Wheatfreeleeshy

In case anyone is still following this, I wanted to give an update! I decided to save myself some energy & keep things a little simpler for now. So I used my trusty Pamela's Baking Mix and adapted the drop biscuit recipe, which I've made many times so I know how good & easy it is. I'm pleased to announce it came out awesome! I made the topping like little biscuits so they'd have that golden crunch on the outside & softness inside. And I can keep them separate from the fruit so they don't get soggy!

Here's my recipe in case anyone's interested...

Cobbler topping:
1 1/2 cup Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
1/3 cup butter, chilled & cut into chunks
1/2 cup milk
Tiny splash vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter using food processor or pastry cutter until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in vanilla and milk until just combined. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheet like making little biscuits. Cook at 375 for 10 mins or until golden brown on top. When cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature. When ready to serve, warm them in toaster oven or under broiler to crispen them up again.

*In case of substitutions, note that coconut palm sugar is much less sweet than regular cane sugar.

Peach Berry Cobbler (filling):
4 10-oz bags frozen sliced organic peaches (partially defrosted)
1 1/4 cup frozen organic blueberries
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
1/3 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger (dried ground)
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp frozen orange juice concentrate
2 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine spices, lemon juice, orange juice and cornstarch, stirring until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Stir in peaches, blueberries and palm sugar. Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Make sure to scrape sides of bowl so you get all the juice and spices into the dish. Bake in preheated oven for about an hour until fruit is tender. When completely cool, store in the fridge. Warm before serving.

I use sorghum, potato starch, tapioca starch. I hate rice flours except sweet rice for rouxs.

Anyway, they say 1/3 of each - sorghum, potato, tapioca; however, that chalky powdery taste is from too much starch...so decrease your starch a bit and add more sorghum. It is is different in every recipe. I start with taking it down 1/4c at a time.

The other thing, and it's a pita...weigh your flours instead of using cups. You can google the weight of 1 cup of wheat flour...and then back into recipes that way. You also can google weights of tapioca, sorghum, etc. it's a pain to figure it out but it works. This is for converting recipes...

Add very little almond flour. It's heavy. It will give it body and chew.

I add 1 tbsp. of amaranth. Tastes like dirt, and that's a good thing in a mix. 1/3 in a mix is too much for me. 1 tbsp. is great.

And generally, they say to add more xanthan in cookies than in cakes, so maybe increase it to 1 tsp?

And the other secret is if you have a recipe that calls for liquid and you can sneak buttermilk, real buttermilk not powdered, in it....it will rise beautifully.

And finally, bake on parchment paper and don't move the cookies til they cool. gluten-free baked goods need to sit and cool to set and not fall apart. It does affect taste.

Thanks so much for all the tips! I've heard the thing about weighing your flours from a few sources now so I went for it!! I found a digital one with good reviews for $15 on Amazon and it arrived today! Can't wait to try it.

Question for you & the group... What do you think of using cornstarch instead of potato starch? In the Featherlight Flour blend it calls for equal parts white rice, tapioca and cornstarch. I'm using sorghum instead of white rice. Do you think that's too much cornstarch? I don't know how cornstarch behaves in baked goods liked cookies.

I would love to find a great resource that thoroughly describes the properties of all the common flours & starches. So far the articles I've found just say it's used to thicken gravies & such, which of course I know. What I don't know is what it does when baked - does it make it crunchier, chewier, etc. For instance I now know, thanks to some deducing & help from this forum, that too much tapioca plus xanthan equals very rubbery cobbler topping!

Thanks so much!

I'm blown away by these low prices. Is this site for real? Has anyone ever bought anything from them? If so, what was your experience like? Do they have high shipping costs?
http://www.swansonvi...CFYxDMgod-g0A6g

That's where I get all my flours! I've been getting my vitamins, etc. from them for years and they're a very reputable company that's been around for decades. When I saw they started carrying health food & gluten-free items at such good prices I was so excited!! I almost never pay any shipping either because I always google coupon codes before ordering and there usually is one. Now here's the best part (why I bought my vitamins from them for all these years) - they offer a 365 day FREE RETURNS on ALL their items!! They seriously need to hire me as their rep cuz I've been so excited to tell all my friends about this ever since I found out. That policy was awesome to have with my supplements so that if my dr took me off something I could always get my $ back. You can return anything bought within a year - even if it's partly used - return shipping is free and they give you a full refund.
:-D <3

You have passed the first apprentice test.


We will have to initiate you into the Secret Recipe Reader's Club. Once you have the password, you can activate the app for the secret decoder ring, which you wave above the recipe- if it glows red, take out the gum. Green, you're okay.

Yay! I look forward to receiving it in the mail! ;-D

Tapioca is this weird stuff, and I say this having used it as the base ingredient since I had to come off anything with oat cross contamination. You used a recipe with about 13/16 th regular grain to tapioca, aka nearly 3/4 cup crumbly/starchy to tapioca, and if you add xanthan gum AND almond meal to this, you're going to get rubber. Besides tapioca, the other gluten free flours which tend to not need as much, or no, extra gums are almond, buckwheat, and amaranth, and sometimes cornmeal (think about what cornbread does). A classic combination of flours which need no gum is 1/3 each buckwheat, potato starch, and garbanzo bean flour, and you can make pancakes out of this which don't even need egg, although you can sub some almond or amaranth in there, too. Straight tapioca with just egg and cheese ("Chebe" brazilian breads) don't need gums, either.

Both soaked flax and soaked chia seed can be used as gum substitutes, as well.

Adding as teaspoon of pure apple cider vinegar seems to help this sometimes. So I would just re tweak this and use more cornstarch or almond or other gluten-free grain, less tapioca, so it is just 1/3 of the mixture, and half the gum, or just skip the gum altogether, and keep the rest the same.

Very helpful - thanks so much!!

I've used Pamela's for years and love it but it's not great for all things. I discovered that the site I get my vitamins from (Swanson) has a bunch of different Bob's products cheaper than my health food store so I decided to try these new flours. Next time I make it I'll try making a tiny batch and omit the xanthan. Thanks for the help everyone!