New Products
Gluten Free Flour Guide for Celiac Disease Recipes
Celiac Disease
You have been diagnosed with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance (also called sprue, gluten enteropathy or gluten-sensitive enteropathy), now what?
If you think your baking life is all over now that you can’t use traditional flours, think again. While gluten free flours certainly do take some time to learn to work with they are every bit as versatile as the gluten flours and usually come packed with extra nutrition to boot.
This gluten free flour guide can help you navigate the world of gluten free flours.
Gluten-free flours have different tastes, characteristics, uses and nutritional content. Cakes, pizza, bread recipes all call for different character.
The following descriptions will help you choose different flours for specific gluten-free recipes and individual nutritional needs and diets.
All gluten-free flours will not substitute directly for wheat.
|
Flour |
Quality in cooking |
Adds |
Comment |
Taste |
|
Almond flour Nut flours can also be used to replace powdered milk in most recipes, making them a useful, dairy-free alternative ingredient. |
Adds moisture, texture, flavour |
protein, fiber, fat, and essential minerals & taste |
a dream in gluten-free recipes |
Nut flours- including almond, pecan or hazelnut also make delicious coatings for chicken, fish or vegetables. |
|
Amaranth flour aka: African spinach, Chinese spinach, Indian spinach, elephants ear |
does tend to brown quickly due to ^ oil high moisture content, browns quickly and forms thick crusts. works well in recipes that do not contain large amounts of liquids. |
Complete protein, fiber, Moisture, oil > browning |
excellent thickener for roux, sauces and gravies. |
grassy, earthy, nutty taste, so it works best in savory dishes, like pizza dough |
|
Arrowroot flour |
thickens sauces at a lower temperature than the traditional corn starch so it is perfect for cream or egg based sauces and soups that may be more delicate clear when it is cooked |
adds body and texture works well as a batter coating or breading |
thickener, for rouxs and sauces, and fillings for fruit pies easily digested
|
neutral |
|
Rice Flours |
|
|
|
|
|
White |
ideal for recipes that require a light texture can be used alone |
Lightness not particularly nutritious |
starchiness of short-grain rice makes it the perfect candidate for rice flour good shelf life |
very bland in taste |
|
Brown |
heavier than its white relative noticeable grainy texture, dry crumbly baked goods |
whole grain and has more nutrition. than white rice |
Bulk buying is not recommended as it is better used when fresh |
slight nutty taste |
|
Sweet sometimes called “glutinous” |
very starchy and moist Too much can make for a gummy product fab gravy thickener |
only add it as a boost to your baking- start with 2 tablespoons improve the texture and ‘chew’ unique, gelatinous quality
|
dust baking pans to prevent sticking |
Smooth and finely ground, sweet rice flour thickens sauces and gravies so well that no one eating them can tell they are gluten-free |
|
Buckwheat aka: beech wheat, kasha, saracen corn |
pancakes or bread, normally mixed with other flours does not work well as a thickener |
high in easily digested protein and fiber, vitamins and minerals |
not akin to wheat- it's actually a fruit related to rhubarb
|
Strong earthy-flavored |
|
Flour |
Quality in cooking |
Adds |
Comment |
Taste |
|
Bean |
|
|
some people do experience digestive distress with bean flours |
|
|
Chickpea aka :besam, gram or garbanzo flour, ceci |
savoury dishes – fried pakoras & bajjis, flatbread not generally used on its own |
golden yellow coloured flour high protein/fiber flour, adds moisture, good texture |
|
strong slightly nutty taste sweet, bean flavor |
|
Lentil |
Indian cuisine |
|
|
|
|
Fava |
show up in some commercial gluten-free baking mixes |
|
Interchangeable with chickpea |
|
|
Cornflour aka: cornstarch, masa harina |
Thickening mixed with other flours, for example when making fine batters for tempura |
fine, white powder |
can be used to replace a portion of cornmeal in most recipes for a lighter, less crumbly texture |
bland taste, light corn flavor |
|
Carob flour |
|
|
|
“chocolate like,” but carob has a natural sweetness that cocoa (baking chocolate) doesn’t |
|
Chestnut flour |
traditionally used in rich Italian and French pastries |
adds sweetness, moisture and texture to baked goods |
light tan-colored flour |
|
|
Cornmeal |
used to make cornbread, corn pancakes (Johnny Cakes), muffins, polenta and is a good breading ingredient for fried foods |
Heavier than corn flour
|
not generally interchangeable in recipes |
sweet flavor and crunchy texture |
|
Coconut flour |
soaks up moisture like crazy |
almost 60% fiber, is high in fats and lower in carbohydrates |
best in recipes that include eggs and has a short shelf life |
sweet and fabulous |
|
Flour |
Quality in cooking |
Adds |
Comment |
Taste |
|
Millet flour |
soaks up the tastes of the foods lends a crumbly texture |
easily digestible protein, vitamins and minerals |
