These Gluten Free Brioche Rolls are a recreation of a traditional French sweet bread. Brioche has a unique flavor and texture, a sort of melt-in-your-mouth experience. It is delightful fresh out of the oven, as part of a sandwich, or any other way you might enjoy bread.
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Gluten Free Brioche Rolls are delightfully rich, tender, and fluffy. If you think gluten free breads are bland, dense, or difficult, this recipe will prove you wrong!
Traditional Brioche is made using an enriched dough – dough which has extra ingredients such as eggs, butter, milk, and sometimes additional sugar. These ingredients along with the method of gradually mixing butter into the dough, give brioche a tender and rich crumb.
Brioche dough is baked in special molds to give the rolls their unique shape. Now before you go thinking that brioche sounds too complicated and fancy, let me just tell you that this will be one of the easiest roll recipes you ever make. Gluten Free breads are great that way 🙂
Also, If you don’t have a brioche pan, a muffin tin will work just fine!
We love experimenting with gluten free breads (have you tried our Gluten Free Sandwich Bread or Biscuit recipes yet?) and gluten free brioche rolls provided a fun challenge. We purchased brioche molds from Amazon and got to work developing a recipe that would taste like gluten-filled brioche buns.
Traditionally, you would refrigerate brioche dough overnight and bake the next day. This allows the dough to more fully take on the rich flavor from the butter. Gluten free dough loses some if its rise if you refrigerate overnight, so I recommend forming and baking right away. You’ll still be left with a delightfully soft and tender gluten free brioche roll!
Let’s talk about baking gluten free breads for a minute. Because most gluten free flour has a high rice content, gluten free breads will absorb a lot more liquid than traditional breads. The best way to make gluten free bread of any kind is to mix the dough into a thick batter, almost a frosting consistency. For bread, you simply spread it into a loaf pan. For rolls, especially shaped rolls, you’ll need to get a little more creative 😉
If baking gluten free brioche in brioche molds:
- Make the dough as directed, mixing to a frosting-like consistency. Sprinkle a generous amount of gluten free flour onto the counter, and turn the dough out, turning to coat. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. You don’t want too much flour, just enough to keep the dough workable. Pinch off a small ball from each piece of dough and reserve for the traditional topknot. Gently shape each remaining ball of dough into a circle and place in the brioche molds. Gently press down in the middle to make an indent for the topknot, and place the topknot in. Let it rise, and bake!
If baking Gluten Free Brioche in a muffin tin:
- Mix the dough as directed, mixing to a frosting-like consistency. Divide the dough between 12 well-greased muffin cups, let rise, and bake!
Since brioche is a rich-tasting bread, we like to enjoy it as-is or with a schmear of fresh jam or jelly. It’s also delightful with a drizzle of honey…the choice is yours! As with most homemade breads, and especially gluten free breads, this Gluten Free Brioche is best eaten fresh. It might be crumbly the next day, just pop it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and it will be as soft as ever.
Gluten Free Brioche Rolls
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 12 Rolls
These Gluten Free Brioche Rolls are a recreation of a traditional French sweet bread. Brioche has a unique flavor and texture, a sort of melt-in-your-mouth experience. It is delightful fresh out of the oven, as part of a sandwich, or any other way you might enjoy bread.
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cup high quality gluten free flour (we have used GF Jules, Grandpa's Kitchen, and Cup4Cup)
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast, room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- IF using a flour mix that doesn't contain xanthan gum, add 2 1/2 tsp
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vinegar
Instructions
- Thoroughly grease 12 brioche molds or a muffin tin that makes 12 muffins. Set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer (or large bowl), measure gluten free flour. If using a flour mix that doesn't already contain xanthan gum, add it here and whisk into the flour. Make a well in the middle.
- Add yeast to one side of the bowl and salt to the other (a little trick I learned from watching Paul Hollywood on The Great British Baking Show) and sprinkle sugar anywhere in the bowl.
- Add eggs, milk, and vinegar to the center and mix on low speed until smooth.
- Add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing for 20 seconds between each addition. The dough should be smooth and about the consistency of a thick frosting.
- If making in a muffin tin, divide dough evenly to make 12 rolls and smooth the tops with a spatula.
- If making in brioche molds, sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of gluten free flour onto the counter and coat dough in the flour so it's workable. Don't mix the flour into the dough, and only use as much as you need. The more flour you use, the more dense your dough will be and the harder it will be for it to rise.
