These gluten-free multigrain bread rolls (aka German Brötchen) with a crusty outside and tender middle are filled with whole grains. They’re perfect for breakfast and dinner, plus the recipe is 100% vegan (egg-free, dairy-free) and yeast-free- no proofing required!
I’ve been in Germany for over two week now, visiting family and eating a lot of bread (we always do here, for breakfast and sometimes also for dinner!). I honestly think German bread is probably the best bread in the world! Am I biased? Perhaps, but try this German-style bread roll recipe (Brötchen in German) and tell me what you think!
I’ve previously shared recipes for gluten-free French bread (baguette) and flatbreads like pita and Indian naan. I’ve even once shared a gluten-free buns recipe for a fluffier type of roll. However, now it’s the turn of something sturdy and nutrient-rich while still gluten-free and vegan!
German whole-grain rolls practically aren’t even comparable to ones I’ve eaten in the US. The US bread is soft and sweet (and, honestly, probably not very healthy). In comparison, multigrain rolls are packed with whole grains and are tender without being too airy/fluffy, or sweet.
The Ingredients and Substitutions
- The seeds: I used a combination of whole flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds soaked in a little hot water for these Brotchen. However, you can use any whole seeds of choice. Pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, for example, work very well too. You could alternatively use a multigrain hot cereal mix (they often come in 5,7, or 10-grain options).
- The flours: I use a combination of brown rice flour, chickpea flour, and tapioca flour (or arrowroot flour) for the perfect texture and consistency. I’ve tried the recipe with oat flour (instead of chickpea) once, and it also worked, but I prefer chickpea.
- Psyllium husk powder: If you only have whole psyllium husk, you can grind it first in an electric coffee/spice grinder. This ingredient helps to mimic gluten where there is none and add ‘chew’ to the bread. It is vital to the bread roll recipe.
- Ground chia seeds: If you have whole chia seeds, you can grind them for a few seconds in a coffee/spice grinder or a blender/food processor.
- Baking powder: This leavening agent helps to provide lift to these no-yeast dinner rolls.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: I recommend using unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. ACV helps to strengthen gluten-free dough while also making a springier texture. Regular white vinegar will work if you don’t have ACV.
- Salt: For seasoning the gluten-free rolls.
- Water: Tap water is fine (if it’s drinkable where you live).
For the full ingredients list, measurements, complete recipe method, and nutritional information, please read the recipe card below.
How to Make Gluten-Free Rolls?
- First, add the whole seeds to a small/medium bowl and pour the hot water over them. Mix with a spoon and let them rest for about 10 minutes.
- Then, preheat the oven to 360F/180C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, add the brown rice flour, chickpea flour, tapioca flour, psyllium husk powder, ground chia seeds, salt, and baking powder and mix.
- Then add the water, apple cider vinegar, and the wet seed mixture and stir with a spoon to create a shaggy dough.
- Use your hands (or a mixer/processor with a dough blade) to knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth.
- When the dough is ready, divide it into six equal parts and shape each into a roll.
If you want complete accuracy, then you can weigh the dough and divide it by weight.
- Sprinkle the baking sheet with a thin layer of any seeds of your choice (unsoaked), then place the Brötchen over them, and finally sprinkle them with a few more seeds.
You can lightly brush the rolls with a bit of water to help the seeds adhere if needed.
- Bake the rolls in the oven for between 30-40 minutes until lightly browned and puffed up – then enjoy!
How to Serve and Store Brötchen?
Serve: There’s nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the kitchen. Even better, tear into one of these while warm and enjoy with a bit of vegan butter for a quick and delicious treat. Also, save them for sandwiches, soups (like this creamy carrot ginger soup or hearty corn chowder), stews, burgers, and for a German breakfast with dairy-free butter, jams, cheese, etc.!
To Store: Store the bread rolls in a bread bin or container for several days at room temperature. If they start to go a little hard, you can bring life back to them by warming them in the microwave or oven for a few minutes, sprinkled with a little water.
Freeze: Allow the rolls to cool entirely, then freeze for up to 3 months, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.
FAQs
Are multigrain rolls healthy?
Often multigrain bread is made from white flour with some added grains. Despite this, multigrain bread tends to have more fiber and a lower GI than white bread, resulting in longer-lasting energy.
Why soak seeds and grains before baking bread?
There are several reasons to soak seeds/grains. First, it helps to soften them and make them easier to eat. Soaking can also make them easier to digest. However, soaking also stops the ingredients from sucking up moisture from the bread dough.
Can I make the gluten-free rolls crustier?
You can add a few ice cubes (in an oven-safe dish) to the oven while baking the whole-grain rolls. This will steam up ad help form a crustier shell.
