Gluten Free Baking Basics

 

Gluten Free baking seems very complex at first glance. I have more flour in my house now than I ever had before I had a GF kitchen. One flour used to take the space that is now occupied by ten. It’s honestly not that difficult once you get the hang of it. It just takes a little reading, a lot of shopping, and some adventurous experimentation. Don’t give up if at first you don’t succeed!

Content:

Make sure nothing you are using has any form of gluten. Wheat flour, rye flour, barley flour are the obvious flours to avoid, but there are many forms other forms of wheat flour to be avoided: spelt, semolina, graham, durum are a few of these. Oats should also usually be avoided because cross contamination often occurs in processing. Certified Gluten Free Oats are available, but expensive.

Breading, malts (usually made from barley), modified food starch (could be made from wheat), and soy sauce (made from wheat) all must be avoided.

Contamination:

The world is full of toxins and poisons for the gluten free person. The home should be the one totally safe gluten free zone, as far as I’m concerned. If your kitchen is not a gluten free space, you may want to consider making it one.

It is a good idea to keep separate tools for food preparation if your entire kitchen is not gluten free. After doing this for a while and being extremely conscientious, I noticed others in the family would blow my anti-contamination plan by doing something like spreading butter on wheat bread and then putting the knife back in the butter, or leaving crumbs on the counter. Instead of being the gluten police, I decided to go all gluten free for cooking and leave a few prepackaged wheat filled snacks around for those who insisted on them, or let them get their gluten fix when were out at restaurants, but not at home. Over the years, with the improvement of packaged GF snacks (as well as a marked increase in my gf baking abilities), I find there is plenty for everyone to enjoy that is all gluten free. My goal is to make sure my GF son is never ever worried about getting contaminated in his own home.

Never use a toaster or unsterilized cutting board that has been used for a gluten filled product. My bread machine, mixer and muffin pans have never seen wheat, either. If you wash or dry pans that have touched gluten, do not use the sponge or towel for gluten free items. I switched to paper towels for washing and drying to avoid that contamination.

Flours:

When gluten is removed from a recipe, a mixture of flours, proteins and binders must be used to emulate the binding and rising that the gluten would have provided. If it all sounds too complicated at this point, you can simply use All Purpose Gluten Free flour and some xanthan or guar gum in just about any recipe and have a pretty decent result. About 1 teaspoon of gum for each cup of GF flour is usually good.

Feeling adventurous? Then read on.

You’ll need the ingredients you already have: eggs (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer successfully for a long time while I was also baking dairy free – tips and exchanges are on the box), salt, sugar (or suitable sugar substitutes), baking powder (check to see that there are no harmful ingredients in the brand you use), baking soda, yeast, and butter.

The staples of GF flours in most recipes are:

Rice Flour- brown and white

Rice flour is the basis for most GF flour blends. White Rice- It is bland tasting, not terribly nutrient-filled, pretty affordable and has a long shelf life. Brown Rice flour includes the bran, so it is more nutritious and higher in fiber and protein. It needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

Potato Starch and Potato Flour

Starch is very light and made from raw white potatoes. The flour is made from cooked white potatoes and is much heavier. Do not use one when the other is called for. They are different.

Tapioca Flour and Tapioca Starch

These are the same thing and ground from the starchy root of the cassava plant. This adds body and chewy texture to most baked goods and is found in most GF baking flour blends

Bean Flours

There are several types of bean flours including pinto, garbanzo, and garfava blend. They grind up the whole bean to make these flours and they must be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. BY the way, garbanzo bean flour right out of the bag is my absolute favorite for coating anything that is fried. It adds tons of flavor and makes a nice heavy coating.

Quinoa

This a high nutrient, grainy flour that cannot be used in large quantities. It will not be the basis of any baked good, but will usually be a nice additive. It’s very nutty – almost gives a bit of a peanut butter flavor and will really change the taste of a recipe. I often use it as a replacement in a recipe calling for wheat germ or even sometimes oats, but its lighter in consistency, so its not an even exchange.

Amaranth Flour

This is a nutritious flour made from ground up amaranth seeds. Often used in flour blends.

Sweet Rice Flour

Made from ground up sushi rice and makes a good thickener or addition to cookie recipes.

Cornstarch

Is made from the starchy portion of corn. It does not add flavor, but is a great thickener in recipes. You can usually use this in place of flour in any recipe that calls for a couple tablespoons of flour as an even exchange.

Cornmeal

This is a coarsely ground flour made from the entire kernel of corn and comes in several varieties. It is sometimes used in a flour blend to add texture, and it should be stored in the freezer.

Gums – guar and xanthan

These gums add the chewy feel and are an essential binder in a recipe without gluten. Some people have trouble digesting guar gum, which is made from the endosperm of the guar seed. Xanthan gum is produced from the fermentation process of glucose or sucrose. These gums are interchangeable in equal amounts. I used to use both as called for in recipes, but I now exclusively use xanthan gum. Not sure why, but I’m happy with it.

Bread Tips:

Gluten Free doughs have more of a batter consistency. Use pans with walls to bake most breads. I like to use individual loaf pans for many breads, so I can freeze the ones we don’t eat (my family is not that large though.). That size microwaves on high for 1 minute, wrapped in a paper towel and it’s perfect and ready to eat Most GF recipes make about 5 individual loaves. Muffin pans work well for biscuits.

Cookie tip: I find that many cookie recipes do not rise as well as I would like without gluten. Baking powder causes cookies to rise, while baking soda causes cookies to spread. If your recipe calls for both, increase the baking powder by about ¼ teaspoon while decreasing the baking soda by about ¼ teaspoon.

The BEST Substitution and flour mix chart:

The Living Without website has a perfect and necessary substitution chart of flour blends, milk and egg substitutions and more that is especially helpful for adapting recipes for multiple allergies, such as dairy and nut. I have this chart printed out and it is the cover of my personal recipe book. It has been a great teacher for gluten free baking. See the chart here.

Good luck and happy baking!

If you have any other gluten free baking tips, add them below!