The world of gluten-free baking is each great and difficult – the outcomes can be incredibly delicious, however it may possibly take some trial and error to find the most effective gluten-free flour mixtures and which flour to make use of and when. Within the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program, which is completely gluten-free, we’ve a whole module devoted to gluten-free baking and candy treats! In different phrases, gluten-free flours are vital to culinary diet!
We’ve spent a few years experimenting with each candy and savory gluten-free baked items (a tricky job, we all know) and have discovered loads alongside the way in which. Utilizing this A to Z gluten-free flour information, you may skip the flops and rock-hard gluten-free muffins and go straight to the scrumptiousness.
A very powerful factor to learn about working with gluten-free flour choices is that this: you will need to mix a number of flours collectively for the most effective outcomes. Utilizing a singular gluten-free flour will end in these hockey puck cookies that nobody needs to eat. So usually, if you end up substituting a gluten-free flour for wheat flour, or a gluten-free flour for an additional gluten-free flour, you’ll have to mess around a bit and see what works finest for you.
With out additional ado, listed below are a few of our well-loved gluten-free flour choices and one of the simplest ways to make use of them.
gluten-free flour information and substitution reference
Obtain your free *up to date* Gluten-Free Flour Information and construct your personal gluten-free flour mix (plus we share a number of additional gluten-free recipes to get you began). ↓
Almond Flour
What’s it?
Take uncooked, blanched almonds, grind them to a advantageous flour and you’ve got almond flour. You may also purchase milled almond flour, which is finer in texture, or save your almond pulp and mix it up into almond flour. This and different nut flours — similar to hazelnut, walnut, pecan and seed flours — add protein, fibre and vibrant style to grain-free and gluten-free baking.
Finest for: Cookies, truffles, muffins, hearty crusts, pancakes, and crumble toppings. Closely utilized in Paleo diet recipes.
How you can substitute: Use as much as 25% of nut flours in gluten-free flour mixes.
Recipe to Strive: Grain-Free Almond Flour Cookies
Amaranth Flour
What’s it?
The tiny complete grains that make a shocking breakfast cereal will also be floor right into a advantageous flour. Amaranth is wealthy in protein and has a grassy, earthy style.
Finest for: Due its grassy flavour, use it in savory dishes like pizza dough.
How you can substitute: Swap it 1:1 from glutenous flour
Recipe to Strive: Amaranth Flour Crackers
Arrowroot Flour
What’s it?
Arrowroot flour is a advantageous flour that comes from the arrowroot plant (you may additionally see it labelled as arrowroot starch or arrowroot powder). It seems similar to corn starch, potato starch and tapioca starch.
Finest for: Use it as a thickener rather than corn, potato or tapioca starch. It’s additionally useful if you want any sort of dough to stay collectively.
How you can substitute: Substitute arrowroot flour 1:1 rather than corn, potato or tapioca starch. When utilizing it in baking, goal to have not more than 20% arrowroot in your gluten-free flour combine.
Recipe to Strive: Grain-Free Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Bean Flours
What’s it?
Dried beans might be floor into flour as simply as grains can. Chickpea flour — often known as garbanzo bean or ceci flour — is used for flatbread within the south of France. Lentil flour reveals up in Indian delicacies. Fava beans grow to be flour and present up in some industrial gluten-free baking mixes. They’re all wealthy in protein and fibre.
Finest for: You need to use bean flours in each candy and savory dishes, however use them in small doses as their flavour might be overpowering.
How you can substitute: Use as much as 25% of bean flours in gluten-free flour mixes.
Recipe to Strive: The Best Banana Pancakes with Chickpea Flour
Buckwheat Flour
What’s it?
Buckwheat flour is made out of floor buckwheat. Has a wealthy, nutty flavour and a really excessive dietary worth, making it standard in many countries, particularly in Asia. Buckwheat is the fruit of the buckwheat plant and has no relation to wheat or grasses – so it’s a 100% gluten-free flour.
