Have you ever wanted to make your own gluten free flour mix?
Baked goods are awesome! Don’tcha think?
While I miss being able to stop in ANY bakery and grab something that looks yummy, I am having a lot of fun lately coming up with some of my own stuff. I have this long list of different flavor combinations to try that I am so excited about. Squeeeee! (Do people do that anymore or is it sooooooooooo 2013? I’m behind.)
But the issue I was having with my long list of flavor combos is that every recipe ended with…
wait for it…
Muffins.
That is all I know how to make as far as baked gluten free stuff. Seriously!? Muffins!
Now, muffins are all tasty and stuff. And I will not stop making them any time soon. It would just be nice to have a larger repertoire of gluten free baked good options.
The reason why I always go back to muffins is that almond flour is my gluten free flour of choice. It has so many more health benefits than any white gluten free flour.
But it also has a dense, fatty factor that makes it hard to make anything larger than a muffin without it being so mushy in the middle that you need a spoon to eat it. Know what I mean?
AND! And, and, and…
LM has been bugging me for banana bread for months. He saw Daniel Tiger’s mom make it on the show (a cartoon, mind you) and kept asking for it over and over.
So, I tried making it with just almond flour. Yep, needed a spoon to eat it.
Tried with a combo of almond and coconut flour (since it is also a more healthy flour) and ended up with a really dry, almost dusty-dry, bread.
Finally realized if I was going to appease my 6 year old child, I was going to have to break down and use a gluten free flour mix. With all of those white flours. UGH!
I am a sucker for my 6 year old, so I obliged.
But then the creative, DIY-er in me got a hair up the proverbial you-know-where and decided… I am not buying that! I am going to make my own!
<le sigh/>
So, I did what we all do to get started. I googled. And I found this link to Gluten-Free Girl and making your own gluten free flour mix. And I started experimenting. And while the basic ratios work, you get different results depending on the flours you use.
I made a few options and got to testing. Came up with a winner but learned some interesting things on the way.
One thing I learned is that weighing your gluten free flour matters.
I know, I know. You hear it over and over. And ignore it over and over. Yeah. Me, too. It sucks to bring out the food scale every time you want to bake something. And I have been resisting for years. I think that is why I stuck to one flour. So it would always be the same.
Side Note
(On a side note, I found out why we use the cup measurement in America and everyone else uses weights, including professional chefs/bakers. It was on an episode of Good Eats. Alton Brown is a fountain of info. Did you know that weights were always used to bake until settlers started heading out west? They didn’t want to carry scales due to, you know, weight. And making something like a cake used proportions. One part this, two parts that, etc. So they just chose one thing to use as their proportion measurement. And the easiest thing was their coffee/tea cup. Voila! Our cup measurement! Crazy!)
Anyway, I decided to use weights when making my gluten free flour mix recipe. That way I would have the correct proportions. But then I would use regular old cup measurements when I baked with it. So it would be easier, but the weights proportions would already be correct. Get it?
And here is the interesting thing I discovered about gluten free flours, weights and cup measurements. They are all different! Seriously! DIFFERENT!
Since I wanted to make them proportional by weight, I measured 200 grams of each gluten free flour. This is what 200 grams of each gluten free flour is in cup measurement. It’s crazy!
- 200 grams of Almond Flour = 2 cups
- 200 grams of Brown Rice Flour = 1 ¾ cups
- 200 grams of White Rice Flour = 1 ¼ cups
- 200 grams of Potato Starch = 1 ¼ cups
- 200 grams of Tapioca Flour = 1 ¼ cups
- 200 grams of Sweet Rice Flour = 1 cup
Wha!?!?!?! Yes! Isn’t that crazy? Insane? Never really realized that.
But using the weight to get the mix right made a big difference in being able to just use cups in my recipes and not having to measure a bunch of different flours by weight each and every time I wanted to bake.
It is so worth it to have this big ol’ jar of gluten free flour mix in my pantry to pull out whenever I want to bake.
And as far as that gluten free banana bread goes that LM wanted… Did it.
And it is awesome! Post coming soon. And applesauce cake is next on the list of gonna-figure-it-out. Since I found out my great grandma was an Irish, lumberjack camp cook, I figured I had to do it to honor her. Heard applesauce cake is an Irish thing. And if I am wrong, don’t tell me. I like having my little dreams to nudge me along.
**Update – I’ve changed the brown rice flour in this mix to superfine brown rice flour. I find it gives even less grit in my baked goods. Oddly, I never noticed the grit until I did the side by side comparison. **
Recipes using my gluten free flour mix –
Gluten Free Applesauce Cake (Vegan Recipe)
Gluten Free Banana Bread (Vegan Recipe)
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies (Vegan Recipe)
Print
Gluten Free Flour Mix Recipe
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: approx. 7 cups
Ingredients
- 200 g Almond Flour
- 200 g Superfine Brown Rice Flour
- 200 g Potato Starch
- 200 g Sweet Rice Flour
- 200 g Tapioca Flour
Instructions
- Combine well, all of the flours in a big container/jar.
- Store in an air tight container.
- Use it a lot to make awesome gluten free baked goods.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
Never thought to make my own gluten free flour mix before – this is a GREAT idea and definitely something I will be doing..
