These sweet bread rolls are a low carb and keto-friendly version of Hawaiian dinner rolls. They are soft and fluffy and can be used for dinner rolls, sliders, sandwiches and more.
Hawaiian rolls are one of my favorite breads to eat. I love their subtle sweetness and softness. These rolls I’m sharing with you are inspired by Hawaiian rolls. These rolls won’t rise as high and the texture isn’t the same as the original, but they are sweet and are a good low carb alternative for a dinner roll.
Fathead Dough
The bread is made using fathead dough, which is a melted mozzarella cheese and cream cheese dough mixed with low carb flour.
For the mozzarella, you will need low moisture part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese. The majority of pre-shredded mozzarella cheese is low moisture and part-skim so this shouldn’t be hard to find.
Low Carb Flours
These rolls use a combination of almond flour and coconut flour. The rolls need both to work. The coconut flour helps the rolls fluff up and the superfine almond flour provides a soft texture for the rolls.
Low Carb Sweetener
Hawaiian rolls are sometimes sweetened with both sugar and pineapple juice. To make these low carb, I only sweetened them with erythritol.
These rolls are only lightly sweetened, which is how I prefer my Hawaiian rolls. That way they can be eaten alone or used for sliders, burger buns and sandwiches. If you prefer something sweeter you can add more erythritol but keep in mind that adding more sweetener also causes the bread dough to spread out more so your bread will end up flatter.
Bread Glaze
Hawaiian rolls usually have a shiny surface. This can be achieved by using egg wash during baking or melted butter right before serving.
I will usually add honey butter to my Hawaiian rolls so for these low carb ones, I did a sweetened butter with sugar free maple syrup.
More Keto Bread Rolls
Keto Hawaiian Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups superfine blanched almond flour
- 3 tbsp coconut flour
- 2 tbsp aluminum free baking powder
- 3 tbsp erythritol granular
- 2 1/4 cups pre-shredded mozzarella cheese part skim low moisture
- 3 oz full fat cream cheese
- 3 large eggs
Bread Glaze
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- sugar free maple syrup to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder and erythritol.
- Add mozzarella and cream cheese to a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover the cream cheese with mozzarella (this will prevent the cream cheese from overheating). Melt in the microwave at 30 second intervals. After each 30 seconds, stir cheese until cheese is completely melted and uniform and resembles a dough in appearance. This should only take around 1-2 minutes total cooking time. Do not try to microwave the full time at once because some of the cheese will overcook.
- Add cheese, flour and eggs into a food processor with dough blade attachment. Pulse on high speed until the dough is uniform. The dough will be quite sticky.
- Scoop out dough with a spatula and place onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and knead a few times with the dough inside the plastic wrap until you have a uniform dough ball. Divide dough into 9 equal parts. Roll each dough between your palms until it forms a smooth round ball. If you find the dough is too sticky to roll, lightly coat your hands with oil before rolling the dough.
- Place dough balls onto baking pan, spaced evenly apart.
- Bake rolls for about 22-28 minutes in the middle rack of your oven, or until rolls are a dark golden brown.
- While rolls are baking, stir together melted butter and syrup. When rolls are finished, brush tops melted butter. Rolls are best enjoyed warm.
Notes
- This recipe makes nine large rolls. If you wish for smaller rolls, you can divide the dough into 12 parts to make small dinner rolls.
- You can mix the dough by hand but it will take a lot more work to get the melted cheese fully incorporated with the flours.
- Instead of brushing the tops with melted butter, you can also do an eggwash finish. For an eggwash finish, mix together egg white from 1 large egg with 1 tbsp of water and brush onto the breads before baking.
- Make sure to use pre-shredded low moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese as regular mozzarella cheese has too much moisture.
- The baking powder needs to be aluminum free.
- I used Kirkland Signature superfine almond flour.*
- I used So Nourished Erythritol Sweetener Granular.*
- I used Lakanto Sugar Free Syrup.*
- *This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases (at no extra charge to you).
- The estimated nutrition does not include melted butter topping. The estimated carbohydrates count excludes sugar alcohols. The net carbs exclude both fiber and sugar alcohols.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
I can not find aluminum free baking powder for the life of me is it going to ruin it?
Because of the amount used in the recipe, aluminum-free is best. If you use regular baking flour, it will leave a bitter/metallic flavor in the rolls. Not sure where you are located, but you could try googling “where to buy aluminum-free baking powder”. In the US it is available at grocery stores and on Amazon, but might be different if you are outside the US. Hope that helps!
have you ever made these in muffin cups or as one loaf like cornbread??
We haven’t tried that – sorry!
Hi, I made these in a muffin pan as I didn’t have a 9 inch square. they were awesome, only thing I changed was reduce the cook time to 20 minutes because of the muffin tin.
We’re so glad it worked for you! Thanks for letting us know.
Can someone recommend an alternative to the coconut flour. We have an allergy. Thanks.
Sorry, but the recipe works best with a combination of almond flour and coconut flour. We don’t have a substitution to share.
Loved this recipe, but had to eat. 2 was so good an was craving carbs
I’m glad you enjoyed!
Love love love this recipe!! Thank you!!! My only question is if you think they freeze well?
I haven’t tried but I think they should freeze well
LOVE THEM! Made ten on a cookie sheet…size of slider buns in circumfrance…use for buns, sandehich bread slice in half for toast! My saving grace! Have tried so many recipes and liked none. This works!
I’m so happy you liked them!
These are super simple and great ! Used them as hamburger buns and will make breakfast sandwiches with the leftovers. Very dense and filling, hold together well too. Used regular baking powder as that is what I had on hand.
I’m glad you enjoyed!
These bread recipes sound great and I want to try making the garlic rolls, bit I don’t have a food processor. Would a stand mixer with a dough hook work?
No this is not a traditional dough so a dough hook won’t do much good. You can mix by hand but it will take more work