Finest for: Muffins, cookies, pancakes, waffles and breads
How you can substitute: Add as much as 50% of buckwheat flour in your gluten-free flour mixes
Recipe to Strive: Orange-Scented Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Coconut Flour
What’s it?
This gluten-free flour is made out of coconut that’s been dried and floor. It’s very dense, high in protein and it’s essentially the most fibrous of the entire flours. That’s why you’ll want so as to add not less than an additional 1/4 cup of liquid to your recipes when utilizing it. It’s generally utilized in Paleo eating regimen recipes and pairs finest with eggs – so it doesn’t at all times work in vegan recipes.
Finest for: Issues that don’t have to rise very very similar to pancakes, cookies, waffles and crusts
How you can substitute: Coconut flour soaks up a number of liquid, so use 1/4 cup of coconut flour rather than 1 cup glutenous flour (or one other gluten-free flour). You’ll additionally want so as to add an additional 1/4 cup of liquid.
Recipe to Strive: Mini Gluten-Free Apple Galettes
Millet Flour
What’s it?
Gentle and ever-so-slightly candy, millet is an adaptable grain that’s wealthy in magnesium, nature’s relaxant mineral. It soaks up the tastes of the meals surrounding it, making it a really impartial gluten-free flour to make use of. Millet flour lends a crumbly texture to breads and muffins and is the least allergenic of all of the grains.
Finest for: Breads, muffins, cookies, truffles, crusts
How you can substitute: Use as much as 25% of millet flour in your gluten-free flour mixes
Recipe to Strive: Instant Ragi Dosas by Food Trails
Oat Flour
What’s it?
Oat flour is just made by grinding complete grain oats within the meals processor or blender. It’s wealthy in soluble fibre and it’s nice for balancing blood sugar ranges. One factor you’ll want to guarantee if utilizing oat flour is that it’s 100% gluten-free. Whereas oats are naturally gluten-free, they’re typically planted and processed alongside wheat, resulting in cross contamination. Purchase licensed gluten-free oats for grinding into flour, or licensed gluten-free oat flour.
Finest for: Breads, muffins, cookies, truffles, crusts, granola, fruit crisps, scones
How you can substitute: Use as much as 20% of oat flour in your gluten-free flour mixes
Recipe to Strive: Chocolate Cherry Chia Bread
Quinoa Flour
What’s it?
As a grain, quinoa is nutty and scrumptious. As a flour, quinoa is somewhat bitter. It’s full of protein, however the texture provides density to gluten-free baked items. Use somewhat quinoa flour together with different gluten-free flours for the added protein increase with out the bitterness. You may also toast your flour within the oven to amp up the flavour.
Finest for: Savory baked items like biscuits, flatbreads, zucchini bread or herbed muffins
How you can substitute: As a consequence of its excessive protein content material, you need to use this 1:1 for wheat flour, however we suggest solely utilizing as much as 25% in baking mixes.
Recipe to Strive: Herbed Quinoa Flatbread
Rice Flour
What’s it?
When farmers harvest rice, they shuck the grains of its outer husk, that are inedible. What’s left after this course of is brown rice. If the farmer additionally removes the germ and bran from the rice grain, she or he is left with white rice. Brown rice flour is made out of the primary sort of rice, and white rice flour is produced from the latter. Whether or not it’s brown or white, every sort might be floor into rice flour. It is a nice base for gluten-free baking.
Finest for: Every kind of gluten-free baking. Can be used as a thickener in soups, stews, fillings, and many others.
How you can substitute: Swap it 1:1 for glutenous flour or every other gluten-free flour. Use as much as half of brown rice flour in gluten-free flour mixes.
Recipe to Strive: Yummy Gluten-Free Pancakes
What About Arsenic in Rice Flour?
Arsenic is a heavy steel discovered naturally in water and soil, and was as soon as generally used as a poison. It’s carcinogenic, and makes its manner into rice as a result of rice fields are flooded, giving the grain extra time to soak up it.
