These gluten free rolls are perfectly soft, fluffy and so easy to make! Ready in just one hour, they are the perfect addition to any meal and will be enjoyed by everyone, gluten-eaters included! Dairy free option included.
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Rolls. They are the perfect addition to any meal and are one of those comfort foods that we all love to enjoy. After we started eating gluten free 7 years ago, we set out to make gluten free rolls that really tasted good. They had to be soft and fluffy and have a buttery taste.
Our first few attempts at making gluten free rolls were…er…special. They might have resembled hockey pucks more than a roll and they also might have ended up in the trash.
We kept trying, making tweaks and adjustments over the years until finally we cracked the code. We developed our Gluten Free Crescent Rolls and used that recipe for YEARS! It’s a great recipe that we still make often and works great for recipes like cinnamon rolls, pigs-in-a-blanket, and even pizza.
Get our Gluten Free Crescent Roll Recipe Here!
But sometimes you just want a regular, tall and fluffy dinner roll. One that you can pull apart and slather with butter or make into a sandwich with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Ya know?
So we decided that this year we wanted to develop a recipe and publish for gluten free rolls before the holidays hit, so that you can enjoy these rolls too if you’re looking for the same thing. And here it is. As a base, we used Grandma’s dinner roll recipe that has been made every Thanksgiving for as long as we can remember. They are the best rolls you’ll ever eat.
They’re absolutely perfect with a bowl of Kale and Quinoa Chili or served alongside these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes and creamy Gluten Free Gravy.
Gluten Free Rolls are Quick and Easy to Make
We made a few tweaks to the original recipe so that we would still achieve all that fluffy and buttery goodness while using a gluten free flour. And they are GOOD. No funky taste, no grittiness, perfectly light and fluffy and buttery. The only difference, really, is that these rolls take only 1 hour to make.
If you’re looking for a fun and easy variation, one reader said she adds spices and raisins, then tops with a thick cream cheese frosting to make hot cross buns. We think that’s a great idea! You can read the full comment from Suzy in the comment section below.
With gluten free yeast breads and rolls, you don’t need a second rise. So mix up the dough, shape, rise, and bake. BAM. ready in an hour flat. Be sure to read the directions closely as we include tips and tricks to help make this recipe a success. Keep in mind that we live at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, so you might need to adjust water or flour amounts a smidge based on your altitude.
We hope that you enjoy these gluten free rolls for holidays and many other meals! If you’re making them for the holidays, they’re perfect smeared with this 15 Minute Cranberry Sauce with Cider and Orange from my friend Brianna at Flippin’ Delicious
MAKING THIS RECIPE??? snap a photo, and tag @LifeAfterWheat on social media – we love seeing what you make!

Gluten Free Rolls (dairy free option)
These gluten free rolls are perfectly soft, fluffy and so easy to make! Ready in just one hour, they are the perfect addition to any meal and will be enjoyed by everyone, gluten-eaters included! Dairy free option included.
Ingredients
- 3 cups high quality gluten free flour (see notes)
- 1 T potato flakes (NOT potato flour)
- 1 T gluten free instant yeast, room temperature
- 3 T sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup powdered milk (optional, but highly suggested - omit if dairy free)
- 1/4 cup butter, softened (see notes for dairy free)
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups water, just warmer than room temperature
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer in order listed. Add the salt and sugar on opposite sides of the bowl.
- Mix on low until ingredients start to combine, then on medium for 3 minutes. The mixture will be thick to start and then soften after a minute or so. The dough should be sticky and softer than regular roll dough, more like a sticky cookie dough.
- If it is too dry (not sticky, easily handled, or crumbly), add a tablespoon or two of water.
- Likewise, if it is too wet (more like banana bread, not able to be formed or handled at all in the next step), add a tablespoon or two of flour.
- Because the dough is sticky, you'll want to coat your hands in oil so you can easily handle it. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form into balls with oiled hands. You might need to re-apply oil a few times.
