Flours?

[saraphym]

Hi everyone

I am a couple of weeks into the gluten-free diet for my kiddo and was thinking about venturing back into cooking bread-like products for him. I know - I must be feeling saucy!

Anyway, in reading a lot of the posts here and information from other sites, I am unsure of how to deal with the whole flour thing. It seems like most everyone uses a "blend" of other flours in baking...either that or something called "Pamela's" which I assume is something I can buy online...

My question is this - can I use these gluten-free flours in my regular recipes? Like in my grandmother's sugar cookie recipe or a pie crust? Can I just substitute white flour with the gluten-free stuff? How about breading on fish or chicken nuggets? I don't want to replace all of my good recipes!

Thanks everyone!

P.S. BIG thanks to all for your support in my first week - my son is looking so much healthier and feeling better!

[missy'smom]

Even two years into this I haven't done much substituting in my old recipes so I'm not the best to help with that. I do bread things alot though. For crumbs in meatloaf or meatballs, I process Rice Chex. For an outside caoting on fish, chicken etc. I pulse a loaf of EnerG light rice bread in the food processor until small crumbs, but not too fine. A little texture is nice. I keep it in a ziplock in the freezer and don't defrost before using it to bread something. It isn't the tastiest bread to eat as is but it makes a breading that fries up light and crisp. It is also good for Thanksgiving stuffing. For the flour step in the breading process I used Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose gluten-free flour blend. It also works well for making a roux for white, cheese and other sauces. Some other flour or blend would be fine for the flour step in breading, anything powdery.

When you shop for flours, check the asian markets if you have one nearby. The rice, tapioca starch and potatoe starch are much cheaper than in other stores. Our regular grocery chain(our neighborhood store)caters to internationals in our area so they also sell some of the same brands of flours that the asian market does.

Pamela's is available in our area at two local grocery chains, in the diet/organic section, Whole Foods and the healthfood stores.

[DMarie]

I also have not tried subbing flour mixes into regular recipes. Gluten free baking is different from regular baking. For example, you don't get bread dough per se, you get more of a bread batter. Mixes of flours work best. I would recommend looking at some other recipes of gluten-free baked goods you think sound good and compare to your favorite recipes. Remembering that a flour mix will work best, and about the need to add xanthan gum or guar gum to help your baked good hold together will help.

I have Annalise Roberts book, Gluten Free Baking Classics, which I really like. She has some great recipes. I have a pizza crust rising in the oven right now. (my 3rd recipe try out of pizza crusts). I also like some of the recipes from Jules Shephard's book (Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten Free Eating - I think that is what it is called). I also have a couple of Carol Fenster's books. I see much reference to Robyn Ryberg (I would like to get her book next).

My favorite recipe from Jules Shephard (not in her book, but received it in an email update) was for biscuits. Actually, it is the biscuit recipe my daugther likes best (she was a read bread addict before we had to make changes). I'll post below. The whole family eats them.

Good luck! It is an adventure in baking for sure. Some things come out great - some not so good - but great tasting things can be made gluten-free!!!!!

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Nearly Normal Gluten Free Biscuits

2 cups Nearly Normal Gluten Free Flour (recipe for flour mix below)

[lonewolf]

I follow almost all of my old recipes. Yeast bread won't work, but almost everything else will. I use my Betty Crocker cookbook a couple of times a week, with very few modifications. Cookies, muffins, pancakes, cakes, scones, biscuits, cupcakes, pie crust - I make them all.

I use a simple flour mix for just about everything. Usually, the only modification needed besides substituting the flour is to add a tablespoon or so extra liquid. Often that isn't even needed. This is the flour mix I use.

3 C Brown Rice Flour

1 C Potato Starch

1/2 C Tapioca Starch

2 tsp. Xanthan Gum (sometimes I'll use more if I'm going to make something like noodles or tortillas)

Sift together 3 times and store in the refrigerator. The sifting is very important because it evenly distributes the xanthan gum - don't skip it.

From this flour I measure cup for cup in "normal" recipes.

[Emily Elizabeth]

I have been pretty successful with swapping in the following flour mix:

Bette Hagman

[mindwiped]

saraphym-

Since you're in the KC metro, the Hyvee's here are great! If you go into the health market section while they're stocking and start talking to someone in the department, they will help with a lot of the new baking issues. Pamela's is available there (not sure about the price compared to the web), and most people who use it will just sub it cup for cup with regular flour, since it has the extras already in it. For pie crusts, I have only used mixes as crusts are finicky with regular flour, but I do know I've seen frozen pre-made crusts, at Hyvee again (I swear I don't work there, they've just been really knowledgeable and sweet.) I also know there is a local support group, the people there can be really sweet about sharing tips and recipes too.

[saraphym]

Wow - thank so much for the great info! I look forward to trying it all out!

Hy-Vee has been great also - they even have a little gluten-free section that is really handy. Nature's Pantry is becoming one of my favorite stores also!

Thanks again!

[purple]

I like to use sorghum flour blend in most everything except for pie crust, yeast breads and tortillas.

1 1/2 cups sorghum

1 1/2 cups potato or corn starches

1 cup tapioca flour

More on sorghum:

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