Delicious Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls: A Must-Try Recipe!
Updated: Feb 28
This gluten free version of a lunchbox favourite is soft, fluffy, and deliciously cheesy. These Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls will never disappoint!
Demolishing a cheese and bacon or cheese and tomato roll is pretty much a rite of passage for Australian kids, and one I have many (many) fond memories of. Sadly, I don't think I've ever seen a gluten free cheese and bacon roll available to purchase. Well then, we'll just have to make them!
Fear not! This recipe is easy. I promise. A few carefully chosen ingredients, some mixing and shaping and you'll have incredible rolls on your hands before you know it. If you've made any of my bread recipes before a lot of this will look pretty familiar, but I'll run through some of the important steps just in case.
What ingredients do I need to make Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls?
The ingredient list for gluten free breads can be a bit intimidating sometimes, especially if you're only just dipping your toes into the whole process. So here's a run down of some of the specific ingredients in this recipe:
Psyllium Husk: Psyllium is a fibrous product made from the husk of a seed. It's a great source of fibre, and it happens to have fantastic water absorption properties. When mixed with water it swells and forms a gel and makes gluten free bread dough shapeable without gluten. Psyllium husk is readily available in supermarkets and health food stores, just try to get whole psyllium husk and not the powdered version.
Gluten Free Plain Flour: I use White Wings gluten free plain flour, which is a simple blend of maize starch, rice flour and tapioca starch with added thickeners including xanthan gum. If you can't get White Wings where you live look for a blend with simple and similar ingredients. Blends with very different ingredients will still work, but you'll probably get a slightly different taste and texture.
Sorghum Flour: Sorghum flour is my favourite replacement for wheat flour in terms of flavour. I buy mine online, but you can sometimes find it in health food stores or even your local Indian grocer. If you can't get your hands on it brown rice flour makes a great substitute. Your dough might be slightly stickier, but the result will still be amazing.
Tapioca and Potato starch: both of these starches help to keep the bread nice and light and fluffy. I've seen both in supermarkets here in Australia, but if you can't find them there your local Asian grocer should have them.
Apple Cider Vinegar: It might seem out of place here, but apple cider vinegar actually gives bread a huge boost. Yeast loves a slightly acidic environment to go about its business, so adding just a couple of teaspoons of vinegar makes all the difference.
How to Make these Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls:
Mix the Dough: Mixing gluten free bread doughs is pretty simple. Without gluten in the equation we don't need to worry about kneading or texture (hooray!). All you really need to look after is whisking your dry ingredients together well (to avoid lumps) and scraping your bowl down well during mixing to make sure it's all evenly blended.
Shaping: I've done my best to outline the shaping process as clearly as possible in the recipe directions. One of the things I'm most careful with is trying to start with a really smooth patch on one side of my portion of dough at the start of shaping. This is to avoid any cracks that will open up and ruin the look of your bread roll during proving and baking. If my piece of dough is a bit rough looking I just give it a bit of a knead on the counter to smooth it out, and then I proceed. Shaping the actual bread rolls is a bit of a funny process. It starts by flattening out one portion of dough (with your smooth side underneath), and then gathering all the edges into the centre. Next you need to pinch all those seams together to stop it from popping open, which should give you a little bundle of dough. Flip it over so the seams are underneath, and place it on the counter. Cup your hand loosely over the dough (a bit like a bird cage), and rotate the ball of dough around on the counter. The dough will actually spin around underneath your hand, and the spinning tightens the seams underneath and gives the shape some structure. The final step is to actually flatten out your beautiful little ball of dough. It feels like a shame (because you've just worked hard to create that ball!), but the fact of the matter is we need to balance delicious things on that bread roll, and it just won't stay on top of a round bread roll! I like to flatten mine to a 9cm circle.
Proofing: Proofing can be one of the hardest things to master with gluten free bread. Like many of my recipes, these rolls are fine to prove until they double in size, and I find that waiting for them to puff until doubled is the best way to judge when to put them in the oven. If you get your timing a bit off a few things can happen. If the bread is under proved you'll either find they develop big cracks underneath where the dough is trying to expand, or you'll end up with huge holes on the inside of the bread. Either way, your bread will still be delicious. If your bread is over proved it will most likely look a bit flat coming out of the oven. I find that the more gluten free bread I bake the better I get at judging when to finish proving, so your best bet is practice!
Toppings: You can choose cheese and bacon, cheese and tomato, or all number of toppings for these buns - don't feel limited by my suggestions! Whatever you choose, there is (believe it or not) a technique to putting them on the unbaked rolls and getting it to stay there. I've found that if i perch the toppings right on the top of the rolls without spreading them out then the toppings will naturally spread in the oven as the cheese melts and the bread rises. If you were to spread the toppings out before baking they would mostly tumble off the bread, leaving you with a slightly disappointing result. The rolls always look slightly ridiculous with cheese and bacon piled high on top, but that's fine by me!
Baking: These Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls bake for about 20 minutes in a steamy oven. To achieve the steamy environment essential for creating a lovely light crust on the rolls I place a metal baking dish on the bottom shelf of the oven when I turn it on to preheat. Then when the rolls are ready to bake I just pour in some boiling water to come about 1cm up the side of the dish.
How to Store Gluten Free Cheese and Bacon (or Tomato) Rolls
These rolls (like most gluten free breads) are best on the day they're made. However, I find that if you store them in an airtight container they're pretty great on days two and three as well, and they freeze very well too. If you want to refresh them a bit, 5-10 minutes in a hot oven will do the trick.
These cheese and bacon rolls are well worth the little bit of effort they take to make. They taste just as good as any you'll get from your every day bakery, and they make the perfect snack or lunch box staple!
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