For a shiny, crackly crust, you could also create a cornstarch water slurry to brush over the rolls before baking.
More Recipe Notes
- Use a stand mixer/food processor: With a dough hook/blade to help mix and knead the gluten-free dinner rolls dough. As there’s no gluten in the recipe, you don’t have to worry about working it too much.
- If you prefer sweeter bread: I know I know; I said at the top how much I prefer bread without tons of sugar. However, if you do like a subtle sweetness, feel free to add a few spoonfuls of a liquid sweetener. Just note, this will make the dough slightly stickier, and you’ll need to reduce the water slightly so the dough isn’t too wet.
- Using oats to top: Instead of extra seeds, you could top the Brötchen with some oats instead.
- Use the leftovers for croutons: A slightly stale multigrain roll will work fine for making croutons. Dice them into even-ish pieces and then toss with seasoning and a little oil, then bake till crisp.
Other German Inspired Recipes
- German Potato Soup (Kartoffelsuppe)
- Creamy German Cucumber Salad (Gurkensalat)
- Potato Dumplings (Kartoffelklöße)
- Simple Sauerkraut from scratch
- German Potato Noodles (Schupfnudeln)
- Caramelized Onion Tart (Zwiebelkuchen)
If you try this recipe for German gluten-free rolls (Brotchen), I’d love a comment and ★★★★★ recipe rating below. Also, please don’t forget to tag me in re-creations on Instagram or Facebook with @elavegan and #elavegan – I love seeing them
Multigrain Bread Rolls (Brötchen)
Ingredients
Seed mixture:
- 15 g (2 tbsp) whole flax seeds
- 15 g (2 tbsp) whole sunflower seeds
- 15 g (1 1/2 tbsp) whole chia seeds
- 60 g (1/4 cup) hot water
- More seeds to sprinkle
Flour mixture:
- 120 g (3/4 heaped cup) brown rice flour
- 70 g (5/8 cup) chickpea flour (see notes)
- 25 g (3 tbsp) tapioca flour (see notes)
- 15 g (1 1/2 tbsp) psyllium husk powder
- 15 g (3 tbsp) ground chia seeds
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 240 g (1 cup) water
- 15 g (1 tbsp) apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- You can watch the video in the post for visual instructions.Add the whole seeds to a small/medium bowl and pour hot water over them. Mix with a spoon and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Meanwhile, add the brown rice flour, chickpea flour, tapioca flour, psyllium husk powder, ground chia seeds, salt, and baking powder to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the water, apple cider vinegar, and the wet seed mixture and stir with a spoon. Then use your hands to knead the dough for a few minutes. You can also use a hand mixer.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and shape each into a roll.
- Sprinkle the parchment paper (or silicone mat) with a thin layer of seeds of choice and place the 6 rolls on it. Sprinkle the tops with more seeds.
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
- Chickpea flour: I made the recipe with once with oat flour and it turned out good, but the result with chickpea flour was even better.
- Tapioca flour: You can use arrowroot flour instead.
- Seeds: Use any whole seeds of choice. Pumpkin seeds are amazing too!
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
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wow simply amazing the first time I made these I didn’t really have most of the ingredients m, the bread wasn’t bad but just bitter because I used buckwheat. The second time, Wow, my new favorite recipe. Thank you so much.
You are very welcome! So happy you like them. 🙂
Another 5 star review from me! Those rolls are just like the “Weltmeisterbrötchen” that we have had in Germany since the Fussball Worldchampionship in 1990. I might buy poppyseeds to put on them as well: As with the other recipes of your gluten- and yeast free breads, I used baking soda instead of baking powder (0.5 teaspoon) and lemon juice instead of the apple cider vinegar (2 tablespoons).. And as your other recipes that I have tried, they were a hit. I made a single batch yesterday to try them out and had to make a double batch today for our Sunday breakfast, as everybody loved them. Thank you so much for all those recipes. I am always thankful for people who put their recipes for free on the internet for everybody to discover and use regularly. I am glad I have found your site and ordered your book yesterday. 🙂
You are so sweet, Alexa! I am so glad you tried out many of my recipes and love them. Thanks for ordering my cookbook, it means so much to me. 🙂
I LOVE YOUR BOOK!!! Even though I can not make about half of its recipes right now due to tomatoes and nutritional yeast, that my daughter can not have at the moment, there is hope that she will be able to have them in small to moderate amounts in the near future and I know they will be awesome!! It is the most beautiful cookbook I own and I am taking very good care of it, so it does not get as messed up as all my other cookbooks! Now to the multigrain rolls. Usually when baking bread I never just use the water in the amounts given in the recipe and dump it in, as there are huge differences in flours and their capacities to soak up water. I made this recipes now several times (at least every 2-3 days…) and have used different flour combinations for the brown rice flour: brown rice flour alone, quinoa flour plus brown rice flour, white rice flour plus brown rice flour and white rice flour plus quinoa flour. The first time I did the recipe like it is written (also used the given amount of water) and ended up with a very wet, sticky dough, that I was not able to shape in any form at all. I had to use at least another 100g of chickpea and tapioca flour to make it shapeable. The rolls turned out great, so I decided to use my normal water method for the next times and now I can say that I am only using maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of water and still end up with a fairly sticky dough. If I weigh it to the 240 g it is a bit more water. I weigh all the dry ingredients but measure the wet ingredients with cup or ml. I wanted to look at the video you mentioned in the recipe to see how your dough looked like, but am not able to find it anywhere on your website or instagram. Would I have to knead the dough longer than 5 minutes? I am using a hand mixer right now. Any insights on why it is this way? They are great with the water amount I am using, but I was wondering if they would be a bit fluffier if I used more water. THank you!
