What Is The Best Gluten Free Flour?

[JennyC]

I have a large assortment of gluten-free flour ( Bob's RM gluten free all purpose, white rice, brown rice, tapioca, potato, garbanzo, fava, and full fat soy flour). I think that the brown rice flour leaves a funny aftertaste? I'm new to this, so I am asking those with gluten-free baking experience for their wisdom. I plan to make gluten-free sugar cookies this week, and I would like them to turn out good. Also, does anyone know a good way to covert old recipes to gluten-free? I have some great recipes, and I don't want to totally start from scratch to rebuild my recipe collection!

Thanks

[ravenwoodglass]

Have you tried any of Bette Hagmans Flour mixes or her recipes? I felt like a chemist the first time I baked anything gluten free. I have been using her mixes since I found them. I think for the cookies a mix of the rice flour and tapioca would most likely be best for cookies as they don't have a strong taste on their own. You may want to check out the recipes section of the board for ideas too.

[dragonmom]

I've had the best results using the gluten free kitchen method...mostly corn starch and potato starch with xthan gum. Sometimes I mess around with it adding different kinds of flour to substiute for a little of the corn starch or potato starch flour, like rice or something with a little texture. It works for me. Good luck, oh, by the way my son , who is not fond of gluten-free baking stuff , likes everything I've made with this method.

[Guhlia]

I always use this combination: 3 parts white rice flour, 2 parts potato starch, 1 part tapioca starch. Then I add 1 teaspoon of xantham gum per 1 - 1-1/2 cups flour mix. This turns out really well in almost everything I've tried making. I generally use regular recipes and just sub this for all purpose flour. I've only had two failed recipes out of all the ones I've tried, and I'm an avid baker.

[DebbieInCanada]

Hi,

I use most of my old recipes. I don't do corn, so I can't use corn starch. My favorite standby's are tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and full fat soy four. I blend these in equal parts and replace the regular flour. For example if the recipe calls for 1 C of flour, I use 1/3 c of each of tapioca, rice, and soy. Blend the flours well with a whisk, and then sift. The 3 flours have different textures and moisure absorbancy, so you will get strange lumps if they aren't blended well. The soy flour can give a strong taste to the batter, but I really find that the tapioca starch does something, and the taste disappears in the baked product.

Some people swear by xanthan or guar gum. I only use it in bread - but not in cakes or cookies. I also use more adventurous flour blends in bread (sorghum, garfava, flax meal, etc).

I was reading some gourmet cooking magazines which recommend measuring flour by weight, so you can get more consistent results. I really find that the gluten-free flours are tricky to measure in cups, and can vary quite a lot depending on how much you fluff or pack them. I came up with a set of weights which I use for measuring, and I bought a small digital kitchen scale. I use 160g tapioca starch = 1 c, and 140 g sweet rice or soy flour = 1 c. I know it seems a little fussy (ok, a lot fussy ), but I do really get good, consistent results. I made up a spread sheet with various flour measurements and the corresponding gluten-free measurements, and just keep it in my cookbook drawer.

But a word of caution - some recipes work better than others. Some will be total failures. Some will be OK, but have a different texture or taste. You will need to adjust your expectations a bit, and be prepared for some bad days. The more you practice, the better you will be at judging how a recipe will convert. Keep a pencil close by, and write notes in your cookbook - what you used, and how it turned out, so you will know for next time.

Happy baking.

Debbie

[happygirl]

I swear by bob's red mill.

[tarnalberry]

I am absolutely loving montina flour for muffins. I also use sorgum, amaranth, and quinoa flours. Sweet rice flour gets used in my kitchen too, but more sparingly since it can ffest my blood sugar more easily.

[RiceGuy]

I'd also suggest adding Sweet White Sorghum flour to your array of flours. Though I hadn't been doing any gluten-free baking 'till just recently, it does seem to work out quite well. Others might be Almond meal/flour, coconut flour, and buckwheat flour.

[JennyC]

Thanks everyone! I really want to use my old sugar cookie recipe for Easter, and I'm going to try one of the methods--I'm just not sure which one. (I'll probably end up trying them all eventually! .)

[larry mac]

I am absolutely loving montina flour for muffins. I also use sorgum, amaranth, and quinoa flours. Sweet rice flour gets used in my kitchen too, but more sparingly since it can ffest my blood sugar more easily.

Hey Tiff,

I'm really interested in this Montina flour. There's not much out there about it, very little in all my gluten-free books, and nobody in my celiac support group has used it (at least the ones that were at the meeting when I asked about it, including a gluten-free cookbook author that was selling her new book).

I've got just about every kind of flour, starch, and gluten-free ingredient there is I think. I've been using a blend of white & brown rice, sorghum, & bean flour, tapioca & potato starch, and flaxseed meal.

I make muffins alot. Any tips on the Montina flour?

best regards, lm

[wowzer]

If you like muffins, I'm having good luck with Fearns brown rice baking mix. I did find that you need to add a little more sweetner than they called for. I have made blueberry, then cranberry and my latest creation was maple syrup, cinnamon and pecans.

[kbtoyssni]

I use a similar flour mix to what Guhlia recommended. I also make all my old recipes with this mix plus 1/2 or 1 tsp of xantham gum and about the same amount of egg replacer. Everything turns out fine this way. I love mixing my flour because each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I'll use 1/2 soy flour in place of some of the flour mix, too. Soy's a bit silkier and I like it for dense things like cake because the slightly gritty rice flour taste is more obvious in a cake. For things like chocolate chip cookies you can't really tell.

[Guhlia]

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that, in my opinion, Kinnikinnick has the best flours. For some reason my baked goods turn out with a much better texture if I'm using Kinnikinnick flour rather than another brand. I don't know if their rice flour is finer or what, but I always like it better. Also, sometimes I sub some brown rice flour for 1 part of the white rice flour.

[Generic]

Has anyone tried this flour? It is a modified tapioca flour. Open Original Shared Link

I tried it in a pizza crust and I swear I couln't tell the difference between it and a regular wheat crust. I think I am going to order the trial size and give it a go at home. They claim it cooks and measures the same as all purpose wheat flour.