I like the idea of having a big ol’ jar of flour that I can treat as flour, again. Like I used to. And that way the weights isn’t as much of a problem. Us Americans just don’t want to give up our cups for weighing. 😉
~Tia
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays Party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂 I can’t wait to see what you share next time!
-Cindy
I just mix all the gluten free flours/starch together. This is my first time making my own mix. Besides the Applesauce Cake, do you have other recipes that you’ve used this mix with and where I can search for them? Thanks so much!
Hi April,
Yep. Just mix them all together. Then you can use cup measurements. I have made Banana Bread – http://tiaskitchen.com/gluten-free-banana-bread-dairy-free-and-vegan/ . I am planning on making more baked goods with it. But I have put them on hold because I am still trying to whittle away at the holiday weight. 😉 But lots of plans coming up.
~Tia
Oh… I forgot to ask. You don’t use any gums in your baking? I’ve always used xanthan gum with great success. Does your breads/muffins/baking goods hold together? The only mixes I’ve ever used is Mama’s Almond &Coconut Flour Blends & Pamela’s Mixes. So I’m just trying to cover all my basis. Haha
I’ve never liked the idea of gums, so I avoid them if I can. I know too many people that don’t tolerate them, so I just keep trying different versions of recipes until I get it to work without the gums. Sometimes it takes many tries. Many, many tries.
~Tia
I started using the sweet white rice flour for exactly this reason – no gums!! 🙂 Works like a charm!
I’d like to try this mix but I’m not supposed to eat potatoes. Is there a substitute for potato starch that would be similar? I have lots of other kinds of flours on hand. I would really like to try this for the banana bread recipe you posted. Thanks!
Hi Twila,
I’m sorry about the potatoes. Bummer! In one of my contenders for the final version of the flour mix I used white rice flour instead of potato starch. It worked really good. It was just the potato starch version made baked goods a bit fluffier. So you could try white rice flour instead. That’s a lot of rice, but oh well. If it works, it works, right?
~Tia
Thanks, I’ll try that!
Hi! I use this almost identical mix & I use arrowroot in place of the potato starch (for nightshade free version) but I also have an additional 200g white rice flour – total of 6 flours/starches… Not sure how it would work with just arrowroot & no rice?
Where do I find sweet rice flour? Thanks
Hi Naomi,
I have found it in the Asian foods aisle of my grocery store, but I also buy a lot of flours on Amazon and Vitacost. I try to use brands I know are safe like Bob’s Red Mill or Ancient Harvest. Hope this helps.
~Tia
Thank you for sharing your recipe. Do you think coconut flour can be substituted for the almond flour to make the mixture nut-free?
You could try it, Heather. According to the post by Gluten-Free Girl, they are both in the same category. From my experience, coconut flour is much drier, so it will affect it. But I don’t know how much since I haven’t tried it myself.
~Tia
Will a bag labeled “gluten free flour” work in this recipe, in lieu of purchasing all of the listed flours?
Maybe. Different flour mixtures work different ways and have different consistencies. I’ve used some that turn out gritty. And some that just don’t hold up well, depending on the recipe they are used in.
Sorry I couldn’t be more help.
~Tia
So, I just realized when I made your flour mix, I used the weight-cup proportion you had listed as the recipe. In my mix there is 200g of white rice flour plus the others in your recipe! Will this make the mix un-usable? What will the products be like with the extra white rice flour added?
Thanks for doing all the research and testing for this!!
I’m really not sure if it would make it unusable or not. GF flours can be tricky. My guess is that it will make everything a little extra gritty. I find white rice flour makes things kind of gritty. If it isn’t too much in proportion, you might be ok. It will also depend on what you are making with it.
Sorry, I know this doesn’t really help much. It’s the old frustrating answer of… “It depends.”
~Tia
When using this mix in other, non gluten free recipes is there a different ratio of flour to use? I know some gf flours have to be lessened compared to normal flours. How does your gf mix compare?
It would be very helpful to know what 1 cup of your great-sounding gluten free flour ix weighs. It would make using it for other recipes I routinely make much easier. Using grams for gluten free baking is so important for best results.
Thanks:-)
In your recipe for the gluten free flour mix you didn’t use white rice flour but did mention using it in your commentary above the recipe. Should it have been added to the recipe? I checked several times and your commentary lists 6 ingredients but your recipe uses 5,…omitting the white rice flour. Can you please email me the correct recipe? This is the first one I have found that uses almond flour and I think it is healthier. Thanks!
The correct recipe is just 5 ingredients. The list of 6 ingredients above is just showing a comparison of how 6 different flours of the same exact weight can take up such a different amount of space. Why cup is not a good way to measure flours.
I’m not gluten free, but have 2 daughters-in-law that are so I’ve been experimenting for years. For about 25 years, I’ve been buying grain and I mill my own wheat flours to make bread and other baked goods. So when you talk about making your own flour… Do you actually grind the flours or buy 5 or 6 different kinds of flours with only one flour ingredient then mix them? I didn’t realize you could buy flours of only one ingredient other than almond. And if you grind it yourself, how do you do this with potato, rice, etc.
I buy them already as flours. usually Bob’s Red Mill is the brand I use. I wouldn’t have a clue how to grind them myself. I am so impressed by you.