French Bread Rolls

So our every-other-month meeting of our local gluten intolerance support group is tomorrow night, and I need to come up with something to take with me. I don't really HAVE to, but I feel like since I'm an old hand at this (I was diagnosed in 1970, been cooking for myself since 1992) I should set an example if there are new members that come. Our meetings usually are fun and we eat. One thing that makes the meetings fun is that you don't have to worry about whether or not you can eat something. Unless someone made a mistake (and they rarely do) it's all gluten free! We are affiliated with CSA/USA, one of the national support groups in the United States.

This month, the meeting is in Cody. So I need to take something that doesn't have to stay hot.  In March, when the meeting is in Powell, I can cook something and take it right to the meeting so it will be hot. So, since I had some time today after we took down the Christmas decorations, I thought I would make these French Bread Rolls. They are pretty good and have a full flavor. I made some adjustments to the recipe, though, as you will see below.

French Bread Rolls

• 1/4 cup soy flour
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 3/4 cup millet flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/4 cup sweet rice flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 cup warm water

Combine the dry ingredients and whisk to mix. Add the olive oil, egg whites, vinegar, and most of the water (I held back about 2 tablespoons, as Linda does in the original recipe). Mix until all is incorporated. You might add the rest of the water if the dough is dry. I left the water out this time and it wasn't so sticky, as is usually the case with gluten-free breads. I was able to handle the dough by hand and make it into 2.5 ounce rolls. I allowed them to raise an hour or more, but they never grew much. I think next time instead of integrating the yeast in with the dry ingredients, I'll start it separately with the water and sugar. I baked them at 350 for 25 minutes and, as you can see, they came out slightly brown. 

French Bread Rolls, with my bread failure.

One thing about this recipe and all the recipes I've looked at of the "Gluten-free Homemaker." She uses a lot of different flours. As the name of this blog suggests, I have had to so some creative substitutions to make them work. I cannot get sorghum flour where I am here in Wyoming. Usually, I use some combination of garbanzo bean or quinoa as a substitute for it. This time I happened to have some that my mom gave me, so I used it.