Essential gluten-free Baking Supplies?

[Pegleg84]

Hi everyone

I've been gluten-free for over a month, and am now in toronto where finding affordable and reliable gluten-free products like muffin mixes and such seems to be difficult. So, I would like to be prepared to do some adventures in gluten-free baking. I've never done tons of baking from scratch in the first place, and now if I'm going to have anything bready I use a mix.

So, what are the essential flours/meals/etc you should have on hand? Also, i know that some items need to be stored in the fridge to keep them from spoiling. Keep in mind that i'm on a limited budget and have limited space in my apartment. So, really, the essential basics. I like muffins and spiced loafs, and don't have any other known allergies, though am not crazy about bean flours.

any tips and suggestions would be great

Peggy

[NorthernElf]

Stocking up your pantry with gluten-free flours & supplies will be expensive at first - keep receipts and use them for your income tax next year. I'm in BC and I have a decent health food store where I live that has most of what I need.

In my collection are...

tapioca flour

white & brown rice flour

corn starch

potato starch

xanthum gum

corn flour

garflava flour (good protein flour, use with other flours, not alone)

potato flour

I buy these in plastic bags & store them in plastic jars (old Hellman's mayo jars). I also have ground flaxseed

& psyllium husks - I throw these into most baked goods to bulk them up a little. I prefer to make my own flour mix with xanthum gum that to buy the more expensive pre made mix. I have found many good recipes on recipezaar.com - go to the 'free from' and then 'gluten' and you will find a lot ! I even got my gluten-free flour mix from there. For chocolate chips I use the M&M baking chips - they are safe (no luck with Hershey's chipits for me and I dont' trust generic brands).

I like kinnikinnick sunflower seed & flaxseed bread mix for my bread - bake it, slice it, lay it out & freeze it, then bag it. It's not as dense as the loaves of the same that you can buy.

Make sure you have gluten-free bakeware - most of mine is silicone to differentiate from everyone else's.

FWIW, there are many other flours out there - amaranth, millet, teff, and so forth but they are much more expensive. One day I might try some of those recipes but I already spend enough !! Good luck...

[hannahp57]

i recently started replacing my brown rice flour with sorghum and i like it much more. so far it seems to be less grainy. but i haven't done a lot with it so that is just my first observation. I freeze all my flours and store my starches in airtight containers (i seem to use them more quickly). other than that the previous poster seems to have covered the primary things. there are places like amazon where you can do the subscribe and save. i havent yet, but i have read many posts from people who do. they seem to be saving quite a bit of money. i would look into it if you will be doing online ordering anyways... it may even be cheaper than going to a wholefoods because those places are defintely expensive!

[happygirl]

Better Batter Gluten Free Flour www.betterbatter.org

[purple]

My basic list for muffins and sweet breads:

sorghum

cornstarch instead of potato starch

tapioca flour

xanthan gum*

and Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour, used for waffles only

others I use on occasion:

flax seed*, (I grind fresh in a coffee grinder)

white rice flour

sweet rice flour

gluten-free oats*

almonds* (chop, then grind in a coffee grinder, grind fresh as needed for a recipe)

buckwheat flour*

potato starch

millet*

*these I store in the fridge or freezer (but if you don't bake very often, you may want to store most everything in the fridge or freezer, the package should say)

beans and nut flours should be stored in the fridge or freezer

[Pegleg84]

Thanks so much for the suggestions

I've been making a list of things I should have so I can shop around for them. Next thing I need to do is get some easy recipes

if anyone has anything else to add, please keep it coming

Peggy

[Wonka]

Here are a few links to recipe sites that are very reliable (sites from cookbook authors that I trust). Check out some of their recipes and it will give you an idea of which cookbook styles you prefer.

Open Original Shared Link (this is a site you need to pay for, but some of the recipes are free. Her cookbook is excellent and uses easily accessable ingredients.

