If you're taking the plunge into gluten-free eating this year, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed right about now. With so much information and so many products out there, where do you even start? This straightforward guide to gluten-free flours and explanation for making your very own signature flour mix from Shauna Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef is just what you need to get going.
Shauna gives the recipe for her personal favorite gluten-free flour, a blend of sorghum flour, millet flour, sweet rice flour, and potato starch, but what I really love about this post is her explanation for how the flours work together.
She talks about how regular wheat flour is really a blend of protein and starches, so using a mix of high-protein wholegrain flours and starchier flours will give you the best results. Shauna also goes into how you might substitute other flours based on your preferences and dietary needs, including a breakdown of all the flours available to people following a gluten-free diet.
→ Take a Look! How to Make a Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix from Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef
Do you have a favorite gluten-free flour blend that you use?
Related: The Oat Conundrum: Are Oats Gluten-Free?
(Image: Steve Buckley/Shutterstock)
How to Cook Rice on the Stove
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
10 No-Fail Decor Tricks & Tips for Small Spaces
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
There aren't better milled flours on the market than Authentic Foods. If you are making your own, BUY THEIR RICE FLOURS! There isn't a speck of grit in anything they make. Also, their premixed GF Classical Blend is absolutely splendid. I made a batch of GF cupcakes Sunday. Brought them into work yesterday. I didn't even tell anyone they were GF... The cupcakes were eradicated in about 15 minutes. (Then I spilled the beans. Haha.) I gave up gluten willingly, but I have a few family members who have Celiac Disease. My love of baking, combined with my GF kitchen make them very happy.
I strongly recommend starting with the Authentic Food flours, and the cookbook "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" by Annalise G. Roberts. I was winging it with various GF flour blends and experimenting with xanthan and guar gum etc, and not having much luck. Her recommendation of the AF/gf flours and her recipes really helped sort me out. I'm converting my own recipes now a lot of the time, but I still use quite a few directly from her book.
I would love to find THE perfect gluten-free flour blend! I've tried so many variations/substitutes etc, and have literally given up because not one mix has been remotely close to regular flour!
If you're just using GF flour once in awhile, try Pamela's flour mix (it's a brand that is widely available). It makes the BEST pancakes! I haven't used it for other stuff but imagine it would work for a good range of recipes.
It's easier than buying all the components and mixing them yourself but would probably be pricey if you do a lot of baking.
Just this week, there is an amazing selection of grain-free cookbooks and other health/ wellness resources for sale in a bundle of 33 e-books. This could be a really great way to get a ton of gluten-free recipes and resources for really cheap.
Here's the link, which lists all of the books, and how to get them: http://tinyurl.com/akou25o
I took a certification class on gluten-free baking during culinary school and made two different types of all purpose flour:
#1
6 cups brown rice flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour
#2
3 cups rice flour
3 cups tapioca flour
3 cups cornstarch
3 tablespoons potato flour
Both flours work perfectly as a replacement for regular flour in almost every application I’ve used them. Also, I’m sure this is a widely known fact, but adding a little bit of Xanthan Gum to each of the flour bases helps get that reaction and chewiness that normal gluten provides =)
I HIGHLY recommend using Shauna's guidelines to create your own mix. I've used it quite successfully and always have some on hand. I do not use xanthan gum since I react badly to it (as do many, many people), so I use something along these lines instead of the gums: http://glutenfreedoctor.com/pixie-dust-seed-mixture-to-replace-the-gums/
And for those of us with Celiac disease who have to be completely sure that all of the flours are gluten free and not cross contaminated, I recommend using Bob's Red Mill for all of these. I just ordered 6 of their different single note flours (rice starch, millet flour, etc.) from Amazon in bulk and they are somewhat inexpensive, relatively speaking.