My Best Recipe: Grandma's Buns

My mother ("Grandma" to the kids) makes the best buns! I came up with this recipe that comes very close to replicating those non-GF buns. This is, hands down, the recipe I make the most and I have come to count on these for all sorts of uses. I use this same recipe for dinner rolls, hamburger buns and hotdog buns.

I have included detailed instructions to help you get the best results, but feel free to ignore the details if you are already an experienced baker. As always, baking things like buns tends to produce different results from different bakers, so you may need to make adjustments where necessary to account for humidity, oven temperature, etc. Enjoy!

*Note: This is an updated version of my original recipe. I altered it slightly because the original recipe only used egg whites and I was tired of throwing away perfectly good egg yolks! The result of keeping the yolks in the recipe is that the buns have an even nicer texture than before.

***UPDATE: I have been vascilating between this version of Grandma's
Buns and the original version...just can't decide which ones I really like best! To make the original version, use the recipe below and make the following changes: Instead of 2 cups of tapioca, use 1 1/2 cups of tapioca, and, instead of three whole eggs, use 1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites.

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2 C rice flour
2 C tapioca flour/starch
1/4 C sugar
3 Tsp xanthan gum
1 C instant dry milk powder or nondairy substitute
3/4 Tsp salt
1 TBSP egg replacer (this is optional, but I think it makes for a nicer texture)

2 TBSP room-temperature dry yeast
1 C lukewarm water
2 Tsp sugar

1/4 C butter-flavoured shortening
3/4 C hot water

3 large eggs (heat the eggs in a bowl of hot tap water for 5 minutes before using)

Grease one 9" x 13" pan well with cooking spray (I find the Crisco spray doesn't brown as quickly, so I prefer it). When I use this recipe for hamburger buns, I use little round Wilton pans, about 4" across, instead of the pan...they're the perfect size for a 1/4 pound burger patty. The little pans also work well for dinner rolls, too.

Combine the flours, sugar, xanthan gum, milk powder, egg replacer and salt in the large bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer.

In a separate bowl sprinkle yeast into the 1 cup of lukewarm water with the 2 tsp of sugar added, let dissolve and proof for 10-15 minutes.

Melt the shortening in 3/4 C of water (I generally combine the water and shortening and microwave it for 1 minute).

Pour the shortening mixture into the dry ingredients and blend on low. Add the eggs and beat to combine. Next, add the dissolved yeast mixture. Beat at high speed for 4 minutes.

IF the mix now seems impossibly soft, slowly start adding in 1/4 cup additional tapioca starch only until the dough reaches a consistency that can barely be rolled in your hands...you shouldn't need to add more than 1/4 cup of additional tapioca starch. Depending on the humidity, you might require 1 to 2 TBSP more tapioca starch, but try not to add it if you don't need to. The dough needs to be very soft or else you will end up with rocks!

Grease your hands WELL with cooking spray...you may need to respray your hands lightly between forming each bun. Scoop a large spoonful into your palm and form a ball. I make 12 buns out of the dough (14 buns if using the little pans). Pat the top of each bun down with your fingers to about 1" thickness in the little pans. This will help them all rise to approximately the same size and give them a uniform thickness. Let the buns rise until they are about doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated 325F degree oven for about 14-15 minutes until cooked through and lightly browned. Try not to overbake them so that they retain their moisture. Depending on your oven you may need to COVER them lightly after the first 10 minutes with aluminum foil to prevent burning or overbrowning. Let them cool for awhile in the pan before taking them out, so that they don't fall. If you are using the little pans, turn the buns out onto a covered countertop so that moisture from the bottom of the buns does not collect in the bottom of the pan.

I typically freeze these as soon as they have cooled most of the way through. To reheat these from a frozen state, I place them in a plastic sandwich/food bag that is closed partway and microwave them until soft. This helps steam the buns back to their soft right-out-of-the-oven state! You will probably want to heat the buns for a few seconds in the microwave even if they aren't frozen, because this helps soften the texture.