especially good in quick breads thicken soups and make flat breads and griddle cakes |
Mild and ever-so-slightly sweet |
|
Oat flour (only certified uncontaminated oat) |
chewy texture bread, pancake, muffin, cookie, cake |
add protein, soluble fiber, vitamins and minerals |
The use of oats in gluten free diets is controversial. Cross-contamination with gluten is common in traditional oat products. |
nutty taste and chewy texture |
|
Potato flour |
heavy flour so a little goes a long way light, fine-textured
|
add moisture and texture high in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber and nutrients |
Short shelf life not to be confused with potato flour, which is dried potatoes ground into a flour. |
If you want the taste of potatoes, choose potato flour. |
|
Potato starch flour |
lightness and softness in a mix. It doesn't work very well as a thickener |
|
one of the few alternative flours that keeps very well |
light potato flavour which is undetectable when used in recipes |
|
Quinoa flour (pronounced 'keen wa') |
adds density make a baked goodie crumbly if used as a main flour, high in fat and is used in a gluten free flour mix to add moisture to baked goods |
non-allergenic grain provides a good High quality source of vegetable protein |
|
assertive taste, as a grain, quinoa is nutty and delicious. As a flour, quinoa is a little bitter. |
|
Flour |
Quality in cooking |
Adds |
Comment |
Taste |
|
Sorghum flour aka: jowar flour, milo |
even works as a direct substitution for wheat flour, such as in pancakes used to make porridge or flat unleavened breads. |
soft and slightly sweet and lovely in baking smooth flour |
closest in texture and taste to traditional wheat flour stores well under normal temperatures |
Some people, however, detect a bitter taste in sorghum flour, so you should try some for yourself wheat-like taste |
|
Soya flour Amaranth or sorghum flours work well as a substitute for soy flour in most recipes. |
adds moisture and texture to baked goods and browns quickly Can be used to thicken |
high in protein and fat people can become allergic to so best used in moderation |
Full fat soy flour has a short shelf life and is best kept refrigerated Defatted soy flour can be kept in the larder or pantry |
Nutty beany flavour added as a flavour enhancer |
|
Tapioca flour aka: manioc, tapioca starch |
serves to lighten baked items and helps impart a good texture and a "chewiness" good thickener when dissolved in cold water first |
very low in nutrients It is also used in batter coatings and breading recipes for crisp, golden crusts |
storing at room temperature is no problem
|
no pronounced flavour and is usually non-allergenic |
|
Teff flour |
almost dissolve in baking, giving it a slightly gelatinous quality binds the baked goods in a somewhat similar fashion to gluten thickener |
contains the highest calcium, zinc, potassium and iron content of any cereal high in dietary fibre and an excellent source of essential amino acids |
A versatile flour that can be used to make breads, pasta, pancakes and muffins, but best not used in yeasted recipes |
nutty, sweet flavor |
Denser flours such as almond, buckwheat, coconut or quinoa will result in a heavier, denser product if you add too much. Start with a third of a cup. Experiment and find the formula and texture you like best. I usually use 1/2 cup now in my flour blends.
To replace the gluten
If you simply take gluten out of your baking, you're likely to have disappointing results. Gluten is sticky stuff which helps prevent your baked goodies from crumbling. It also traps pockets of air, improving the texture of your bread, cakes or biscuits.
Bakers replace it with xanthan gum, guar gum, or pre-gel starch.
Xanthan gum
Xanthan gum is a natural product made from Xanthomonas campestris. This microorganism is grown in the lab with fermented corn for its cell coat, which is dried and ground to form xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is added as a powder to the dry bread ingredients.
Commercial food producers, who put xanthan gum in salad dressings and frozen foods as a stabilizer. If you have ever looked at the ingredients of your toothpaste, you saw xanthan gum there, since it binds everything together in a uniform consistency. Too much xanthan gum in a recipe you may notice a heavy, gummy or even "slimmy" texture
Now, you can buy some for your gluten-free baked goods.
Only a tiny amount (1/2 teaspoon or less) is enough to bind that dough to make cookies and pie crusts.
One teaspoon is needed for every cup of gluten-free flour.
Guar gum
The seeds of the guar plant, which grows in India and Pakistan, make a granular flour when dried and ground. High in soluble fiber. Like xanthan gum, measure carefully when using guar gum in gluten free recipes or you may end up with heavy, stringy baked goodsTake a look at many processed foods — such as commercial ice creams and puddings — and you will see guar gum on the list of ingredients. In small amounts, guar gum can be a somewhat effective binder, mimicking some of the effects of gluten.
Sources