Homemade Flour Mixes

[imsohungry]

Hey everyone,

I have all of the flours I like to use when baking, and my pantry is pretty well stocked as far as gluten-free baking is concerned.

Anyway, I was going to combine my flours that I typically use (say 1 cup brown rice flour, one cup white rice (or a bean) flour, and one cup tapioca flour). I really want to have my own mix...instead of always dragging out ALL the flours.

But I'm confused, in Carol Fenster's cookbook, several of her mixes call for a starch to be part of the mix (corn or potato..I can't remember). So what does that mean? If my mixture already had starch in it, do I then ignore any recipes that tell you to add starch? What if the ratio is not right for the recipe?

Can anybody help explain this.

Also, I was wondering....is it possible to go ahead and add xan. gum to my homemade mixture?

As I slowly refine my skills in the kitchen (and I'm proud to say that I am getting better). I just want to make sure I don't waste perfectly good ingredients b/c I decided to "jump in" without questioning you guys first.

Thanks so much in advance! -Julie

[Guest j_mommy]

I always just pull out all the flours.....but I do keep some all purpose around for recipes that ask for it! Each recipe has a diffrent ratio of flours...I wouldn't do an all purpose mix for every recipe.

I also would wait to add xanthan/guar gum until your actually cooking!!!

Good Luck!

[Nathan's mom]

Here's my best answer and hope I don't lead you astray. Take the total number of flour + starch cups and substitute with your flour mix. Since your's has a starch you are okay because things usually taste better with some starch. Bette Hagman has several listed in her books. Here are a few so you can get the idea:

Featherlight Mix

Rice Flour (1 part)

Tapioca Flour/starch (1 part)

Cornstarch (I use arrowroot) (1 part)

Potato Flour (1 tsp. per cup)

Four Flour Bean Mix

Garfava bean flour (2/3 part)

Sorghum Flour (I use Millet) (1/3 part)

Cornstarch (1 part)

Tapioca flour/starch (1 part)

Of course, these are just the flour mixes, not the recipe for things like bread that you would add other things to.

I have Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread and want to get her dessert one also. She says to add the xanthum to the mix and it is okay. A couple of her books also have a chart showing the total grams of protein, carbs, fat, etc. of the various flours (as well as wheat) so you can get an idea of their composition and how they might fare compared to wheat.

I think as long as you don't exceed 1/3 to 1/2 of the recipe in starch you are okay. ALTHOUGH I have made a great pizza crust (recipe from this site) that is all starch.

Good luck!!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I use Annaliese Roberts' mixes, and she has one for breads and a different, lighter mix for cakes and cookies.

Cakes and cookies:

6 parts extra finely-ground brown rice flour

2 parts potato starch

1 part tapioca starch

Breads:

2 parts millet flour

1 part sorghum flour

1 part cornstarch

1 part potato starch

1 part tapioca starch

She uses other flour mixes calling for bean flours, which work really, really well, but I hate the way they smell before they're cooked, so I just use the millet flour recipe.

I use her recipes most of the time, so I use the amount of xanthan gum she specifies in each recipe. Different recipes and different cooks call for different proportions, so I never mix the xanthan gum in in advance.

I do use Lorka's flax bread recipe (google gluten-free flax bread, sorry I don't have a link), which calls for gluten-free flour mix IN ADDITION to various starches.

Lotsa luck!

[Katydid]

To answer your question, it doesn't hurt a bit to add the xanthan gum to the flour mixture. As a matter if fact, I mix all my dry igredients for bread (except yeast) in a zip lock bag about 5 or 6 at a time, so all I have to do when I'm ready to make bread is dump the bag in the mixer and add my wet ingredients. (I did this one year when we went to Florida to visit my daughter and it worked so well that I do it all the time now)

As for all purpose flours that you want to substitue in a regular recipe, I keep a cannister of a mixture that works quite well. Mine happens to be the rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch combo, but I don't add xanthan gum to that one since I'm never sure what I'll be using it for.

