Baking with gluten free flour is a little more complex than remove this and substitute that. To date there are two brands of 1:1 gluten free baking flour mixes that have worked really well for me. One is Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free baking flour, and the other is Pamela’s gluten free all-purpose flour mix. If you need to avoid more than just gluten, finding a flour mix that works for you may be more challenging.
Why is replacing wheat flour so difficult? In one word, gluten. It’s the pesky protein in our wheat flour that can cause a great deal of digestive upset, but it’s also the magic glue that gives wheat flour its great characteristic for baking. Flour absorbs the moisture added to it, and gluten creates that gummy consistency that makes everything stick together. When you take away the wheat flour and add in an alternative, you lose that feature. So let’s look at some of the more common alternatives and how they work.
Every flour, even gluten free options, have a differing amount of protein. The protein helps to determine the amount of water held by the flour. This creates a challenge for getting the right consistency. Each flour also changes in weight, and that affects the outcome of the product in the density. Many grain based gluten free flours on their own are much heavier, such as rice flour. So you will often see a combination of flour and starch to help reduce the weight of the flour mix. Adding in starch will also help give the flour mixture some extra binding power that is lost from the lack of gluten. Because gluten free flours don’t have the gummy gluten to help them bind/stick, even with the addition of starch to your mix, you may need to add something extra. Xanthan gum has been the best option I have found to date to accomplish this. Some companies, like Pamela’s will use guar gum to accomplish this.
The flour mixes I mentioned above, use all these concepts to create a flour mix you can easily replace 1:1 in your recipes that call for wheat flour. They have done a really good job of accomplishing this. I do still find that the 1:1 flour mixes are still a little heavier than the same measurement of wheat flour. This is where I have started taking the extra step of measuring the weight of the flour replacement instead of doing a straight 1:1 replacement. I found this extra step has made a great difference in getting a closer product to its wheat counterpart.
Here is the weight of an all-purpose wheat flour. If you have a scale at home, use this to measure out your gluten-free mix replacements for recipes.
All-Purpose Flour Weight in Grams
¼ cup......................30 grams
1/3 cup.....................40 grams
½ cup........................60 grams
1 cup.......................120 grams
Already have some gluten free flour in your cupboard? Create your own mix by adding 2/3 cup of flour (rice, sorghum, bean flour etc.) to 1/3 cup of starch (arrowroot, tapioca or potato), then add your own xanthan gum. The general rule for adding using xanthan gum is ½ tsp for every cup of flour. Mix a few cups of your own mixture really well, then measure or weigh to replace wheat in your recipe. If it turns out too dry, and you don’t have a scale, try reducing your flour by about ¼ cup next time and see how it goes. When you’re substituting something like flour, it’s best to make note of what you did and what your final results were. Then you can try adapting a little for the next time.
Happy Baking!!
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