gluten free dinner rolls

The roll adventure begins with the dough.  A wheat based bread dough will be soft, smooth, able to be manipulated with bare hands.

GF bread dough is very different.  Wet, sticky, and heavy.  It is impossible to work with unless your hands are wet.  Not damp, wet.  In fact I had to rewet my hands after "shaping" every third roll.

Try not to be too Anal Retentive Chef when forming the rolls.  There is not much you can do once the dough is plopped  on the parchment sheet. Remember that it is going to rise further and that the word "rustic" is your friend.

After rising some of the rolls came out pretty circular, some others, not so much.  I did not realize until I was sliding the rolls into the oven that the recipe does not call for salt.  Bread really needs salt and I will be sure to throw a teaspoon in next time. 

The recipe warned that right out of the oven the rolls would be hard and the way to soften is to cover them with a towel while they cool.  I was sceptical as they were indeed hard as rocks right out of the oven, but the towel trick works and before long they were soft and inviting.

Look at the inside!  Light, airy, soft, and perfectly bread like.  The ipod phone does not do them justice.

The taste?  Darn good, even without the salt (although I am still adding it next time).  The family knew they were GF, but proclaimed them good and went back for seconds.  The biggest surprise in this whole thing is the way the rolls tasted the next day.  Usually GF baked goods are a one day only affair, but the rolls were almost as tasty the second day and toasted up beautifully.

There are a couple of downsides I should mention.  The first that I am not sure how these would work without a stand mixer.  There is a lot of beating going on and using a big bowl and a wooden spoon may yield different results.  The other is that is that this is pretty much white bread and I like my bread a little heartier.  So I will be trying out their other flours in the future.  Until I am able to get to the store I have another something I am dying to try.  English Muffins.