Gluten Free Flour Blend

Over the years, I have baked with several different Gluten Free flours.  Each Gluten Free baker likes (and dislikes) different flours and have their favorite Gluten Free flour blends.  Gluten Free cookbook authors (like myself) are no different.

Gluten Free flours I have used in the past:

• Sorghum flour
• Brown rice flour
• Teff flour
• White rice flour
• Corn meal
• Sweet rice flour (normally used to thicken, different than white rice flour)
• Corn flour
• Potato starch (not to be confused with potato flour)
• Tapioca starch (also referred to as Tapioca flour)
• Coconut flour
• Millet flour
• Potato flour
• Quinoa flour
• Amaranth flour
• Fava-bean flour
• Corn starch
• Garbanzo (chickpea) bean flour

One by one, these flours have either been removed from being used or are now a favorite of mine.  Some of the flours including sorghum, the bean flours, millet, and Teff have been removed from my pantry due to how I personally feel after consuming food made with them.  I no longer use potato starch and potato flour as I am nightshade allergic.  I try not to use coconut flour as it requires an additional 20% increase of liquid in the recipe.  My goal is to keep my wheat-based recipes the same and make Gluten Free by changing the flours (and any obvious substitutions as needed, like a Gluten Free soy sauce).

My current Gluten Free Flour Blend consists of the following flours with my most-used percentages:

• Brown rice flour (35% – I mill my own and use a super fine grind.  This is a whole grain.)
• Tapioca starch (25% – I like this as it is not a nightshade like potato starch.  This is a starch.)
• White rice flour (25% – I mill my own and use a super fine grind like the brown rice flour.  This is a starch.)
• Amaranth flour (15% – I mill my own.  Amaranth helps bind everything together and is considered a whole grain)

I use these four flours from my Gluten Free Flour Blend in different ratios depending upon what I am making.  I first started using amaranth in my flour blend when trying to get my Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies to not run all over the pan without the use of Xanthan Gum.  Now, I have removed Xanthan Gum from the recipe by using a small amount of amaranth flour.

Other Gluten Free flours I like to use

Corn meal and corn flour are the two flours I use in addition to tapioca starch when making my Gluten Free Cornbread.  Corn starch is what I sometimes use to make gravy or when I need a thickener.

The fun part with my favorite Gluten Free Flour Blend is I can change the ratios based on what I am baking, how the ratio worked (or did not work) the previous time, and what I have on hand.  (I mill my own flours using a Country Living Grain Mill and there are times when I have more of certain flours than others.)  This Gluten Free Flour Blend works with store-purchased flours, too.  My family chose to purchase a mill to save on the cost of flours with a family of six.

What is your favorite Gluten Free Flour Blend?

Please share!

~Adrienne