With the understanding that I'm not much of a baker, what makes a
snowflake roll different than plain old white bread? And, if you don't
mind, is there any way to make them, or similar, without the usual
rise/proof/etc of regular bread dough?

I ask because I frequent the day-old shelf at my local Stop 'n' Shop,
and yesterday they had store-baked snowflake rolls; a package of a dozen
was regularly $5.00 and these were $2.50. They didn't even last a
single evening in our house because my 17-year-old and I ate the entire
package. I used 4 of them to make "sliders" out of leftovers - 2 pulled
pork, 2 tuna salad and cheese - and had the last one with a big slab of
butter in the middle as a 9 PM snack. Our son had similar - hamburger
sliders and just eating them out of the package at 9 PM. (You know how
17-year-olds can be - he had two dinners yesterday.)

So, I know I'm asking the impossible because I'm sure part of what makes
them tastes good is that they're made with yeast and allowed to rise -
at least that's my assumption.

Thanks in advance for any education and for recipes. Ideally, I'll sub
out whatever normal flour and make a gluten-free version my wife can
eat, too.

-S-