Intro Post

Most gluten-free flour mixes use heavy amounts of tapioca, corn, potato, or arrowroot starch. These ingredients help improve the texture and lightness of many baked goods, but a major downside to their use is that starches are pure carbohydrates with little to no nutritional value. While wheat flour usually contains around 70% starch, flour mixes that rely heavily on the addition of pure starches can also be hard for some people to digest, causing bloating, mild stomach cramps, and other things that you probably don't want to read about if you're hungry and browsing through a cooking blog.

I started baking with gluten-free flours over two years ago, and have been slowly moving towards flour mixes that don't make use of any of the starches mentioned above. I have no problem making cakes that rise or quick breads that don't crumble. This blog is a collection of the recipes I've grown to love over those years, with some tips, tricks, and suggestions for successful gluten-free baking scattered throughout. Every recipe here is also completely vegan.

I make use of the following flours in my kitchen:

Sorghum flour - I think sorghum flour tastes the closest to wheat flour, and I use it as a primary flour in most of my flour mixes. It's relatively high in protein and fiber, but since it's a bit on the heavier side, I never use it on its own. If you can't find it in the gluten-free sections of your supermarket, a lot of Indian or South Asian markets will carry it as 'jowar flour'.

White rice flour - I use white rice flour to lighten my flour mixes without resorting to pure starches. Some people (myself included) find that baked goods that rely primarily on white rice flour can be a bit grainy or chalky, especially in things like cookies, so white rice flour has more of a supporting role in my baking.

Sticky rice flour - I use sticky rice flour similarly to white rice flour, to lighten my flour mixes without resorting to pure starches. The flour should be very fine, so I highly recommend buying the flour rather than grinding it yourself. I pick mine up at a local Asian market.

Corn flour - Corn flour adds a nice texture to many gluten-free baked goods, and makes a great dredge for fried foods. Corn flour is different from corn meal, which has a coarser texture, and masa harina, which is corn flour with lime (used specifically to make tortillas).

Almond meal - Almond meal is simply almonds that have been ground into a relatively fine powder. I make my own in a coffee grinder, making sure to grind the almonds in short pulses so that I don't end up with almond butter. You can also use almond flour, which is similar to almond meal, but only uses almonds that have had the skins removed via blanching before grinding. Almond meal adds a texture similar to that of corn flour, but provides a more complimentary flavor for sweeter baked goods.

Buckwheat flour - Buckwheat flour has a strong, nutty taste that works well in certain recipes, though not all. Its similar to sorghum in that it's a particularly nutritious but heavy flour, so I rarely use it as the sole flour in a recipe.

Millet flour - Millet flour is cheap and easy to grind yourself by processing whole millet, a small yellow grain, in a coffee grinder or blender. It adds a slight buttery flavor and a flaky texture to certain baked goods, though it's too heavy a flour to bake with on its own.

And a list of some other less-commonly-found necessities I use in my baking:

Xanthan gum - A must in every gluten-free kitchen, xanthan gum somewhat duplicates the effects of gluten in baked goods. For baked goods that don't rely heavily on gluten formation in their wheat flour counterparts - cookies, cakes, muffins - I use 1/2 tsp xanthan gum per 1 cup of flour. For baked goods that do rely heavily on gluten formation - breads, rolls - I use 1 tsp xanthan gum per 1 cup of flour. Another less-pricey substitute is guar gum.

Agar-agar powder - Something I use only occasionally for reasons similar to xanthan gum. Agar powder will be much cheaper at your local Asian market than at an organic grocery store.

Ener-g egg replacer - My vegan egg-replacer of choice for a lot of gluten-free baked goods. It's made up of potato and tapioca starch with a few plant-based thickeners/emulsifiers.

Rum - I use light or dark rum in addition to or in place of flavored extracts in my baking. I keep a bottle in my kitchen solely for making cookies, cakes, and frostings, but in most recipes (those calling for only 1-2 tsp of rum) it can either be replaced with vanilla extract or left out entirely without altering the flavor profile too much.