Open Original Shared Link ( a recipe site by Annalise Roberts)

Open Original Shared Link ( a recipe site by Carol Fenster)

Here are some magazine sites for recipes:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

And here are links to some of my favourite bloggers.

Open Original Shared Link (great flatbreads, granola bars, lots of innovative recipes)

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link (the chicken balls are excellent, as is the bread recipe)

[Pegleg84]

Thanks for the wonderful list of links! I'm almost prepared to make gluten free muffins. Definitely not as easy as picking up a bag of flour.

Thankfully, I have now had a few weeks to plunder the many bulk natural food stores in Kensington market in toronto, and found a great place at st lawrence market with super cheap bulk flours, so my collection is starting to come together without having to shell out 5-7$ for Bob's Red mill. I've been having a horrible time finding Kinnikinnicks (sp) stuff here, which is terrible because they have a great muffin mix I've used before. The normal grocery stores here are horrible for gluten-free, whereas even in my tiny town back home, both our supermarkets have great gluten-free sections.

so, I know have:

-brown rice flour

-xanthan gum

-potato flour

-potato starch (though I should have bought more starch and less flour)

-golden flax meal (currently in my fridge)

-almond meal (also in the fridge)

-gluten-free oatmeal (with which i made awsome cookies, no flour needed. I'll put the recipe up another day)

-cornstarch

-tapioca starch (it's looking like I might need some flour too)

phew. I bought this bread mix when I first moved and now, finally, I think i am prepared to make it... only I still need to go get a proper sized pan... and some vegetable oil... (starts digging into her purse for the 20's she could have sworn were there yesterday).

so, if anyone has any more advice , by all means

Once I start baking, I'll be back with more questions

Thanks again

(the now very poor student)

Peg

[Wonka]

Thankfully, I have now had a few weeks to plunder the many bulk natural food stores in Kensington market in toronto, and found a great place at st lawrence market with super cheap bulk flours, so my collection is starting to come together without having to shell out 5-7$ for Bob's Red mill.

Hi Peg,

I understand that the Bob's Red Mill is expensive, especially if you are a student. Just be forewarned, bulk flours are notorious for cross-contamination. Unless this is a specifically gluten free bulk store, your chances for cross-contamination are very high (if they are bulk but prepackaged, call then to find out their cleaning practices between gluten and non-gluten items). People who do not have celiac disease/Gluten intolerance do not understrand cross-contamination and scoops etc... get used in all sorts of bins. Plus all the wheat flour flying around the place is another source of contamination. If you find that you are not well and having any trouble pin pointing where you are getting contaminated from, consider the flours/starches from bulk bins as a likely source of the problem.

You do not have to worry about finding tapioca starch, the flour and the starch are the same product. Potato starch is what you want. Potato starch and potato flour are NOT the same thing, unlike the tapioca (are you confused enough yet, lol).

[Pegleg84]

Yeah, I got the bulk stuff fully conscious of the potential of CC. I even didn't get a couple things there cause they were dangerously close to the regular flour. However, I'm willing to take the risk, and once I've baked a couple things and know what I will actually use, I'll likely buy the bob's stuff. And if I don't have any problems, yey for me.

oh, about the potato starch/flour. I have a recipe for muffins that calls for "potato starch flour". That's what it says. So, do they mean starch or flour?

actually, maybe I'll try using my bulk flour to make one of those "mug" recipes, so i don't make a whole batch of something and find out I can't eat it.

thanks for the advice

Peg

[Wonka]

oh, about the potato starch/flour. I have a recipe for muffins that calls for "potato starch flour". That's what it says. So, do they mean starch or flour?

Peg

I'm pretty positive they mean the starch. There are not too many recipes that actually call for potato flour (which is used in very small quantities).

[Pegleg84]

Yep, it is. I totally bought too much potato flour. anyone know a good recipe for it?

I just finally mixed up some bread from a gluten-free flour mix I bought when I first moved. It`s rising right now. I hope it turns out.