As you’ve probably noticed, I’m obsessed with baking lately. Being gluten free has actually fueled my desire, since it presents more of a challenge than conventional baking – at least in the respect that standard rules don’t always seem to apply. I’ve been reading many books on the subject, and these two are the ones I’ve found to be most helpful for your average home baker:
Thankfully, both of these books use the same gluten-free flour mixture recipe, as do a few other allergy-friendly baking books, like Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook by Cybelle Pascal. So, I’m going to continue basing most of my baking experiments off of that. Here it is, in all its glory.
Basic Gluten Free Flour Mix Recipe
- 2 parts brown rice flour
- 2/3 part potato starch (not potato flour! Must be starch)
- 1/3 part tapioca starch
- Stir all ingredients together until well mixed. Store in a sealed jar in a cool, dry place, or in the fridge.
- Sift before using to ensure proper texture and measurement.
How Much Xanthan Gum Do You Use?
A common question is how much xanthan gum you should use when baking with gluten-free flours. When adding xanthan gum to a baking recipe, the general rule is to add 1/2 teaspoon for every cup of gluten-free flour you’re using, though some recipes will alter this equation to yield different results. But for most cookies, cakes, and muffins, a 1/2 teaspoon should do you fine!
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Can you substitute this in recipes calling for AP flour for breads, cakes, pastries, cookies? Any it works better or worse on?
In theory, yes. You’d need the requisite xanthan gum to go along with it.
That said, some recipes require experimentation because of the chemistry involved. Like, one day I tried a recipe with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Fee Flour and it was great, but the same recipe with Arrowhead Mills GF Flour failed.
Stupid baking science.
I have a “stupid” question. What exactly does xanthan gum? I usually use rice flour and treat it as “real” flour. It always turns out great.
My body does not like the gluten free all-purpose flour mixes. The beans as well as tapioca doesn’t do nice things for me.
This isn’t stupid at all.
Xanthan gum acts like a gummy-sticky substance to “stick” the non-wheat flour together. It acts glutinous without having any gluten.
I also have a tough time with gluten-free mixes – I end up with weird digestive problems and sometimes I get painful welts along my hairline. I think it might be tapioca as well – what does it do to you?
Hi,
I am trying to bake bread gluten free,rice free and bean free for my grandsons.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Judy
you might try coconut flour in place of rice flour. Also there is a great magazine ” living without ” they have a number of baking mix combos that may work for your grandsons
I’ve been curious about coconut flour for a while now. How does the fat in the flour react to baking?
Just from personal experience, too much coconut flour can make a cake dense and become rock hard with time. It’s more the fibre content rather than the fat content that you should think about when baking (cakes) with coconut flour. It’s a pretty great ingredient to use though if you can get the amount right in a given recipe…
Have you tried replacing brown rice flour with sorghum flour? It works in my pizza dough recipe, but I’m wondering how it would work for a cake?
Hrmm, I haven’t tried. If you try it out, let me know how it goes!
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