- Divide dough into 12 equal pieces with a sharp knife. Reserve a small section of each piece to make the traditional topknot, it will be a ball about 1/2 inch in diameter.
- Place each of the 12 larger pieces into brioche molds, and smooth tops. Make a small indent in the center of each and place the 1/2" ball in the indentation of each roll.
- Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap or a proofing bag, and let rise in a draft-free area for 15-20 minutes. My rolls don't double in size before baking, but they rise more in the oven. If they haven't risen much and it's been 20 or 30 minutes, go ahead and bake them!
- When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 15-20 minutes until they are done. Traditional brioche will be a dark brown color, but gluten free flours don't produce that kind of color, so don't wait until they're brown 😉
- These rolls are best served fresh, but can be frozen and warmed in the microwave.
Courses Breads
15 Comments
Jules Shepard
April 27, 2018 at 4:18 pmCount me in for the schmear of jam or jelly! Great recipe!
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
April 28, 2018 at 4:42 pmThank you Jules!
Marcella
June 2, 2018 at 9:49 am1/3 cup of milk was not enough – I used -1cup Comments please. They are now in the rising stage.
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
June 11, 2018 at 10:27 amHi Marcella, please review the recipe and be sure you added all other liquid ingredients including the full amount of butter and eggs. Also, the flour mix you use does make a difference – some gluten free flours absorb more moisture than others 🙂
MaryClare Loretan
December 24, 2019 at 5:14 amDefinitely, I have added water to make quantity of liquid (including eggs, butter, milk) to the amount flour packet suggests! About a cup.
Hadley
January 13, 2019 at 1:23 pmHey! I made this in my bread machine yesterday with great success! I used 1 & 1/2 cups of sifted cassava flour and 1 & 1/14 cups of arrowroot starch. I found that I needed way more milk (probably more like 2 cups) to get the consistency needed but that was just fine! The texture of the bread is incredible but I’m finding the taste to be a bit bland. Should I add more sugar or would this throw off the chemistry of the bread? I’m still new to baking and GF baking has been a major challenge. Thank you for your wonderful blog and especially this delicious recipe! <3
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
January 13, 2019 at 7:51 pmGreat to hear this recipe works in a bread machine, thank you for sharing your modifications! These rolls are usually quite flavorful due to the eggs and butter, the flour subs might have dulled the flavor a little, or you could try adding 1/8-1/4 tsp extra salt. Hope that helps, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipes 🙂 -Celeste
MaryClare Loretan
December 24, 2019 at 5:23 amPS I also brush with egg wash so they go brown and shiny
Kristen Wood
April 4, 2019 at 12:17 pmI’ve never made brioche before, but these look AMAZING! I can’t wait to try.
Kate
May 3, 2019 at 11:41 pmCan I do a dairy free version, substituting Smart Balance soy free spread?
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
May 7, 2019 at 11:04 amGreat question Kate, I haven’t tried that yet so I don’t know what the results will be. I would recommend using the dairy free sticks and not the kind that is in a tub. Let me know how they turn out! -Celeste
Carly
September 1, 2019 at 5:34 pmSo I just made these (I used soya milk and dairy-free spread as substitutes) and they didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped 🙁 Obviously as I used substitutes I can’t speak to the original recipe: I got no rise after 30 minutes in a warm kitchen, and then when they baked they were crumbly, and more like a savoury scone (so I’m thinking of adapting the recipe into a fruit scone recipe). Shame, as I’m desperately trying to find a brioche recipe.
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
September 1, 2019 at 9:45 pmThis might be an issue with the flour. Make sure you are using a high quality mix (Better Batter is my fav) and stirring, scooping, and leveling when you measure.
MaryClare Loretan
December 24, 2019 at 6:00 amMost GF flours sold in Europe need 3/4 to 7/8 of flour quantity as liquids, some even 1 to 1. The one I used for your brioche says (for bread) 500g flour to 475ml water and 3 tablespoons of oil. That is one to one. Wetter the dough more it rises. I use an old clean (sterelised by ironing) linen cloth, lightly dusted, with flour from a sieve. That way it’s easy to form the sticky dough from below the cloth and use very little extra flour. Trick learnt many years ago from an elderly neighbour who worked for a baker in the 1930s! May seem excessive but tried once you will do it every time!
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
December 24, 2019 at 2:57 pmThank you so much for the tips!