YUMMY! Alright, this was my 2nd attempt at baking something with gluten free flours. I have to say, it was a success. This is a recipe that I will be keeping for using again & again.
Ingredients:
1 packet yeast
1/8 cup warm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk (scald then cool)
1/8 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 Tbsp shortening
1 1/2 cup GF flour mix (up to 1 cup reserved IF needed) [See Below]
1 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
Directions:
combine 1 1/2 cups flour with xanthum gum, set aside. Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar. In a 2 1/2-quart mixing bowl add milk, salt, eggs, shortening and 1 1/2 cups of flour with xanthum gum mixed. Beat on low speed scraping bowl constantly (30 seconds). Beat on medium speed scraping bowl occasionally (2 minutes). Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Turn dough onto well floured surface (using the reserved flour). Roll around lightly to coat with flour. Gently roll dough 1/2 inch thick with floured rolling pin. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter. Cover and let rise until doubled (40-50 minutes). Bake in a preheated 450 degrees F oven for about 10-12 minutes.
* Mrs.P’s Mock Brown & Serve Rolls: You can roll into balls and make divided rolls in a muffin tin. Brush tops with melted butter before baking.
**Mrs.P’s Crescent Rolls: Roll out into 2 circles and cut into wedge pieces. Roll up like crescent rolls and bake after rising time. Make sure to have a well floured surface to roll these out on or they will stick and be messy. Brush the dough with melted butter before rolling and after rising. Roll loosely and they will have separate layers like the canned rolls.
***Mrs.P’s Sweet Breakfast Crescents: Brush with melted butter. Sprinkler with cinnamon & sugar before rolling into shape. Brush tops with melted butter. You could also add a few pecans & raisins in.
GLUTEN FREE FLOUR MIX
Rice Flour (2 parts) 6 cups
Potato Starch (2/3 part) 2 cups
Tapioca Flour (1/3 part) 1 cup
Source: Mrs.P from the Glutenfree.com forum
Wow, so close yet so far. Can’t believe no winner yet. Today has to be the day.
those look SO GOOD dianne!!! Oh man! I have to try those! i wonder if they will be as good with whole grain flours!
Hey Carrie, what flours would you recommend? I’d be willing to try them again.
Next time…I think with a wee bit of Nutella in there, they’d make a great breakfast roll. 
These turned out so well. My husband loved them too, which is a rarity when it comes to GF bread. I rolled them out and cut with biscuit cutters, then brushed with lots of melted butter, salt, and ground rosemary. Perfect!
Jenn, that sounds FANTASTIC! I'm going to give that a try next time.
I used this recipe with sweet rice flour as my rice flour in the blend and used it to make a pizza crust and it was very good.
These were so great! They tasted just like the real thing. I did modify the recipe a little. I used sorghum and sweet rice flour in place of regular white rice flour. I also used butter flavored shortening. Delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe! I am taking ingredients with me when I go back home for Thanksgiving so I can feel "normal" for the first time in a long time.
Hello! Me again.
Your monkey bread turned out simply fabulous! Now I'm on to these as mock brown and serve rolls. I'm SO excited!! I'm sure I'm missing this, but when do I add in the yeast/sugar/water mix? Before beating for 2 mins? LOVE what you're doing! Keep up the great work!!
@Christine Good question!
I'd add it before beating for 2 minutes, just make sure it's mixed in before turning up the speed, or you'll have a big mess. 
Another fantastic recipe that I've made, that reminded me of brown buns, and was super easy, is Gluten Free Homemaker's drop biscuits. They're not biscuit like to me, more like buns. http://www.glutenfreehomemaker.com/2008/11/delightful-drop-biscuits.html
Delicious! I made them in a muffin tin, topped with melted butter, garlic powder & dried parsley.
What a fantastic way to make them! Yum!
This recipe is the best I have come across for any type of roll. I make them into buns using english muffin rings. I get 8 buns out of a single recipe. I use an ice cream scoop (just under a scoop of dough for each roll). I flatten each roll using a disposable plastic glove (purchased at Dollarama), after spraying my gloved finger tips with vegetable spray. My oven is quite hot, so I bake at 375 degrees for about 10 min. My pans are lined with parchment and I double my pans so the bottoms don’t get too brown! My adult son uses these rolls toasted with jam, as sandwiches, and of course as hamburg buns. The texture of these rolls are sooooo light & fluffy and they taste amazing!!!! (and I am NOT gluten free) I hope these tips are helpful to someone else. I am wondering if anyone has made this recipe into a loaf of bread? I think I am going to give that a try!!
Awesome! So glad that this recipe is so versatile for you. I would have never thought to try to use it for buns! Great idea! Let me know if you try the loaf!
Will do, Jeanine!
Okay – made them into a loaf of bread. It makes a small loaf – I used the same bread pan as the one I use for your sandwich bread recipe, but the loaf is a bit smaller (doesn’t raise up quite as high). My son hasn’t told me yet which recipe he prefers – will keep you posted!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that when I made these today, I used canola oil instead of the shortening and they were great!
i wonder how dinner rolls would work?
It would seem that this recipe is very versatile, as you have a couple of different options in your recipe, and I have used it a couple of different ways. I am sure it would adapt to dinner rolls as well!!
I just made these and they turned out quite well! I am recently GF and this will hopefully help me through the holidays!!
I’m confused on the part where we are to add the yeast to the sugar water mixture. Am I reading this wrong? It looks like there is more sugar than there is water. I’m doubling the recipe. How do I get yeast and 1/2 sugar to dissolve in a 1/4 cup water?
Sorry, Stephanie, that was a typo on my part. It is 1/8 cup sugar (or 2 Tbsp).
You can find the original recipe (along with a number of comments) here: http://forums.glutenfree.com/topic4436.html
I didn’t have very good results with this recipe..I used two different yeasts the yeast worked fine but when I baked the second batch; they just didn’t rise hardly at all. Soft center, crusty outside not very great flavor either– very bland. What could be wrong. Turned down the heat on the second batch. Any suggestions. Thanks.
Hmm…I’m not sure, Karen, sorry! Did you use the same flour blend, or was yours different? Baking is such a hard thing to troubleshoot.