My Go-To Gluten Free Flour Blend

Going gluten free, even temporarily, has been easier than I thought.

But baking has been an issue.

Bread crumbles and dries out too quickly, wraps are hard and tend to snap, muffins can be gritty, and sometimes I make my 90-minute bread or a sourdough loaf for the family and ache for that delicious smell and beautifully soft texture as it comes out of the oven.

I do not advocate a gluten free diet unless it is something you need to do for health issues or doctor/nutritionist-recommended reasons (although keeping carbohydrates to 1/4 of your plate and using wholegrains or gluten free grains over refined carbs is a definite win!). For me, that reason is autoimmune and fatigue related, which has been linked to gluten worsening symptoms. Cutting it out for the last month has made me feel like a totally different person, and I feel more energetic, lighter and so much better.

I don’t plan on being totally gluten free forever, unless I really have to be. I will eventually reintroduce some different gluten-containing grains in different forms and see what (if any) I can tolerate.

But for now, I have another couple of months to do gluten free. And I knew I couldn’t tolerate sub-standard bakes for the next few weeks. After my usual dedication to research and testing, I have discovered the difficult world of gluten free baking, and how it is not as simple as swapping for pre-prepared products or even flours. Sometimes it works, as in my coconut raspberry loaf. And it has worked in other recipes I’ve tested gluten free in the past (see some of them here). It’s a decent place to start, but you quickly start to realise its flaws.

Books like Angela Litzinger’s Gluten Free Recipes & Preparation, and websites like Minimalist Baker, From the Larder (the guide to gluten free flours is brilliant) and Gluten Free on a Shoestring have all helped me to delve deep into how to use different gluten free flours for different bakes.

One thing I’ve discovered is, unlike all-purpose/plain wheat flour, there is no one-size-fits-all all-purpose gluten free flour, or even blend.

But this is as close as I’ve come to it. I wouldn’t use it for bread, which I am still working out from existing recipes, but it makes enough for 12 cupcakes/muffins or 1 cake, and is perfect for those uses. It produces a fluffy, soft, moist cake that is still just as perfect in texture the next day! You can double, triple or adjust the amount to suit your needs.

And if you are wondering where to get hold of these flours, I have found Amazon to be the only place I can get them all for a decent price. I use this white rice flour (or this brown one), supermarket gluten free oats (or use these), this arrowroot powder, this potato starch and this xanthan gum (from online or a supermarket).

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My Go-To Gluten Free Flour Blend

Prep Time

1 min

Total Time

1 min

 

Perfect for fluffy, soft muffins, cupcakes or cake, this gluten free baking mix is my go-to at the moment. When I don't have time or energy to work out the perfect blend for a specific recipe, this doesn't fail to come through for me. 🙂

Course: Breakfast, Dairy Free, Dessert, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Sweetener Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Servings: 2 cups (200g)

Ingredients

• 100 g 1/2 cup + 1 heaped tablespoon) finely ground white rice flour (finely ground brown can work here too)
• 40 g (1/2 cup) gluten free oat flour (1/2 cup gluten free oats blitzed to a flour in a blender)
• 40 g (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) arrowroot powder (you could sub cornflour (cornstarch))
• 1 tablespoon potato starch (not flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (not essential, but recommended for fluffier bakes)

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container in the cupboard or fridge (if using brown rice flour, fridge is best) for 3-6 months.