Admit it.
The first time you heard about gluten-free flours you were scared. Very.
You thought: complicated, expensive, confusing and it probably made you want to curl up into a ball, stick your fingers in your ears and sing "Jesus loves the little children" as you rock back and forth in a corner.
Don't worry, me too.
Though, after the nightmares stopped I decided that I probably needed to learn about them. And guess what? I'm not scared anymore. I even make gluten free flour mixes. Go figure.
There was hope for me, and there is hope for you too. Don't worry. Hold my hand, bring your security blanket, and we will walk through this together.
Gluten free flours
Before we can say what is a gluten free flour, let's make sure that everyone knows what gluten free is. To some the fact that something can be gluten free and a flour is totally confusing so here we go.
Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley that gives baked good their structure. It is a binding molecule that gives bread and bakes good their spongy texture. It is kind of like your bread's glue. Without gluten, all your baked goods would be more akin to puddles of sand than a glorious muffin.
In gluten free baking we (obviously) avoid all kinds of wheat, rye and barley flours which naturally contain gluten. Instead we use rice flour, tapioca starch, corn starch, soy flour, chickpea flour and many other starches and flours which we will discuss in detail in a bit. All of these flours do not have gluten in them and if you remember what gluten is (a binding agent), you are probably wondering right now "Hhmm, if gluten is a binding agent, and these flours do not have gluten in them, thus no binding agent, wouldn't anything made with these flours be more akin to puddles of sand than glorious muffins?" And my friend, because of that thought I praise the Lord that the education system in our country has not failed us. Yes, it's true, even gluten free flours need a binding agent which is why we use things like Xanthan gum, but before we get more into that, back to the flours themselves.
Here are a few different types of common gluten free flours:
Rice flour: You can have white or brown rice flour, just like there are white and brown rices. These flours are made from milling the rice. These flours are used very frequently in gluten free baking and cooking since they are inexpensive and easy to find. These flours are good to use on a one-to-one ration with wheat flour when it comes to small amounts, like a tablespoon or two, for recipes you want to turn gluten free that use small amounts of wheat flour. Brown rice is going to be more nutritious than white rice, but it is heavier. I personally mill my own rice flour. You can just buy a big bag of rice and put it through a mill and tada. It's cheaper than buying it milled. If you plan on doing a lot of baking, you can invest in a mill or just find a friend who has one and see if you can mill some rice flour :-)
Cornmeal: This comes in a variety of grinds, from coarse to fine. It works well for corn muffins, polenta and breading things. Nutritious and nutty. Kinda sweet.
Corn flour: This is a finely ground form of cornmeal. Masa harina is a special kind of corn flour used to make tortillas . You can use precooked masa harina (labeled as masarepa or cooked cornmeal) to make things like arepas ( which we will be making later on)
Cornstarch: Cornstarch is cornstarch. You know, the stuff you used to make playdough or something as a little kid, you might have even used it before in your gluten-filled baking. It's fine, white and made out of corn. Inexpensive and available everywhere. It's highly refined and not very nutritious but it is good for lightening your gluten free flour blends. It also works well as a thickener in sauces and gravies.
Potato starch: Potato starch is another inexpensive starch. It is sometimes used in kosher baking and cooking. It is found in health food stores or sometimes in the kosher section of your local supermarket. It is also very refined and has little nutritional value, but is also light.
Sorghum flour: Sometimes called milo or jowar flour this flour is a newer addition to the gluten free pantry. it is high in nutrition and is high in protein. It works well in flour blends or in baked good like breads. I've recently found that Indian markets sell sorghum flour for very inexpensive compared to Whole foods. I got a 2 lb bag for 3 dollars compared to a 1 lb bag for four dollars at whole foods. Look for ethnic shops around your city for they may have a lot of gluten free flours and foods for very reasonable prices.
Soy flour: it is ground from roasted soy beans. Regular soy flour is very perishable goes bad very quickly , so if you can choose to buy defatted soy flour. Soy flour has a lot of protein, but it has a distinctive bean flavor and many people don't like it.
Tapioca flour: Also known as Tapioca starch. It comes from the root of the Cassava plant. It's made from the same plant that the pearls that tapioca pudding is made from, but processed differently. This flour gives chewiness to your baked goods and works well as a thickener.
Millet flour: whole millet is used as bird food. Ground up, it has a mild flavor and it is easy to digest. It'd high in fiber and protein. Great for breads.
Almond flour: Let me give you a little person to person tip, gluten-free homie to gluten-free homie. A free tidbit of wisdom. When you put chopped almonds in your mill, you DO NOT get almond flour. you get almond butter. DO NOT put it in your
Chickpea Flour: Made out of chickpeas or garbanzo beans. Sometimes this flour is called besan flour. You can sometimes find this flour in the flour selection of most supermarkets or it can be purchased in indian or italian markets.
Coconut flour: this flour is low in carbs and high in fiber. It absorbs a lot of liquid so it can become dense quickly. Recipes that call for coconut flour call for small amounts and more eggs than usual recipes.
And these are just a few. There are so so so many more kinds of flours that are gluten free. Look at this as an opportunity to explore your culinary horizons with flours and maybe you will make a new favorite :-) Remember to store all your gluten free flours in the fridge, for they will last you a lot longer.
Now, the trick with gluten free flours and baking is that you usually don't just use one flour at a time. In small amounts it is more acceptable, but you tend to get better results when they are mixed for baked goods. Over time you will run into many, many, many different mixes that call for all different measurements of flours, but don't worry too much about that right now. We will start with one basic mix and expand (just a tad) from there. More on that later.
Now back to the xanthan gum. Some recipes will call for xanthan gum which is your gluten free replacement for gluten. It will be the glue to your baked goods and this stuff is pure gold. Listen, xanthan gum is not cheap, but a little bag goes a long way. You can probably pay up to 12 dollars for a small bag of the stuff, but you use it one tablespoon at a time, so it last you a good bit. You might be able to find it cheaper online. Don't skip this very important ingredient in your recipes, you will be glad you didn't!
OK! I've explained to you as much as I know about all of these flours and I guess we shall continue to learn together. Feel free to post any questions or comments.
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