Hi Alexa, I am so glad you love my cookbook!
As regards the rolls, did you use psyllium husk powder or whole psyllium? Because the powder will absorb twice as much water, and it sounds like you used whole psyllium husk. The dough for the rolls is slightly sticky (but not wet). Also, make sure to use ground chia seeds, not whole.
You can see the videos quite at the beginning of the post (shortly after the first picture). It will show for 25 seconds, then the player will ask you “NEXT” or “STAY”. If you do not click on “STAY”, the next video in the playlist will start to play. To watch the video, just click on “STAY”. Or refresh the page, and it will start playing again. I hope this helps!
There is no need to knead the dough longer than 5 minutes. I just knead it for a minute or two. 🙂
Thanks for your reply! I was cut off from power and internet for three days, that is why I am only getting back to you now.
I am using psyllium husk powder and ground chia seeds. I followed the recipe fully with the exception of baking powder and the vinegar. As all the other recipes I am doing from your side (which are a lot by now) work exactly as you describe in your recipe without any adjustments, I was very surprised that this one is so different, The amount of water I have left is approximately the amount of water I am soaking the seeds with. Really peculiar…
Me again 🙂 for the seed mixture, are you measuring the seeds per weight as well or per tablespoons? I was always weighing them and realized that if I would measuring them by tablespoons I would use way more. It would be : 25 g of flaxseeds, 22 g of sunflower seeds and 20 g of chia seeds. If I would use more seeds they would absorb more of the water.
Hi Alexa, my recipes are based on grams, but at the same time I also measure the ingredients with cups/spoons, so I check both (for cups I use the spoon and level method). Metric measurements are always more accurate, as you can make so many mistakes by using cups. I did just weigh whole golden flaxseeds using a measuring spoon, and 2 Tbsp weigh 17 grams. These are leveled Tbsp, not heaped. For reference, on the nutrition label of my brand I see 2 Tbsp = 15 grams, on other brands I saw 2 Tbsp = 20 grams (I never saw or weigh 25 grams for 2 Tbsp though).
However, it’s important to use hot water. Let it simmer in a kettle, then pour it over the seeds immediately. This way, more water is absorbed. Feel free to use more seeds or less water if that works for you. 🙂
I would love a recipe like this using yeast but not sure where to begin. I guess I could experiment. New to gf baking.
Hi Esther, sorry I missed your comment before. You can check out this gluten-free recipe with yeast: Gluten Free Buns (Bread Rolls)
My ones came out kinda wet and doughy inside. My mixture was wet as well but I made the rounds they did rise well but even though I cooked 15 more minutes they are wet to the touch and it doesn’t spring back. Don’t know what I’ve done wrong.
Hi Cidi, did you use psyllium husk powder or whole psyllium? Because if you say that the mixture was too wet, it sounds something went wrong. 🙂
I’m gland to find this page .
I hope you will find it useful, Irene. 🙂
These are very very delicious but, they come out very dense. I am following the recipe to a T. Not sure what to do but I will keep on making them. I have learned to make them flatter So each sliced roll is thinner and lighter
Hello, you could try adding a little more apple cider vinegar or experiment with different flours, like white rice flour. 🙂
made as directed and they were good. My ingredients may have been a little “old” as I didn’t get the rise that you did. also I forgot to grind the psyllium husk! I may add baking soda next time as well. They were tasty and I will definitely make again with fresher flours 🙂 thanks for posting!
You are welcome, Karen! If you forgot to grind the psyllium husk and measured by spoon, you have actually used too little. And that might have been the reason, that they didn’t rise as much.
Also, one of my German readers wrote that she used (accidentally) the double amount of apple cider vinegar and her rolls rose even better than mine. I will need to try that, too, next time. 🙂
Hi soooo happy I discovered your website.
