What's The Deal With gluten-free Flour?

[ptkds]

I keep seeing recipes that use different kinds of flours. What is the deal with that? Is there some all-purpose gluten-free flour I can use to make bread and stuff? I haven't even started cooking gluten-free stuff yet, and I am totally lost.

Also, are all spices gluten-free? Or are there certain brands I need to stay away from? I am so lost on this.

One more thing, I have gotten lists of ingredient names that contain gluten, but it seems so short. What are the different variations that companies use for gluten ingredients? I look at ingredients and get so confused!

It is gonna take me forever to get used to this! My poor dd is gonna starve!

ptkds

[Matilda]

..

[spunky]

I bake with sorghum flour, and usually just use all sorghum, or a mixture of that plus rice flour.

I gave up on yeast breads a long time ago. I try to center most of our meals on quick rising things, like muffins (I've had good luck with sorghum flour muffins, but quickbreads, made in breadpans, don't want to rise as well or won't hold up that well--so I stick with muffins), cobblers, veggie pot pies that are cobbler-like, pancakes, and one-layer cakes. That's worked really well for us. We just about gave up sandwiches and lots of traditional yeast breads. If I want something like that really bad, I buy Tapioca bread made by Ener-G. I use that for French Toast, occasional sandwiches, or to grill as garlic bread to go along with different meals.

I buy my soghum flour by the bucket (25 lb.???? I think!) from www.twinvalleymills.com I divide the flour up into large ziplock freezer bags and just get out one bag to cook with at a time, storing the rest in the freezer. The Twin Valley Mills site also has some tips and such on their web site for baking gluten free. They guarantee their sorghum flour to be free of contamination.

[momandgirls]

I know it seems completely overwhelming at first - at least I know that's how I felt. But, my daughter didn't starve and yours won't either. Anyway, as for bread...I couldn't find any that she liked so I invested in a bread machine (which was one of the best things we've done with respect to going gluten free) and we buy bread mixes (Pamela's is our favorite). It's very easy to use and she loves the bread. When baking cookies and muffins and things like that...I know people buy different flours and make their own mixes but, honestly, that just always seemed so difficult to me. I buy Gluten Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour Mix (it's cheapest from Amazon) and use the same recipes that I used before but just replace the flour cup for cup. It's worked great and I haven't run into any problems doing that. As for spices, I only buy McCormick's - they are gluten free. If you have any more questions, just ask.

[KaitiUSA]

Everyone on here is great when it comes to helping out and making things easier. Anyhow, it may seem overwhelming but it really is not bad once you learn the ropes. There is a list floating around this board of brands that will clearly list wheat,rye,barley,and oats and if they don't have one of those ingredients then they are gluten free. This helps us because then we don't have to call about every ingredient that could hide gluten. There is a list of safe and forbidden foods and ingredients on this site and there is a Delphi List that contains information about gluten free foods and products like makeup. If you need any help you can email me if you would like and I can send you some of the information that I listed above. Hang in there..it is easier than it may seem but it is a drastic change.

I have found bread to be one of the hardest things to replace but they have come out with some good alternatives like Cybros Rice Rolls and Kinnikinnick products(donuts, cinnamon rolls, muffins, bread, etc)