- Place the balls of dough in a 9X13" baking pan and cover the pan with plastic wrap or a light towel.
- Allow to rise in a warm location until nearly doubled in size. I heat the oven to 120 degrees, then turn it off before putting the rolls in to rise. You can also turn the oven on to 350 to preheat and set the pan of rolls on top of the stove. This rising period tends to be fairly quick with gluten free rolls, so watch them closely - checking after 15-20 minutes.
- When the rolls have almost doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown on top and done inside. If you omitted the dry milk powder, the rolls might not brown as much so check the inside if they aren't browned by 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter. These rolls are best served warm but we put the leftovers in a Ziploc bag and they were still soft the next day.
- This recipe freezes well.
Notes
GLUTEN FREE FLOUR OPTIONS:
This recipe was tested with gfJules and Better Batter flour. Both work well, but gfJules is our favorite.
You can also use our homemade flour blend in this recipe, but add an extra 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour (which equals 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum for this recipe)
FOR DAIRY FREE:
Melt is our favorite dairy free butter substitute. We like the taste and texture and recommend using the stick variety. If you have another butter substitute you like, feel free to use it:)
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 rollAmount Per Serving: Calories: 166Total Fat: 6gCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 4g
Janna Pogue
Sunday 8th of January 2023
I made these today and they were awesome. Not the prettiest rolls (LOL) but they tasted good. I bloomed the yeast with the sugar and water and then added to all the other ingredients. I don't have a stand mixer, so I hand mixed for 2 minutes. I needed to make them dairy free so I used plant based butter and for the milk powder I substituted Laird's superfood creamer which is coconut based. It worked great.
Lori
Monday 21st of November 2022
Anyone tried this with Cup for Cup flour?
Gina Duran
Wednesday 2nd of November 2022
So you don’t recommend using the Cup4Cup gluten free flour like for your biscuit recipe?
Also if our altitude is considerably less than 4000 (we are around 700 elevation) should we add more or less water?
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
Friday 11th of November 2022
Cup4Cup is definitely my fav for biscuits, but gfJules is the best for yeast breads and rolls. For lower altitude, you may need to increase the rise time, and decrease the water a little.
Roxanne
Wednesday 1st of December 2021
Made these rolls using recipe for your "homemade flour blend" which makes 3 cups, and in those instructions it says if using this flour to make yeast products to add an additional 1/2 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour. But in the Notes part of the rolls recipe it said "If using our homemade blend, add an extra 1 tsp of xanthan gum. (not per cup of flour or anything else). A bit confusion. Should I have added 1.5 tsp or just 1 tsp to the rolls recipe? I decided to just add 1 tsp extra of xanthan gum and they seemed to be rising well enough while baking, which took an extra 5 min as the centre was still doughy and once out of the the oven they sank back down and were pretty dense, not fluffy at all. Any advice on how to tweak this at all? Should I try it without adding any extra xanthan gum?
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
Thursday 2nd of December 2021
Hi there, sorry for the confusion! 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum shouldn't make a big difference in this recipe, it sounds like the dough could use a little extra flour, and/or a slower rise time to prevent falling. You'll want the dough to be somewhere between regular bread dough and an extra thick banana bread batter, basically an extra-sticky dough. Allow for enough rise time for the rolls to double in size. Hope that helps! XO Celeste
Anne
Wednesday 24th of November 2021
We're relatively new to being GF and have been pretty disappointed by all the different (and expensive!) breads and rolls we've tried, so I'm excited to try these because they look amazing in your photos. I've been using the Domata cup for cup GF flour - do you have experience with that and if so, do you think it'd work well for this recipe? I saw in a couple of the previous comments that you said different GF flours all work a little differently, so just curious. Thanks!!
thereislifeafterwheat@gmail.com
Thursday 2nd of December 2021
Sorry, I don't have any experience with that type of flour. gfJules is definitely my favorite for yeast breads, and Better Batter will work as well.