Grain Free Flour Mix For Baking?

[LoriG]

Hi all,

I am now cutting out gluten, dairy, and all grains, including corn and rice. Before I was using blends to bake with that had rice flour in it and now I don't know what to do?! I know I can use almond flour, but it is sooo expensive. Do I just make a mix of almond flour, tapioca, potato?! Would that be disastrous?

[Takala]

For almond meal flour, buy almonds in bulk at a health food or co- op type store and then they can be easily ground to a fine meal in a blender. I grind them a half cup at a time and then make lots of zip lock bags to refrigerate or freeze. Almonds are relatively inexpensive here on the west coast compared to other places, but I almost fainted when I saw a bag of "almond flour" the first time. The cashiers at the store look at me sorta oddly when I haul a 5 lb bag of the whole nut goodies up to the register but it's much cheaper than my buying 2 tiny little bags of flour for the same price.

No, it won't be disasterous. Disasterous is using straight tapioca flour, well, not disasterous, but why recreate styrofoam or rubber tires when it can already be purchased at the store?

You can even use straight almond meal if you use eggs. I've even done straight almond meal, eggs, no dairy, using fruit puree or pumpkin puree. The scdiet.org site has grainless recipes using nut meals, but remember, use a smaller baking pan for this stuff if you want it to bake thru.

Maybe try using 1/2 tapioca and 1/4 potato and a 1/4 almond per cup, or 1/3 tapioca, 1/3 potato, 1/3 a mix of half almond and half something else. (bean? teff ? coconut?)

You could use hemp milk or water with some vinegar for the liquid.

[JNBunnie1]

Hi all,

I am now cutting out gluten, dairy, and all grains, including corn and rice. Before I was using blends to bake with that had rice flour in it and now I don't know what to do?! I know I can use almond flour, but it is sooo expensive. Do I just make a mix of almond flour, tapioca, potato?! Would that be disastrous?

Bean flours and tapioca/potato/arrowroot starches can be combined pretty well. I'd try 1/4 bean flour, 1/4 almond flour, 1/4 tapioca starch, and 1/4 potato starch. Try that with something small and see whether it's too dense, too brown, whatever. You might need a tad extra baking powder. And don't forget, one teaspoon of xanthan gum for each cup of flour for standard recipes. This blend will work best with strongly flavored goods, like pumpkin spice or savory stuff, to cover the taste of the bean flour.

[LoriG]

Bean flours and tapioca/potato/arrowroot starches can be combined pretty well. I'd try 1/4 bean flour, 1/4 almond flour, 1/4 tapioca starch, and 1/4 potato starch. Try that with something small and see whether it's too dense, too brown, whatever. You might need a tad extra baking powder. And don't forget, one teaspoon of xanthan gum for each cup of flour for standard recipes. This blend will work best with strongly flavored goods, like pumpkin spice or savory stuff, to cover the taste of the bean flour.

Thank you both so much for this information. I will try these ideas and hope for the best.