Certain Flours For Baking And For Cooking?

[LoriC]

I'm new to this diet, and at my health food store i found different flours, there is the rice flour, tapioca flour, and a few others, which would be better for baking cakes and pastries, and which would be better for just cooking with? I also need to ask about the gluten-free breads i have seen, i bought one brand and i'm afraid to spell it..it's something like Kinnickki? i wasn't thrilled with that bread, but i saw many others, i was thinking about trying the rice/tapioca bread, seems to me that might have a taste to it, Thanks for any help, Lori

[PeggyV]

I'm new to this diet, and at my health food store i found different flours, there is the rice flour, tapioca flour, and a few others, which would be better for baking cakes and pastries, and which would be better for just cooking with? I also need to ask about the gluten-free breads i have seen, i bought one brand and i'm afraid to spell it..it's something like Kinnickki? i wasn't thrilled with that bread, but i saw many others, i was thinking about trying the rice/tapioca bread, seems to me that might have a taste to it, Thanks for any help, Lori

When baking you need a mixture of flours. Like rice flour, tapioca flour and potato starch. There are a lot of reciepies out there, try a few. I like my bread made with Gabanzo bean flour, tapicoca and brown rice flour.

[lonewolf]

For cooking, when I need to thicken a sauce or just add a Tbs or 2 to a recipe, I use white rice flour. For baking I use a mixture of flours, mixed with xanthan gum. Here's my basic flour mix that I use for quickbreads and cookies.

3 C Br. Rice flour

1 C Potato starch

1/2 C Tapioca starch

2 to 2-1/2 tsp. Xanthan gum

Sift together 3 times. Use cup for cup in recipes calling for all-purpose flour. Store in refrigerator.

[lonewolf]

Whoops, double post.

[mamaw]

Hi & welcome

at our house we love Anna's bread mix..... Whole Foods has several breads that are good if you are lucky enough to have a store near you.

I've been using Open Original Shared Link flour blend for baking quick breads, cookies. I just use my old wheat recipes & change the white flour to the betterbatter flour. It has worked perfectly every time...

There are many good recipes on here & lots of good cooks. Be sure to check-out the recipe section......there are several excellent breads listed.....

mamaw

[LoriC]

Hi & welcome

at our house we love Anna's bread mix..... Whole Foods has several breads that are good if you are lucky enough to have a store near you.

I've been using Open Original Shared Link flour blend for baking quick breads, cookies. I just use my old wheat recipes & change the white flour to the betterbatter flour. It has worked perfectly every time...

There are many good recipes on here & lots of good cooks. Be sure to check-out the recipe section......there are several excellent breads listed.....

mamaw

That's what i was wondering too, If yu can just use an old wheat recipe and substitute the gluten-free flours in it's place..thanks so much everyone, you've helped me a lot! Lori

Ps..NO whole foods by me, but i do have a natural healthfood store near me that carries a nice variety of gluten-free products, and a Bakery in Alliance Ohio that i haven't yet gotten to, but i plan to for the Holidays.

[missy'smom]

If you have an asian market near you or a regular grocery that caters to an international community by providing a large internnational foods section, you can often find rice flour and tapioca starch and potato starch MUCH less expensive than the healthfood stores.

[lonewolf]

That's what i was wondering too, If yu can just use an old wheat recipe and substitute the gluten-free flours in it's place..thanks so much everyone, you've helped me a lot! Lori

You really don't have to buy $3 a pound flour to substitute cup for cup in your old recipes. I use the flour mix I posted above in Betty Crocker cookbook recipes. It only costs about $1/pound. If you look at the ingredients for some of the premade flours, they're made with rice, potato and tapioca flours, but they charge an arm and a leg. It really is cheaper and no harder to mix up a big batch of your own. You can always add unflavored gelatin (the secret ingredient in Tom Sawyer's mix) or pectin (the extra ingredient in betterbatter flour). If you don't like the looks of my flour mix, you can use sorghum or white rice flour in place of the brown rice. I just cringe when I think of people spending all that money unneccessarily. (I cook/bake for a family of 6 and simply can't spend that much. My baked goods turn out great and I feel confident serving them to company or taking them to share at church potlucks.)

[bakingbarb]

I've been meaning to ask, where is the most affordable place to buy all of the flours at? There are so many different mixes and types out there and at the store they are kinda spendy. A small bag at Fred Meyer, Safeway, etc is $4.00. One small bag won't go far with person that likes to bake. Are there mail order places that are less $$$. Is it cheaper to mix up my own or buy them already mixed. That Xanthan was very very spendy at the store too.

[lonewolf]

I've been meaning to ask, where is the most affordable place to buy all of the flours at? There are so many different mixes and types out there and at the store they are kinda spendy. A small bag at Fred Meyer, Safeway, etc is $4.00. One small bag won't go far with person that likes to bake. Are there mail order places that are less $$$. Is it cheaper to mix up my own or buy them already mixed. That Xanthan was very very spendy at the store too.

We posted at almost the same time - see my post above yours. If you bake a lot, you NEED to mix up your own flour. An asian or Indian market is the best place to get white rice, tapioca and potato starch. You might be able to find sorghum at an Indian market too. The xanthan gum is expensive, but you only use a little, so it lasts a long time. I order brown rice flour in 25 pound sacks from the health food store for about $1/pound. You might try to experiment with adding a small amount of bean flour (garbanzo or garfava is cheapest) which you can get in bulk at most health food stores. I add this to pizza crust to get a better texture.

[Guest j_mommy]

Hello!!!

If you are subing flour into a reciepe I use a blend....I use Hagmans featherlite flour reciepe.

Bought bread is yucky to me and the sorgum bread reciepe on here is the best and closest to reg I have found!!!

[Guest j_mommy]

You also may want to take a look at the thread going on right now about the worst gluten-free products....then you can get an idea if you want to try a certain bought bread or not!!!

[LoriC]

If you have an asian market near you or a regular grocery that caters to an international community by providing a large internnational foods section, you can often find rice flour and tapioca starch and potato starch MUCH less expensive than the healthfood stores.

I just looked at my grocery store i shop at, there is a goya section and a greek food section, I found corn flour in the goya section and a rice flour, as for the greek section, they had many different flours, only problem is, it was written in greek LOL soooo i need a translator for that stuff..anyone ever use goya products?

[missy'smom]

I just looked at my grocery store i shop at, there is a goya section and a greek food section, I found corn flour in the goya section and a rice flour, as for the greek section, they had many different flours, only problem is, it was written in greek LOL soooo i need a translator for that stuff..anyone ever use goya products?

Read the label carefully. I was shopping for corn meal last week and ran across more than one brand that had a statement about wheat on the label. I know some of the brands I looked at were in the "mexican" section.

[zachsmom]

OKAY now I am new to the flour thing. I tried after a year of going without Pamelas Baking and pancake mix. You can do almost anything withthis .. is the gluten-free sister to bisquick. Try that ... it makes everything. Its worth the money. really .