I got confuse with the chickpea flour measurement.
In the ingredients list it’s 5/8 =70 grams.
In one of your response you wrote:
“Hello Kaitlyn, the tapioca starch is about 3 tbs. .and the chickpea flour is 3/4 cup.
Can you help me understand it. Thanks
Hi Yael, cup measurements are always inaccurate because some flour brands are finer than others, which makes a huge difference. Therefore, I always recommend using a kitchen scale for exact results and follow my metric measurements. So please use 70 grams. I calculated that 5/8 cups must be correct, therefore, I updated the recipe card.
Do you think White Rice Flour could work instead of Brown?
Hi Jess, I think it should work too. 🙂
Thank you! They came out really good, I literally make them like once a week and the texture is slightly fluffier with the white rice flour. Delicious as always!
That’s perfect! I am so glad they turned out great with the white rice flour. Thanks for sharing, Jess. 🙂
I haven’t been able to try this recipe yet, but if it is anything like your other gluten free breads I know I will love it! Unfortunately,I recently discovered that i have a sensitivity to psyllium. Would it be possible to substitute something else, maybe ground flax or more ground chia?
Hi Bobbi, more ground chia seeds might work. Please report back if you give it a try. 🙂
Hi… this is the first time I have ever made gluten free rolls that are edible and taste really good…..and believe me I have made loads over the years….even my husband ate them! so thank you so much for a brilliant recipe…Rosie ❤️
So glad you love them, Rosie. 🙂
Hi Ela, can I use ground flaxseed instead of ground chia seeds?
I assume I can leave out the whole seed mixture as well?
Hi T, you can use ground flax seeds instead of ground chia seeds, but you can’t leave out the whole seed mixture for the dough. Leaving out the seed topping is fine, though.
I was very excited to see these as they looked very like my favourite bread rolls I made pre gluten free vegan days. Is it possible to substitute yeast instead of the Baking Powder? I am very aware of the taste of BP and dislike. It intensely. Lastly well done and Thankyou for your great efforts. I really appreciate what you do. Regards Christine
Hi Christine, I never tried making this recipe with yeast, but I believe it could work. 🙂
Good morning,
Do you think I can omit the whole flax seeds and use just chia and pumpkin seeds. That’s all I have right now. Or do I need the whole flax seeds?
Hey Cali, you can omit them. 🙂
Hi Ela
Do you think i could make this using a bread maker?
Hi Rebecca, I think that should work fine! If making a loaf, I would double the recipe and increase the baking time to at least 50 minutes. 🙂
Hi . Can you replace the chickpea flour with millet flour or buckwheat?
Hi Maria, I used oat flour once and the result was good. I think millet or buckwheat should work fine too. 🙂
I’m very excited to have found your website and your recipes. My wife lived in Germany for a year as a child, and we visited there for a few weeks many years ago. I’ve never seen so many types of breads!. As time has passed, now I’m gluten-free / lactose-free, and love your style of healthy cooking. I can’t wait to try my hand at baking these. Thank you for your hard work and the great recipes.
Hi Paul, you are so welcome! How exciting that you visited Germany many times. I hope you will enjoy these rolls. 🙂
Hi Ela!
These look delicious! With your gf bread, I substitute the rice flour for millet flour, could I do the same when making these? Thanks!!
Hi Angela, I think that could work with these too. 🙂
Today I made these and they were very good and tastefull! I wondered if its possible to add some baking soda to give them some more air. Is there a reason why you did not add it to the recipe? Thank you for all your great recipes!!
Hi Marion, I am so glad you liked them. You can definitely also add a little baking soda, that’s no problem at all. 🙂
Where can I find a conversion chart for the grams of the ingredients wish we could get this in Tablespoon, cups etc.
Love your gluten free recipes and have made the bread and pizza crust many time. But now want to try the multigrain ones
Hi Cindy! Sorry for my late reply, I was in Germany for 3 weeks and didn’t have the possibility to measure the ingredients in cups because Germans don’t use cups (we measure everything in grams on a kitchen scale which is easier and more accurate). 🙂
I have updated the recipe now, it shows both grams and cups/spoons. I hope this helps. 🙂
What’s the cup measurement for the chickpea and Tapioca flour? Thanks
Hello Kaitlyn, I updated the recipe card. I hope this helps. 🙂
YES, YES, YES, YES!!! You are seriously the best vegan gluten free recipe developer I’ve ever tried, the only one with almost no starches and with almost exclusively very healthy ingredients! YES! You are changing lives, girl! GREAT JOB!
Aww, thank you SO much dear Mia! I am very happy you like my recipes. 🙂