Help! Need A Flour For Muffins And Have Lots Of Allergies :/

[Aly1]

I'm going crazy trying to find a flour mixture I can use without the concern of:

dairy

corn

gluten (obviously!)

gums

sugars /sweeteners

Every time I think I find one, I discover a reason I can't have it (eg I find the brand on my no-corn list...)

Anyone here use a brand they trust? I've eliminated King Arthur's and Bob's Red Mill and a few others and I'm getting frustrated...

[shadowicewolf]

grind your own?

looks like you can use rice flour, potato, topica (sp fail), arrowroot, and a few others i can't think of.

Did you buy the strait up flour or did you buy the premix? There is a label on Bob's that states it has been made in a factory with soy and tree nuts. The plain jane ones are straight flour. The mixes often have things added (gums) and whatnot in them.

[Aly1]

Unfortunately I'm lookin for the Easy button! I am not well enough to grind my own etc - it's actually my hubby who makes my muffins for me and he's got so much on his plate already. We've been using Bob's All Purpose Flour (never noticed that there's a soy warning on it :/ !) but I recently discovered that corn is a major problem for me and they process corn on their machinery (supposedly they have practices in place for cleaning but on my corn board there have been reactions so I want to steer clear of it...) Am just hoping there's someone here who also has a corn sensitivity that's using something they trust...

[GottaSki]

Hi Aly-

If you don't get a response....maybe re-post with title "Help - Need Corn Free All Purpose Flour". There are a few corn free specialists that may notice the post.

[mushroom]

There is a recipe here for buckwheat muffins: Open Original Shared Link and all Namaste mixes/flours are corn free -- they don't make a specific muffin mix, but they do make a spice cake mix which could probably be made into muffins, and also a brownie mix.

[ButterflyChaser]

Can you have coconut? I love coconut flour, but that requires changing the ration between flour and dry ingredients.

[tarnalberry]

Almond meal. Buy it directly from the almond growers/processors. Works GREAT in muffins, no mixing/blending required.

[Kelleybean]

I second what others have said ... I pretty much always use coconut or almond flour in my cooking now. You might want to check out these websites: www.spunkycoconut.com (uses a lot of coconut flour, no sugar) and www.elanaspantry.com (lot of "paleo" - also no sugars). Elana's pantry in particular has some easy recipes that don't require a lot of ingredients.

I've also been getting some paleo cookbooks lately. I'm not paleo but my son is gluten free and limited dairy so paleo recipes have fit really well with that. My very favorite is "Paleo Indulgences." Everything I've made from there has been really good.

[Aly1]

Thanks for the great ideas, I'm looking into them and hopefully one will work!

[Takala]

Can you do chia seeds soaked in room temperature water to make "chia gel" to replace gums ? About a teaspoon per cup of gluten-free flour mixture.

The flours that are good without gums are amaranth, buckwheat, almond meal, and tapioca, all are naturally "sticky." If you can find a source of them that is not corn- contaminated, you can mix them in 1/3's to make your own gluten free flour mixture.

[GottaSki]

Can you do chia seeds soaked in room temperature water to make "chia gel" to replace gums ? About a teaspoon per cup of gluten-free flour mixture.

The flours that are good without gums are amaranth, buckwheat, almond meal, and tapioca, all are naturally "sticky." If you can find a source of them that is not corn- contaminated, you can mix them in 1/3's to make your own gluten free flour mixture.

gum from almond meal? nice

[SensitiveMe]

I can't have wheat, corn, oats and soy and make my own basic blend mixing in 2 and 3/4 cup rice flour, 1 and 1/4 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup tapioca starch. I mix it together in a large clear plastic bag and put it into a large glass container for when I need it.

I also use the King Arthur gluten-free Multipurpose Flour without problems but I won't use any of their other mixes because I don't know what exactly is in them and worry they might contain corn, oats, or xanthan gum which I can't have. I purchase my potato and tapioca starch, and brown rice flour from them and never had any problems.

For white rice flour there is a brand called Ener-G Pure Rice Flour at my ShopRite grocery store.

When xanthan gum is called for in any recipe I substitute with guar gum. I purchase Authentic Foods brand guar gum at my local health food store. There are directions on the bottle to use 1/4 teaspoon per cup flour for cake, and 1 teaspoon per cup flour for bread, and 2 teaspoons per cup flour for pizza crust, and 1/8 teaspoon per cup of dressing for salad dressing. It can be a bit tricky to use and sometimes I have to adjust the amount after having made something to a little bit less or a little bit more the next time.

I am not into grinding my own flours and hope it never comes to that.

Not only do I not feel well enough but don't feel like purchasing the recommended dry container for my Vitamix, or purchasing a grain mill to grind my own flours. Nor do I feel like ruining my blender grinding my own, or feel like having even more to do regarding glutenfree cooking with all my other dietary restrictions.

I hope you will be feeling better soon.

[Takala]

Fear not the nuts if it "ever comes to that" or if you gain more energy and want to experiment some time.

Nuts are the easiest to grind (into a meal that can be used for baking) in a blender, I have used the same (dedicated, as this is all it does) blender for doing this for going on 9 years, and it still doesn't have a problem other than I need to replace the gasket again with a homemade one cut out of plastic, since I don't use liquids in it anymore. I am not sure how old that blender is, other than it's older than that, maybe about 12 years (Oster). Just toss in a handful of nuts, and whir- whir for only a few pulses for about 30 seconds to a minute, and there is almond meal. One handful of nuts makes about one pancake or flatbread, and I will mix in about that much into other recipes to give more flavor and protein. Almond meal by itself is low carb and is used a lot on those types of diets. If used with egg or egg sub such as chia gel, especially when mixed with some amaranth, it does not need the holding power of xanthan gum. (Am I the only person who does not like the taste of that xanthan stuff?) I live in an almond growing area, and it is easier to find nuts, than to find nut flours that don't have another cross contamination "issue" for me.

I also have done buckwheat in its own "buckwheat" electric coffee grinder. I continue to be surprised by this, that it turns into flour so easily, when done in small batches, but I learned it here from this forum. That also goes really quickly.

The trick with baking with some of these alternate gluten free flours is to go ahead and let them soak in the liquid part of the recipe for awhile before baking, which softens them up so they are less gritty. But if you are adding baking soda as leavening, do not add that and leave it sit for a long time, add it later, so it does not react with the acid (such as vinegar) too quickly and then the recipe does not rise properly because it is spent.

It is the traditional grains such as wheat, rice, and corn which are really hard and strong when dried, and which are much more difficult to grind, and that a grinding mill would be better for, unless one was really into experimenting.

[HiDee]

Here are some links of great gluten-free muffins that I think would work for you. It looks like you can have eggs which is fantastic.

Open Original Shared Link

This one could be done without the honey or use a bit of mashed up banana instead, I do that all the time to replace the sugar or sweetener and it works great.

Open Original Shared Link

Elana's website has a TON of recipes and she only uses almond flour as well as coconut and they are AWESOME as some others have mentioned.

Open Original Shared Link

[Aly1]

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas and replies. My 3 year old and I both got sick at the same time and I'm only just catching up. I just have to say how much I appreciate all the help I get here on these forums, you're all a big goldmine of information and support!