If there’s one thing that I miss from my pre-gluten free days, it’s being able to enjoy fresh, tender baked goods. I miss morning walks to the coffee shop, where I’d stand before counter and gaze out over the fresh buns and rolls as they steamed up the glass display case. What should I have today? The chocolate croissant? The cream cheese danish? You know, I think I’ll take the strawberry crème fraiche scone.
Yup, those day are gone. Sigh.
To add insult to injury, I recently moved to a new neighborhood, within walking (and smelling) distance of Arizmendi Bakery, purveyor of some of the Bay Area’s most delectable – and very not gluten free – baked goodies. Every damn morning I have to wake up and smell their cheese horns and blueberry coffee cakes. Their chocolate buns and cinnamon rolls. This weekend I sat in my office chair, awash in early morning bakery aromas, and thought to myself, ENOUGH!
How much temptation can one girl take?!
So I set out to make use of all my built up bread-angst: I made something at home.

Arizmendi has one particular treat that taunts me – something called the “chocolate thing.” Their vague-sounding thing is actually a very specific brioche roll that’s specked with thick chunks of dark chocolate. Armed with this recipe for gluten free brioche, I set to work creating my own version of this, well, thing.
The resulting gluten free recipe is absolutely wonderful. While there’s no substitute for real brioche, but this recipe – compliments of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg – is a lovely stand in. Light and airy, these gluten free brioche rolls make for a breakfast to remember, and guests will have a tough time noticing that they’re sans gluten.
So, I present to you my new favorite gluten free breakfast bun recipe. This is cause for celebration! Pack them up for meetings, conferences and road trips, and you’ll never again feel that tug of longing for a a table full of gluten-y baked treat again. You’ll have something infinitely more special, thankyouverymuch.
Note: gluten free bread doughs are notoriously sticky, so when the recipe says to dust with cornstarch, save yourself a lot of trouble and just layer it on; otherwise you’ll end up with dough everywhere but in your breakfast rolls.

Heavenly Gluten Free Chocolate Things
(Gluten Free Chocolate Buns Recipe)
From “Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” by Zoe François and Jeff Hertzberg
Makes six large rolls
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch (tapioca flour)
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon granulated yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Several more cups of cornstarch for rolling and dusting
- 4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- Whisk together the brown rice flour, tapioca starch, cornstarch, yeast, salt and xanthan gum in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.
- Combine the liquid ingredients and gradually mix them into the dry ingredients using one of the following: a spoon, a food processor (with dough attachment) or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix just until there are no dry bits of flour. You might need to use wet hands to get the last bits of flour to incorporate if you are not using a machine.
- Cover (not airtight!) and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Coat your hands and a flat surface liberally with corn starch, and I mean liberally. Trust me – this dough sticks to everything, even parchment paper.
- Turn the dough out onto starched surface, then spread and press with your hands until it isabout 1 inch thick and roughly square shaped. Coat a rolling pin with cornstarch and sprinkle a little more on the surface of your dough. Roll the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick.
- Using a knife dipped in cornstarch, cut the edges of the dough so it’s relatively close to square-shaped. Sprinkle chopped chocolate around the dough square, not heavily coating it but spreading chocolate chunks evenly around. As tightly as you can without breaking it, roll the dough into a thick log. Cut into 6 equal-sized rolls with a very sharp knife. Coat your hands with a little more cornstarch and gently form the rolls into rough ball shapes.
- Set a piece of parchment on a baking sheet (don’t worry – with the amount of cornstarch you used by now, nothing will stick at this point) and place the rolls at least two inches apart. Cover loosely and allow dough to rest for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F while you’re waiting, allowing the full 45 minutes so that the oven heats properly.
- Bake in the center of the oven for about 22 minutes. The rolls are done once they start to brown nicely and are firm to the touch.
- Let rolls cool on the baking sheet for two minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool on a rack before eating. Eat hot, right out of the oven, or allow them to cool fully before storing them in an airtight container for up to four days. If wrapped up tightly, these rolls can be frozen for up to a month.
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Oh my goodness, Stephanie! This looks amazingly good.
Thanks, Susan! I had a great time photographing these babies.
I’ve been suffering severe Baked Goods Envy lately, so I may have to bite the bullet and get myself some alternate flours and xanthan gum. This looks too good to miss.
