I still have yet to find good recipes for GF baked goods and good results after baking so I can get away from the store bought packaged GF foods. This book sounds like a winner and I would sure like to put it to use!
I have just started in to this gluten free baking and would love to learn more!
I have made some cookies that were gluten free but have not yet tried much else though I have wanted to try.
I’ve tried your gluten free chocolate cake and posted a pic on Instagram…A gluten-free friend of mine saw it and made it that same day. It was delish!
We have some family members who are now gluten free so I have been experimenting with more gluten free baking. I’ve had good success with rice flour.
Woohoo! Firstly, just want to say thanks for doing giveaways that don’t require “liking” and pinning a bajilion things! And also, I’d love to win this book. Two of my kids are on a GF diet and I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with recipes lately, and Nicole’s recipes are always winners. She is like a gluten free genius. So winning this book would be awesome!
Gluten free has been a tremendously hard transition for me. I’m doing it for my boys who are 3 and 17 months because of their varied degrees of intolerance. I’m just now starting to find my love of cooking again (we are also dairy, corn and egg free because of severe health and allergies) and have been so inspired by Gluten Free on a shoestring. Her Bread book would help me help my family so much as well as start to give me my mojo back in my kitchen!
I need to make more gluten-free recipes, but they scare me. A cookbook with tricks and tips would be amazing!
I want it! My son is gf and I have her regular cookbook so I’m sure this one is just as awesome!
I haven’t ventured too far into the gluten-free baking world. I’ve eaten gluten-free products, but have been intimidated by baking it myself. Where I live (the middle of nowhere) it’s difficult to find a lot of items used. You can find some now, so that’s progress!
The only recipe I’ve made GF was your chocolate cake with quinoa and it was awesome! My brother just found out he has celiacs so I made him that cake and he loved it!
My daughter was just diagnosed with a wheat allergy a few months ago so I’m just learning how to go GF. I have not attempted any bread recipes yet as I’m a little intimidated by them. This cookbook would be a great resource and my daughter would love to finally eat bread again.
I cook gluten free for my celiac husband. I would love to have this book because I have tried so many bread recipes and they have just not met my expectations. And tortillas? I want to see this book!
Hey Mel,
Which version of the flours did you use? I’d love to make these so my daughter can have rolls at TG!