How To Work With Gluten-Free Flours

I referred to this information this morning when making some oatmeal cookies.  I didn't have one of the types of flour that the recipe specified, so I was able to refer to this list to choose something comparable.  Great information to keep close by when you're baking gluten-free!

Happy Baking!
Kirsten

HOW TO WORK WITH GLUTEN-FREE FLOURS

When you first start working with gluten-free flours, expect to be confused.  I had grown used to baking with regular flour, with a few forays into cake flour, or tipo 00 flour for homemade pasta.  Mostly, I just sifted white flour into a bowl and never thought about it.

There are more gluten-free flours in the world than there are flours with gluten.  At first, this may feel overwhelming.  Eventually, you might feel like we do - time to play!

The main difference between gluten-free baking and the more traditional kind is that you must combine flours to bake gluten-free.  There are a few exceptions - chickpea flour for socca, sorghum flour for rotis - but for the most part, you will need at least three flours.

One of the three should be a whole-grain, a solid base:  sorghum flour, brown rice flour, garfava flour.  The next should be a starch, to lighten up the mixture, since gluten-free baked goods tend to be dense:  potato starch, tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour), cornstarch, or arrowroot powder.  The third flour should have a particular personality you want to add to your baked goods.  Amaranth flour has a soft texture and slight malt flavor.  We like it in cookies and cinnamon rolls.  Almond flour adds protein and a bit of fat for flavor.  Coconut flour adds taste to baked goods, but it sucks up all the moisture around it, so you have to play with the amount of liquids in your treats.  Millet flour makes a great crumb.  Quinoa flour is savory and great in quiches.  Teff flour is the finest-textured flour in the world, so during baking it almost melts, which helps to bind together muffins and quick breads.  You can have more than three flours, but work with at least three.

We have learned from years of experimenting and failed baking attempts, along with cookies and brownies everyone loves.  However, if you are just starting your gluten-free life,  you might find all of this overwhelming.  If so, you can make a flour mix of equal parts sorghum flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, and sweet rice flour.  You'll see that combination in some of the recipes in this book (Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef).  Or, you could also try our other favorite all-purpose mix:  forty percent superfine brown rice flour and sorghum flour, sixty percent potato starch, tapioca flour, sweet rice flour and cornstarch.

Simply open bags of flour, or weigh them out, then dump them into a large container in your kitchen.  (We buy food storage containers at a restaurant supply store, where they are surprisingly inexpensive.)  Whisk the flours together until the flour mix is one even color.  Now you can use this as the flour in your kitchen.  Play with the flours and learn your favorites.

Most of these flours need to be stored in either the refrigerator or the freezer.