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I’m having way too much fun experimenting with new (to me) grain-free flours.
These rolls get their crisp and chewy texture from tapioca starch, a grain-free “flour” derived from the cassava root. Tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour) is a little tricky to work with, as it can be sticky, gluey, and can’t stand alone in baked goods, but it works well when mixed with another flour. In this case, I mixed it with coconut flour to keep the overall recipe nut-free.
Using tapioca starch also provides enough of a sticky, doughy texture that eggs aren’t necessary. That’s a rare feat when working with coconut flour!
Though these grain-free dinner rolls don’t have the exact same taste and texture as traditional dinner rolls, but they are the closest thing I’ve come to making a truly bread-like recipe without the use of eggs or grains. Think of them as a slightly more dense dinner roll, with a crusty outside and a chewy, doughy inside. I added some garlic and herbs to give them a flavorful Italian flare, but feel free to season them however you like!
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Paleo Dinner Rolls (Vegan)
Makes 12 small rolls
Adapted from A Girl Worth Saving
Ingredients:
1 chia egg (1 T. ground chia seeds + 3 T. water)
3/4 cup tapioca starch (I used this brand)
1/2 cup coconut flour (I used this brand)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine the ground chia seeds and water to make the chia “egg” and stir well until the mixture thickens and becomes gel-like. Pour the chia egg into a large mixing bowl and add in the rest of the ingredients, stirring well until a moist and thick dough is formed. Be sure to stir very well, practically kneading the dough with a spoon or spatula until no clumps remain.
Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons, then use your hands to roll them into balls. These dinner rolls will be smaller than traditional rolls, but if you make them much larger they will not cook thoroughly. Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the rolls feel dry on the outside and the bottoms are lightly golden. Allow the rolls to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, as the centers will continue to cook a bit after the pan is removed from the oven.
These rolls will dry out if left out on the counter for too long, so be sure to store any leftovers in a sealed container to retain their soft and chewy texture.
Ingredients
- 1 chia egg (1 T. ground chia seeds + 3 T. water)
- 3/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1-2 cloves garlic , minced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine the ground chia seeds and water to make the chia "egg" and stir well until the mixture thickens and becomes gel-like. Pour the chia egg into a large mixing bowl and add in the rest of the ingredients, stirring well until a moist and thick dough is formed. Be sure to stir very well, practically kneading the dough with a spoon or spatula until no clumps remain.
- Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons, then use your hands to roll them into balls. These dinner rolls will be smaller than traditional rolls, but if you make them much larger they will not cook thoroughly. Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the rolls feel dry on the outside and the bottoms are lightly golden. Allow the rolls to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, as the centers will continue to cook a bit after the pan is removed from the oven.
- These rolls will dry out if left out for too long, so be sure to store any leftovers in a sealed container to retain their texture.
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 90, Fat: 5g, Carbohydrates: 9g, Fiber: 2g
Notes:
Since working with tapioca flour is new to me, I’m not familiar with how most substitutions will work. My best guess is that you can replace the chia egg with a chicken egg, and you can probably replace the coconut oil with butter or olive oil, but you won’t know for sure until you try it for yourself. (It took me seven attempts to get these rolls just right.) Be sure to leave a comment below to let us know what else has worked for you!
I hope you enjoy them!
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Reader Feedback: Have you ever worked with tapioca flour/starch before? What other bread-like items would you like to see me recreate?
I used Arrowroot Starch because I only had a pinch of Tapioca Starch left. They turned out fine, maybe more dense than they should have been. The flavor is amazing, I love the garlic, oregano and coconut oil together! I will make these again for sure, but I’ll be picking up a new bag of Tapioca Starch first.
Hi
What can I use in stead of coconutflour?
I love tapioca starch! Any suggestions on replacing the coconut flour?
I have no idea. Please let us know if you have any success with an alternative!
almond or chickpea flour
Both coconut flour and tapioca starch are tricky to work with but you pulled it off, these look incredible!
Can we use a gelatin egg vrs chia egg? I can’t eat chia seeds.
I’ve never used a gelatin egg before, so I have no idea. Please let us know if you try it!
I’ve used flax egg and they came out perfect!
These are awesome! Perfect recipe for my post on egg replacements today! Haha!
They look absolutely amazing! Do you think chestnut flour could work as well? My boyfriend brought 4 packages of chestnut flour from Italy so I’m trying to use it as much as possible 🙂
No.
Chestnut flour is very different. First of all it has a very strong taste, here you want a neutral flavor. Usually chestnut flour is combined with wheat flour to cut the bitterness. Then they will not hold together. It’s quite similar to coconut flour, very dry and again it’s always paired with wheat flour, eggs and sugar for binding and moisture.
These rolls still look very tasty! I’m eager to try. I’d love to see a good substitute for a pizza crust. I have tried so many recipes from Pinterest and they all bombed. Everybody was raving about the cauliflower crust and I worked so hard to make it and it was just vile. No one could eat the pizza and we threw it out (and wasting food is a huge pet peeve of mine!!) We ended up order a pizza out anyhow.
Laura – have you tried the cauliflower pizza crust on here? I have had lots of success and love it, the key is squeezing out as much water as possible and then a bit more, I don’t add cheese into it either and it still works great. It is sooo good, don’t completely give up on it!! Good luck 🙂
This is an awesome pizza crust recipe
http://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/grain-free-nut-free-low-carb-pizza/
Hello, could I omit the tapioca flour?
You could try using arrowroot starch in its place, but otherwise, you can’t omit it.
In the FWIW category – I switched away from tapioca to arrowroot starch years ago (been cooking GF for 16 years) – you retain a lot of the sticky value, but it gives a much better finished texture to baked goods – drier, more cake-y, if that makes sense. I got tired of tapioca starch’s tendency to turn to glue in the center of baked goods if there was .0001% too much water 😀 And I prefer the taste of arrowroot – very neutral.
My crystal ball suggests that subbing arrowroot for tapioca in this recipe would work well – the chia egg is still doing all that binding and such! Now I’m curious and hope someone will try it (currently fasting, alas, or I’d put my arrowroot starch where my mouth is) 🙂
Sooo, yeah! Hopefully that’s helpful to someone 😀 I’ve been adoring your paleo-vegan options! There are very few recipes for vegan + GF + corn & soy free, so finding an archive of delicious and *simple* ones has been very exciting! ….and my household is now addicted to roasted broccoli 😀
I made these using a combination of arrowroot and tapioca. I was going to use just arrowroot but I only had a little bit left. Mine came out doughy on the inside, perfect on the outside. They’re edible. Just not quite the right texture inside. I wonder what they would be like without the garlic and oregano. I’m not sure if I like the combination of coconut and garlic favors.
Thanks for the suggestion of arrowroot flour instead of the tapioca. I’ve already purchased the tapioca and try the recipe as originally written and then with the arrowroot. Hopefully, I’ll remember to report my findings here.
This is so helpful. I’ve been trying to find the right ratio of tapioca flour to other flour in baked goods. Thanks so much for sharing!