The quickest gluten free finger bun hack

Posted: September 9, 2025 Updated: September 9, 2025

Treats from your childhood are so much harder to find when you’re gluten free, one of the hardest to get is a finger bun. Soft squishy bread filled with butter and topped with pink icing. It’s the childhood snack of your dreams.

Finger buns are available to gluten eaters anytime they walk into a supermarket or walk past a bakery.

But if you’re gluten free or coeliac, they are ridiculously hard to find. 

Making my own gluten free finger bun as a hack would never have occurred to me naturally. It wasn’t until I came across a post from a woman named Sharon who shared a photo of the finger buns she had made.

No recipe just an inspirational picture. 

She mentioned that she had used the Warburton’s brioche rolls, having previously used gluten free hot dog buns that are no longer available in Australia.

Saved and somewhat forgotten

I saved the post and told myself that I would make them as soon as I came across a discounted packet of brioche rolls.

Yes I am a total cheapskate! 😂

I very rarely get cravings for foods. So there was no desperation here for me to go out and make finger buns. 

I’m also really terrible at investing in myself, and in my website. Partially I guess because I worry that any recipe I do won’t be popular, therefore, no one will visit the website. Which means it won’t earn income through ads for the work I’ve put in. 

So in my head it becomes a vanity project where I’m just spending money and my time producing articles for potentially no-one.

It’s not entirely true, of course. I do have some very successful articles, particularly guides for lollies and ice creams. 

But for recipes very few would have paid for themselves at this point. 

It takes silly things like saving a couple of bucks by buying marked down bread to get me motivated. 😅

Price versus value

I’ve seen a gluten free finger bun once. The only thing that I can remember about it is how expensive it was. 

It was back around 2022 and it came in at $6. For one bun. 

Now as far as I understand, this is just basically a bread roll with icing on it. The dough might be enriched with egg, making it slightly richer than a basic bread dough, but in terms of the look and consistency, it’s bread. 

So how is it that basically a hot dog roll with icing on it ends up costing more than a fancy decadent piece of gluten free cheesecake from the same city?

Obviously there are more to costs of products than just the price of the components. But it is difficult to swallow and also justify to yourself as a customer purchasing a product that is gluten free.

It’s not twice the price of its gluten counterpart, it’s four times.

Anyway, I’m not here to throw shade on bakeries and how they set the prices. They have to do what they have to do. 

But for me personally, there is joy in finding cost-effective workarounds and baking hacks to have those treats that you really miss.

Why baking hacks are great

Baking hacks are great! And it’s for two reasons. 

The first is obviously the time benefit. When you’re doing a hack, you’re usually working with a few pre-made elements and so you don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen. 

The second is that it doesn’t need to be perfect, it isn’t going to be exactly like a finger bun. But for spending just 10 minutes making it, you’re going to get a good result.

Compare that to three hours making them from scratch for what may be a very good result. It’s up to you.

For me that 10 minutes work and satisfying that finger bun craving is great. Store bought ones may be great, and homemade ones may be better still.

I haven’t tried them, I don’t have three hours or the personality to tolerate highly invested baking projects.

Ingredients for gluten free finger bun hack

To make your own gluten free finger buns in 10 minutes you will need.

• Warburton’s gluten free brioche rolls
• Butter, to spread inside (or your choice of spread)
• 25g caster sugar
• 40g icing sugar
• Pink food colouring
• Desiccated coconut or sprinkles to decorate.

How to store your gluten free finger buns

Ideally, you’d make these buns and eat them on the same day. I found that for mine the icing became a little runny and began to seep off to the side.

However, if you’ve got a lovely thick icing (or if you choose to add butter and make it frosting) then your buns should last for a few days in an airtight container.

Warburton’s products last disturbingly well.

Disturbingly? Yep, I’ve bough their tiger bloomer loaf and it’s exactly the same ten days after opening it. Just as soft and squishy.

Sharon, the woman whose post inspired this recipe, said she prepared a full batch and froze hers to use as needed.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with freezing gluten free products from the supermarket.

I see people ask about this quite often on Facebook groups. In terms of food safety, it is totally fine to re-freeze bread that was delivered frozen.

The only thing that may happen by refreezing bread products is a compromise to the texture. This is not the case for meat products which may lead to increased microbial activity and increase food safety risk.

Looking for more sweet recipe content? Check out the recipe section of my website, it’s all gluten free and it’s all delicious!

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