Paleo He’s Alive Buns {Gluten, Grain, Nut, Dairy & Seed Free}

Have you ever had a He’s Alive bun? They are really fun to make with your kids around Easter time to be symbolic of Christ’s empty tomb when He rose from the dead. Plus, they taste delicious and will be gobbled up in no time. He’s Alive Buns are divinely mouthwatering and out of the three test batches we made we had a hard time not eating them all!

He’s Alive Buns is a Family Tradition

Making and eating He’s Alive Buns on Easter week has been a family tradition since my ten-year-old was a baby. We used to make the gluten-filled ones with the list of harmful ingredients, then, my diet changed and I had to go gluten-free. At the time I didn’t know how to make them gluten free so I would watch with a long, sad face as my kids made them and ate them in front of me. That feels like eons ago though. Eventually, to save my life, I had to do the GAPS Diet and then moved on to eating Paleo. I wanted to participate in our fun family tradition so I created a fantastic Paleo version of He’s Alive Buns that I can enjoy too and that we’ll use forever.

What is a He’s Alive Bun?

These sweet, hollow buns symbolize an empty tomb. Since we eat them at Easter time when we celebrate the resurrection they help us remember and talk about Jesus rising from the dead and how He lives today!

After tinkering with my recipe and making batch after batch I was able to perfect my Paleo He’s Alive Buns. They should be slightly chewy, sweet and with a crisp outer shell that crunches with sugar when you bite into it. It should also be hollow inside because, “He is not dead, He is risen!” (Mattew 28:6) As shown by His empty tomb, Jesus has risen indeed!

Why You Want to Make These He’s Alive Buns

Something glorious is that my recipe does not have all the chemicals, preservatives and dyes that the old junky version we ate had. We used to use Kraft marshmallows which have blue dye in them! Aggghhh. Kraft Marshmallows got an 8 out of 10 on the EWG rating. Food with a rating of 10 is the worst, most health hindering thing you can put in your body. No thanks! I don’t even want to get into the ingredients in the pop-can biscuits we used to use or the GMO sugar. Yuck. You couldn’t pay me to eat that or feed that to my family anymore. Once you make these you’ll never want to go back to the kind with the lousy ingredients again. If you want to learn in depth about which ingredients are harmful to your health and why then I strongly recommend reading this book.

Credit Where Credit’s Due

The recipe and part of the technique for the bread dough were inspired by Kelly Bejelly author of A Girl Worth Saving. Often times when we have Italian food I like to make her Paleo Garlic Bread for a side. The dough is a total miracle in my opinion with ingredients I would have never thought of combining to get the results she gets.

My recipe is adapted quite a bit from hers but I wanted to give credit where credit is due. My goodness, her garlic bread is good! You should try it!

Tips You Must Know

These He’s Alive Buns are a different kind of beast if you’re used to working with regular bread dough or even gluten free bread dough.

1 When you are at the first stage of making the dough in the saucepan – you’ve boiled the organic palm shortening with organic maple syrup, water and salt and then you add the tapioca flour, it’s ok if your dough looks like this. Once you add the egg and the coconut flour the liquid will soak up. Chances are, it won’t look like this but I just wanted to warn you! It’s ok.

2 When the dough comes together it should look like the picture below. You will be able to handle the dough and roll it. It’s ok if it feels greasy, trust me!

3 There are two possibilities for baking these, either way, works it just depends on the kitchen tools you have. You can use a baking sheet with a favorite tool of mine – the Silpat. Or you can use a heavily greased muffin tin lined at the bottom with circles of parchment paper that is also greased. I use this fat to grease my pans. Also, using ceramic or stone muffin pans are preferable.

4 You should be able to place a marshmallow inside a smidge over a tablespoon of dough, fully cover and seal the marshmallow inside and roll the whole dough ball in coconut sugar.

5 When your He’s Alive Buns come out of the oven it’s okay if the marshmallow has come out and looks a bit explosive! This is the time you want to grab a utensil, like a dull knife, and gently scrape away the melted marshmallow. You can eat it of course! Don’t burn your mouth though because it’s stinkin’ hot. The bun should resemble an empty tomb.

6 If you want to enjoy these while they’re chewy, crunchy and melt in your mouth good then enjoy them about 5 minutes after they come out of the oven. If you eat them right out of the oven you will burn the roof of your mouth, and the entire surface of your tongue will be numb. Not that I know or anything! If you let these cool fully, they are still absolutely amazing, however, they will be very crunchy and more candy-like. Either way, we all gobbled them up and I’m sure you will too!

Very Important Notes About Ingredients

• I use this Organic Palm Shortening.
• I use this Tapioca Starch.
• I use this Coconut Sugar. You can use different brands if you want. This is just what I happened to have at the time I made these.
• I use these Marshmallows (they are the cleanest I can find and as a general rule we do not eat Carageenan or Soy but once a year we use these) They are still way better than the GMO, corn laden, blue dye-filled ones we used to get. You can also try your own homemade marshmallows! I have made them before and they taste amazing!
• I get my Organic Maple Syrup here.
• This is the Coconut Flour I use and love the most.

Paleo He’s Alive Buns