Research on rice present that the majority sorts of rice are contaminated with arsenic, and a few merchandise – particularly rice products for babies and young children – have arsenic ranges which are thought-about regarding.
Arsenic in rice is one thing to be aware of, however there are a number of methods to mitigate the potential threat:
- Rotate by totally different gluten-free flours, so that you’re limiting publicity and never consuming rice (or different rice merchandise and rice-based baked items) every day or a number of instances a day.
- Basmati rice is decrease in arsenic than different varieties.
- There are particular rinsing and cooking methods for rice that massively decrease the quantity of arsenic.
Study extra about the way to scale back arsenic in rice in our Guide to Cooking Beans and Grains.
Sorghum Flour
What’s it?
Sorghum flour is closest in texture and style to conventional wheat flour of any of the gluten-free flours. In a number of circumstances, it really works as a direct substitution for wheat flour, similar to in pancakes. It’s additionally excessive in antioxidants.
Finest for: Muffins, breads, pancakes, crepes, cookies
How you can substitute: Swap it 1:1 for glutenous flour or every other gluten-free flour. Use as much as half of sorghum flour in gluten-free flour mixes.
Recipe to Strive: Butternut Squash + Lentil Muffins
Tapioca Flour
What’s it?
What we within the West name tapioca comes from a plant initially from Asia referred to as cassava (in South America, it is called manioc). When the foundation has been dried, it’s floor into white flour. Tapioca flour is often known as tapioca starch. Its starchiness makes it a superb gluten-free flour, nevertheless it have to be utilized in mixture with different flours to make nice baked items.
Finest for: Mixing into gluten-free flour blends. Can be used as a thickener in soups, stews and fillings.
How you can substitute: Substitute tapioca flour 1:1 rather than corn or potato starch. When utilizing it in baking, goal to have not more than 20% in your gluten-free flour combine.
Recipe to Strive: Gluten-Free Paleo Biscuits
Teff Flour
What’s it?
The tiny seeds of teff make an enchanting porridge. Darkish brown as molasses, with a slight style of chocolate, teff porridge will fill you up within the mornings. As a flour, teff is almost miraculous. The advantageous flour — floor from the tiny seeds — virtually dissolves in baking, giving it a barely gelatinous high quality. It binds the baked items in a considerably comparable trend to gluten.
Finest for: Waffles, banana bread, cookies, muffins
How you can substitute: Substitute 1:1 for different gluten-free flours. When making a flatbread like injera, you need to use 100% teff. Different instances, you might wish to use as much as 25% teff in your gluten-free flour mixes.
Recipe to Strive: Ethiopian Injera
Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum
What’s it?
Xanthan gum is utilized in gluten-free baked items, toothpaste, salad dressings and frozen meals as a stabilizer. It binds every thing collectively in a uniform consistency. Solely a tiny quantity (1/2 teaspoon or much less) is sufficient to bind the dough to make cookies and pie crusts.
Guar gum is made out of dried and floor seeds of the guar plant, which grows in India and Pakistan. It’s typically discovered in lots of processed meals similar to industrial ice lotions and puddings. In small quantities, guar gum is usually a considerably efficient binder, mimicking a few of the results of gluten.
Finest for: Gums tend to annoy the digestive system. These are sometimes finest prevented because of this.
Extra Different Flours
On this information, we featured gluten-free flour choices that are usually accessible and out there at a number of grocery shops. With the rise of sure therapeutic diets, there are much more specialty choices now to experiment with.
It may be trickier to swap a few of these flours into wheat flour recipes or gluten-free flour recipes, so it’s finest to attempt a examined recipe that has been designed to make use of them.
Study:
Able to dive into gluten-free baking?
Grab our updated Gluten-Free Flour Guide! In it you will see all these gluten-free flours (and extra) plus we share our go-to gluten-free flour mix recipe, in addition to a number of additional gluten-free recipes to get you began.
