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This recipe actually took a fair amount of testing, much to the delight of one Marilla, who will always rejoice when sloppy joes are on the menu. First I tried just making buns out of Bob’s Red Mill bread dough, but that was too hard to work with. Then I tried a hybrid recipe of rolls and bread from recipes I’d had success with before, but those were a little too dense. Close, but not there yet. A few tweaks and a few batches later, I’ve landed on a GF hamburger bun recipe that’s quick, easy (yes, even easy enough for a Tuesday), and actually good.

The true test was the other night, when I had 15 minutes between getting home with the kids from school and having to turn around and leave for dance drop-off. In those 15 minutes I got the dough made, shaped on a sheet pan, and left to rise while I drove to the dance studio and back.

Regular readers of this blog will note what a deviation this is from my normal weeknight approach. Normal Laura wanders into the kitchen, maybe with a plan, maybe not, and starts to slowly search and pull ingredients from the fridge and pantry, arrange them on the island, put on music, maybe pour some wine, maybe stop to figure out math homework or give the dog a piece of cheese, and putters through a weeknight dinner. No recipes, rough measuring, one hour start to finish.

So what, you may ask, could possibly motivate me to follow a recipe (even if I developed it myself), pull out the stand mixer, and let dough rise on a Tuesday? Fair question, friends. The answer is simple: sloppy joes.

While I like to think I’ve developed a sophisticated palate, and yes, I love international flavors, I grew up a child of the 90s, and there are certain classics from that era that I love dearly to this day. I have undoubtedly passed these tastes onto my children. The genre includes hot dogs, tuna melts, taco casserole, homemade chicken tenders, and of course sloppy joes.

Remember when you were a kid and you’d tentatively ask what was for dinner, hoping to god the answer was something like tacos or sloppy joes and deeply fearing it was actually tuna noodle casserole, or some weird pasta combo, or heaven forbid something served alongside brussels sprouts? I so clearly remember the relief when I liked what was for dinner. My youngest daughter has always been a picky eater (although she’s getting better every year), and I like to give her that moment, to veer away from things she fears (all the veggies) and produce something she loves, usually that means something that’s full of meat.

Plus, sloppy joes are so good and so comforting that they are worth letting some dough rise and washing the stand mixer on a weeknight. Now, of course, if we could eat gluten I would just buy cheap white hamburger buns like a normal working mother of three, but my celiac self and celiac daughters require a little extra TLC.

So here we go. Let’s find an apron, dust off the stand mixer, and whip up some actually good GF hamburger buns.

These a pretty simple method: bloom yeast in warm oat milk, combine dry ingredients in the stand mixer, mix it all together into what will feel disconcertingly like muffin batter, scoop it onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, shape it with wet hands, let it rise, and bake. Pantry staples, one stand mixer pass, done.

Start by warming about a cup plus a couple tablespoons of oat milk to around 110°F. Stir in a couple tablespoons of sugar and a packet of active dry yeast, and let it sit for five or ten minutes until it’s foamy on top. If it doesn’t foam, your yeast is dead and you need to start over.

While that happens, in your stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment (this is important, GF dough is not traditional dough and the dough hook will just look confused), whisk together 2½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 GF flour, a tablespoon of psyllium husk powder, a teaspoon of baking powder, and a teaspoon of salt. The psyllium husk is doing the job that gluten normally does, binding and giving structure, so don’t skip it. The baking powder helps the GF batter rise a bit. Without a gluten network to trap all that yeast activity, GF dough benefits from a second leavening agent.

Add the yeast mixture, three tablespoons of melted butter, one egg, and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to the bowl. Mix on medium for two or three minutes. The result is going to look more like thick muffin batter than bread dough, and that is okay. Do not add more flour.

Line a sheet pan with parchment. Get your hands wet and portion the batter into six rounds. With wet fingers, flatten each one to about four inches wide and three quarters of an inch tall. This is the single most important move of the whole recipe. GF buns don’t spread in the oven the way wheat dough does, so whatever shape you make is the shape you get. Go wider and flatter than feels right. And the wet hands really matter, otherwise the batter sticks to you and not to the pan.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 45 to 60 minutes. They won’t double the way wheat dough does, but you’ll see them puff noticeably. This is your window to grab coffee, drive to dance drop-off, or in my case, both.

Brush the tops with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds or cornmeal if you want that classic bun look, and bake at 375°F for 18 to 22 minutes. Check at 18. GF bread dries out faster than wheat bread, and there is nothing sadder than a perfect bun gone dry in the last three minutes. They’re done when they’re golden and sound hollow when tapped.

Let them cool completely on a rack before slicing. They firm up as they cool, and slicing warm ones gives you a gummy interior. Once they’re cool, you’ve got six soft, pillowy GF buns that actually cradle a sloppy joe instead of crumbling in self-defeat. Worth the stand mixer cleanup, I promise.

For the sloppy joe meat mixture, you have options. I prefer ground beef but often go ground turkey, because it’s healthier and in this economy, ground beef is a special occasion item. This week ground beef was on sale though, so we went with the classic.

I keep the meat mixture pretty simple. Sauté onions and green bell pepper (finely, very finely) in some oil or butter. Add the meat and season generously with taco seasoning, probably about 3 tablespoons, but I generally don’t measure. Cook a minute to fry the spices a bit before adding the ketchup, about ½ cup. I use a natural ketchup without corn syrup, which I know very much deviates from the Heinz classic version we grew up on, but I find the natural one works fine, and I try to avoid high-fructose corn syrup in my kitchen. Let this cook a bit, adding a little water as needed to keep it from getting too dry. Once the meat is fully cooked through, taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

When I was a kid, we had sloppy joes by themselves, maybe with a handful of chips, or some sliced cucumbers and tomatoes if it was summer. But I like to serve them with a vegetable and sweet potato fries. I often make the sweet potato fries myself in the air fryer, but this week it was a bag of frozen sweet potato fries. My go-to veg with this is usually roasted broccoli, but I had an abundance of cabbage, so we had a simple basic coleslaw on the side. My kids like grated cheese on their sloppy joes, which I can totally get behind.

Gluten Free Hamburger Buns

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 2½ cups Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 GF flour
• 1 Tbsp psyllium husk powder if whole husks, grind them first
• 1 packet 2¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp baking powder added after round 1, double leavening helps GF dough rise without gluten
• 2 Tbsp sugar to feed the yeast, plus slight sweetness
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup + 2–3 Tbsp warm oat milk ~110°F, like a warm bath, not a hot tub (increased after round 1, dough should be wet and scoopable, not stiff)
• 3 Tbsp melted butter or oil for dairy-free
• 1 egg plus 1 more egg for wash (or use oat milk for the wash)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar helps with rise

Method

 

1. Warm the oat milk, stir in sugar and yeast. Let it bloom 5–10 minutes until foamy.
2. In your KitchenAid with the paddle attachment (not the dough hook, GF dough is more like a thick batter), combine the flour, psyllium husk, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add the yeast mixture, melted butter, egg, and vinegar. Mix on medium for 2–3 minutes. It’ll be sticky and thick, more like muffin batter than traditional dough. That’s correct, don’t panic.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Using wet hands or an ice cream scoop, portion into 6 rounds. With wet fingers, flatten each round to about 4 inches wide and ¾ inch tall. They won’t spread much on their own, so what you shape is what you get.
5. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 45–60 minutes. They won’t double like wheat dough, but should puff noticeably.
6. Brush tops with egg wash or oat milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds or cornmeal for the classic bun look.
7. Bake at 375°F for 18–22 minutes until golden and they sound hollow when tapped. Check at 18 min, GF bread dries out fast if overbaked.