Being in the retail food business for a good 30 yrs, I’d be very hesitant to say one of my products, including GF, is being used by a mere 3000 individuals.

I’m sorry this recipe has upset you.

The buns in the picture do, indeed, look the way the buns look when baked using this recipe – I make them personally on a regular basis, and they’ve got a nice, golden brown, crusty exterior and soft moist bready interior when fresh and a soft, “commercial hamburger bun” texture (soft crust, soft interior) the next day.

Gluten Free people have a wide range of heath and dietary concerns about sugars, other allergens, and many of our customers love this recipe.

Our products are excellent and can be used in regular (non gf) recipes, as well as our online recipes. With well over 3000 individuals throughout the United States using our product repeatedly, I can say with confidence that Better Batter products are affordable and wonderful additions to the gf pantry.

The photograph of the “bun” depicts a crusty bun with a decent rise much like kaiser buns found in any bakery. That picture alone is deceiving as your bun recipe neither looks like a crusty bun when baked, nor does it have the same texture as a crusty bun.

The recipe itself is as you say, a basic recipe for popovers or individual yorkshire puddings, albeit using your GF flour mix, and the addition of far too much sugar.

Why BB would encourage readers who must eat GF or are new to eating GF, to use even more sugar than stated in the recipe, if they desire the flavor of a store bought bun, is quite disturbing. Buns & breads, wheat or GF do not need an excessive amount of sugar to taste good.

When a recipe needs constant revamping yet still does not work as stated for many, it’s time to scrap the recipe and create a different recipe entirely.

GF products are pricey with some being rediculously overpriced. I and I’m assuming many others who have been advised they must eat GF, cannot afford to waste those products on inconsistant, oftentimes tasteless, and unreliable, GF recipes.

Scientifically, these buns are closer to a souffle or popover than bread.

We do have plenty of recipes for breads that involve yeast and other leaveners, but this recipe was created specifically for those who had requested bread or roll recipes with no leaveners at all and for a specific texture that we found can only be obtained (without tons of fat) using this aeration method.

The deflation in the recipe is actually necessary to obtain the proper texture for he interior of the bun and is part of the recipe. Suggestions for less deflation, you will note, are also included within the recipe itself.

Most of the ‘miss’ comments were posted in 2009 and 2010, before we changed the recipe to indicate that the buns are indeed supposed to deflate. Since we’ve updated the instructions, our email records indicate this has solved any issues caused by people not realizing the bun should deflate during cooling and then feeling like the bread had collapsed.

For a bun that stays firm and does not deflate, but has the same sweet taste, we recommend you try Naomi’s Favorite Potato Rolls, and shape them into Circles or Squares.

I’m wondering if I should try adding some baking powder?

We’re not sure what may be going on with your oven – we suspect that your oven may run a little hot and that the buns are not getting a chance to cook fully. Did you adjust temperature up or down?

After quite a few queries, we’ve adjusted the recipe to call for less water and to explain exactly how much deflation is normal – please look at our updated recipe and compare against the old one to see the difference.

We’re not sure what would be causing your particular issue – between the temperature adjustment and liquid reduction, we’d expect a dense hockey puck instead of what you’re experiencing. The only other thing we can possibly think is that you’re allowing the dough to rest too long before baking. Can you let us know what your average rest time is between the time you mix the flour, heat the oven, and bake the rolls?

You could try making these with Ener-G egg replacer instead of eggs, but I’m not sure how it would taste or how the texture would be affected. A good ‘bread’ substitute, I’ve found, if worse comes to worst, is to make a flat-bread using flour, salt, sugar, oil and water and a broiler. Iuse approximate amounts for the following and you can adjust as desired:

3 c Better Batter Flour
1 c oil
2 tsp salt
1/3 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder (optional)

Mix together – this mixture should resemble cornmeal
Add enough water to make a ‘play dough’ and roll about 1/4 inch thick. Broil about 2-3 inches for about 1 minutes each side.