If they’re super expensive in Kiwiland, let me know and I’ll ship some out. Merry un-Christmas.
These are incredibly tempting even though I don’t have to worry about gluten. The “5 Minutes a Day” cookbooks are among my favorites and your addition of chocolate is inspired.
They’re some of my favorites as well – Zoe and Jeff have produced some killer recipes.
Stephanie – these look fantastic. I have all I can do to not allow myself to make a bee line for the kitchen and try my hand at them. Too much work to do today – but this weekend, I know what I’ll be doing! Thanks!
Excellent! Please do report back and let me know how it goes.
Oh my GOSH! Amazing little balls of perfection. These are my dream food. Chocolate and bread gluten free!
Is it bad that i’m happy you’ve had to endure those torturous smells from the bakery? Because otherwise you would have never made these bad boys!
Ha, no I guess it’s not bad.
In the end it produced something awesome, so it’s not for nothing!
xanthan gum is unavailable in my neck of the woods asking for it in the stores gets to a blank stare. Sigh.
Have you tried buying it online? I get it from Amazon.com for pretty cheap.
Wow! I made the brioche for the first time a couple weeks ago. I might have to try this version!! Yummy!
Thank! Let me know how it goes!
That looks amazing!
Come the weekend, I’ll get my GF daughter to give these a try – breakfast is one of the things we struggle with, so a bit of yummy would go down really well.
Ah, I’d love to hear what she thought. Did she love them?
Ow, these sound good ! This I must try
For sure! Let me know how it goes.
Oh my gosh, I’ve been meaning to try the brioche recipe but just hadn’t got around to it yet… until I saw this post! Your pictures looked lovely and the description of longing for freshly baked goods was so right on that I decided to try this recipe right then and there. The process went flawlessly and the final result is delicious! They’re cooling and tempting me right now, I’m worried I’ll end up eating all of them!
I’m so glad you loved them! I’m hopelessly addicted, in fact, I’m going to make more tomorrow. Stay tuned for another variation.
Chocolate thing! What a name. I believe I would go crazy if I lived close enough to a bakery to smell it! These look amazing and decadent.
It’s insanely difficult – but what can you do? I have to make sure I never walk by there when I’m hungry…
Well, you’ve certainly come to the rescue with these. They look incredibly delicious. Although I’m not gluten-intolerant, I’d be happy to eat one (or two?) of these!
Thanks, Sheryl.
Maybe I’ll bring some to NY when I’m there!
Wow! Perfect timing. I just got a call from guests coming tomorrow who need to eat gluten-free and were worried about whether or not I could produce. I’m printing out your recipe and heading for the health food store to stock up on the ingredients. Thank you so much!
That’s great news. Remind me to tell you the story of how I was poisoned by an only semi-well meaning B&B. I’m so glad to hear you’re happy to work with these folks.
These look amazing–and I love the idea of using brioche dough as a base for the rolls. I’m curious, though, what type of dark chocolate do you use?
I used Guittard chocolate chunks, though you could also use chocolate chips. One critique I got was that they needed more chocolate, so the next batch will have double the amount.
I need to make these. They look so so good. I tried using a gluten free flour mixture but it strangely upset my digestion. It seems I can tolerate spelt flour but not wheat or gluten-free flours. Weird!
That’s odd! Do you remember what was in the flours mix?
I bookmarked this one. I’d like to serve these for a shower or some kind of afternoon tea-ish get together.
Perfect! They’re fabulous for that – but of course, I’d eat them 24 hours a day.
Every gal — gluten-free or not — should be able to enjoy a chocolate thingie or two. Good for you for finding a treat you can enjoy — and sharing the recipe so others can too.
Thanks! Want me to bring a few over? Just say the word!
Thanks a lot for the recipe. I have a friend who can’t eat gluten, and I’m going to surprise her with it!
One problem I’ve heard of, though, is that gluten free bread doesn’t tend to be as fluffy/airy. How true is that, and how can I get around it?
Just thought I’d let you know that I made these for my friend who has celiac and I thought she was going to cry tears of joy! They were absolutely delish, and the gluten eaters in the crowd really enjoyed them too!
This is going on my list of things to try immediately. Those look so delicious!