As holiday baking projects take over my kitchen, I find myself thinking of friends and family with gluten intolerance who might not be looking at this time of year so favorably. I caught up with Geri Peacock of the gluten-free Cherbourg Bakery in Columbus, Ohio to ask for some expert advice. Here’s her recommendation for a flour substitute that’s simple to make and even easier to use.
According to Geri, gluten-free baking doesn’t necessarily need to involve a lot of flour mixes, xantham gum, guar gum, or any other complicated substitutes for gluten. This just gets expensive and confusing very quickly. In her bakery, they’ve come to rely on one basic flour substitute.
• Basic Gluten-Free Flour Substitute: 1 pound white rice flour + 1/2 cup tapioca flour, whisked together.
Geri says this works best in recipes that call for two cups of flour or less, which includes most cookies, bars, and other smaller baked treats. You can substitute this rice flour mix one-for-one with all-purpose wheat flour in these recipes.
Beyond this, it’s just important to make sure all the other ingredients in the recipe were processed in a gluten-free facility and are certified gluten-free. Wipe down your counters with soapy water before baking to get rid of any lingering gluten and then use stainless steel equipment, since wood can absorb gluten over time. Easy peasy.
This makes gluten-free baking feel so simple and straight-forward to me. In our interview, Geri emphasized that gluten-free baking isn’t really that different than any other kind of baking. Just keep things simple, use good-quality ingredients, and have fun trying new things. This, I think I can manage!
What other advice do you have when baking gluten-free treats?
Related: 9 Essential Things for a Joyful Gluten-Free Life
(Image: Flickr member REL Waldman licensed under Creative Commons)
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Comments (10)
weird... I didn't think there would be such a thing as "lingering" gluten since gluten isn't already present in flour, it has to be created by adding water and mixing a lot. That's why you can get flaky pie crusts by creating less gluten.
Tapioca flour sounds so much easier than using gums. Though I've never seen tapioca flour before.
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. @melle is speaking of how to get those protein fibers to work their magic in baking--and why the absence of them makes GF baking such a challenge to us GF folks. We cannot substitute 1:1 a GF flour for wheat flour. It just does not work, and some sort of additive to make everything more elastic is required--typically guar gum or xanthum gum.
I recently caved--after trying to stick to just a few GF flours like almond and coconut--and bought a scale and made up a two full batches of "Gluten Free Girl and the Chef's" flour mix. It works wonders! I made some GF oatmeal Heath Bar cookies for Halloween that all the gluten eating folks could not stop snarfing down. That was awesome!
As to trace gluten, I am so sensitive I have to be comando about it. Even my husband, who has had to bail me out of more than one unfortunate accident of the south of the border kind from trace gluten, will speak up and say, "Don't serve anyone ice cream until Jacqueline has gotten hers since there is gluten in the cookie dough kind!" God love him!
Another one I've used successfully is a mix of white rice and light rye flour; local company EnerG Foods makes that commercially with some baking powder tossed in. Works for anything like muffins, biscuits and tea breads that don't use more than 2 c. flour. Makes great scones...
@Servelan - rye flour is NOT gluten free!
if you are just getting started with GF baking, using recipes that call for just almond flour and/or coconut flour and a lot of eggs is the simplest. no weighing, no xanthan gum, etc. but while these are tasty, they aren't exactly like regular flour baked goods.
thanks to anyone who makes their gluten-free friends and family feel welcome with the treats over the holidays! they will appreciate it.
@servelan, Rye has gluten!!
I have had success with a 4:2:2:1 mixture of brown rice, white rice, sorghum and tapioca flours, mixed with 1 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour. I just mix up a big batch every few months and sub this mixture 1:1 for most simple recipes.
Elana's Pantry, The Glutenfree Almond Flour Cookbook and Honeyville's almond flour.
You've NEVER had glutenfree like Elana's stuff. seriously.
I often use Bob's Red Mill general gf flour mix as well as Pamela's mixes. My chocolate chip cookies are raved about.
I've seen that combination before. I'm personally not so partial to it because it's very refined, vs. some other mixes out there that are a little more nutrient-dense. And while rice flour and tapioca flour/starch work well in baked goods, I don't care for tapioca in my bread products at all.
Having said that, thanks for highlighting gluten intolerance/celiac's with this article.
Thank you!
After seeing the link on edible gifts yesterday, I've decided brownies in a jar will make a perfect present for my sister. But her boyfriend is gluten intolerant and I've been struggling to find gluten-free brownies recipes that don't ask for 4 different types of strangely-named flour.
Hmm... baking GF without xanthan gum would turn out an incredibly crumbly end product, at least that's been my experience every time I have forgotten the xanthan gum. I wouldn't recommend it. I normally use 5 parts white rice, 2 parts potato starch, and 1 part tapioca flour, with a 1 C. flour to 1 t. xanthan gum ratio. I occasionally add sorghum. It works out fine for things like cookies and cakes. With bread I like to use some different flours. But never bean flours. I think they lend a terrible taste and texture.