I, too, have many flours in my pantry which I use when making a special recipe or a first time recipe that calls for them.

Hope this helps..these three categories work really great for me.

[lonewolf]

I mix up my flour in big batches with the xanthan gum well sifted in. I store it in the refrigerator in a gallon sized container. It's nice to have the flour ready to go without having to mix up a bunch of flours for every recipe.

I use a similar recipe to Carol Fenster's:

3 C brown rice flour

1 C potato starch

1/2 C tapioca starch

2-1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

Sift together 3 times. You can make more up a time if you have a big enough sifter, but mine only holds this much, so I make up 3-4 batches at a time and put it all in the container.

[kbabe1968]

So far, I've just pulled out all of the flours...it really hasn't been that cumbersome at all...truly I love baking b/c it requires measurement and focus. you can't think about anything else and bake b/c it's a science.

ALTHOUGH...I'm about to try a "workable" dough recipe - one that promises to be able to be used like a regular bread dough. the recipe calls for their mix...so I'm going to have to make it up. I'm going to try hard to make enough JUST for the recipe...but I usually have some leftover! LOL

OH WELL.

I echo J.mommy....also< i wouldn't ad Xgum until the recipe.

[imsohungry]

Thanks everyone!

I'm still a bit confused and will probably continue pulling out all of my ingredients every time I bake. I'm usually a fairly bright person...but I just don't quite get this yet. Maybe I will soon.

You all definitely gave helpful responses...I'm just waiting for that little bell in my head to go "ding" and suddenly I understand it all.

Happy baking. -Julie

[Nathan's mom]

Julie,

Probably the best thing you can do right now is just start - somewhere! Don't wait until you understand it all. It doesn't work like regular baking. You'll learn as you go. Look at the baking section on this site to get ideas for good recipes. Once you find a bread recipe you like, you can experiment with different flours - just leave the starch ratio and other things the same. One thing is for sure, homemade gluten-free bread is far better than what you can buy in the store.

Good luck!

Debbie

[NewGFMom]

I've tried a bunch of different baking strategies. But now, I'm an Annalise Roberts convert. All her recipes (except the bread) use the same flour mix. And they are all fabulous.

I don't have celiac, or any kind of food allergies, but I keep a gluten free house so I don't contaminate any thing my celiac son eats. So, I can go back and forth if I like. But I have to say, I actually like most of the stuff I've made from this cook book better than anything I've ever made from regular flours. The cakes and muffins rise to the sky. And I only have to keep track of three different kinds of flour.

The finely ground rice flour that her recipes require is kind of expensive, but it's totally worth it.

I just don't have the wherewithal to keep track of more than 3 or 4 different flours and The Annalise Roberts cook book caters to my limited brain functionality

Good luck!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I've tried a bunch of different baking strategies. But now, I'm an Annalise Roberts convert. All her recipes (except the bread) use the same flour mix. And they are all fabulous.

I actually like most of the stuff I've made from this cook book better than anything I've ever made from regular flours. The cakes and muffins rise to the sky. And I only have to keep track of three different kinds of flour.

The finely ground rice flour that her recipes require is kind of expensive, but it's totally worth it.

My family agrees that the cakes and cookies I make from this book are the best I've ever made, gluten or gluten-free!

I agree about the rice flour, but simply can't afford it. I use 1/2 Bob's Red Mill brown rice flour and 1/2 finely ground white rice flour from the Asian grocery (69 cents a pound) instead of the finely ground brown rice flour, and things turn out nearly as well. (Are you reading this, Authentic Foods????? )

[sickchick]

LOL! Limited brain functionality

It's like having to retrain your thought-process

funny funny

sickchck

[imsohungry]

LOL! Limited brain functionality

It's like having to retrain your thought-process

funny funny

sickchck

Heeeeheeeheee

Thank you so much for the help and the laugh! This thread will be of much use in the future when I understand things a little better.

For now, I'm waiting on that bell to ding in my brain. I would say that I'm waiting on that "light to turn on" in my head, but the light bulb went out years ago.

Happy cooking! Julie