With a sensitivity to coconut and an allergy to gums and oats, trying a gluten-free diet in order to combat my wheat allergy has been a challenge. I should note that I continue eatint wheat and oats on rotation. However, I feel much better when I eat gluten-free.
Eating gluten-free typically involves a lot of oats, coconut, and quinoa. Quinoa cross-reacts with oats, so people with allergies to oats will also often react to quinoa. This happened to me. I have modified a lot of recipes. Here are some things I have used so far.
Bob’s Red Mill Black Bean Flour
I think perhaps my first introduction to gluten-free baking came in the form of a recipe for black bean cake. At the time I was not thinking about gluten-free cooking at all, but rather I was following a low-carb diet. Black bean flour has a strong flavor, especially when used with alternative sweeteners. I now use it as a small portion of my flour mixes–unless I am making bean cake, which I came to enjoy.
Bob’s Red Mill Organic Golden Flaxseed Meal
Ground flaxseed is a great grain to add to recipes. I was introduced to flaxseed muffins along with the bean cake. I have read that flaxseed also works well as an egg substitute when combined with water, though I have not tried this and I think that its success would depend on the function of the egg in the recipe. As a grain, the amount I use depends on the texture and taste that I am looking for. I don’t generally prefer recipes where flaxseed is the only grain.
Potato Starch Unmodified
I am acquainted with a couple of people who have potato allergy. If you fall in this category, move on down the page–there are other options that work just as well as potato starch. My first foray into alternatives to wheat was to try potato bread. I was tremendously relieved! If you try using potato starch, I don’t recommend combining it with tapioca or arrowroot. A little starch goes a long, long way. These are all very sticky, and I use them as small portions of the gluten-free flour mix.
Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour
I keep tapioca flour in my cabinet for almost all of my gluten-free baking recipes. It adds a good sweetness to offset the harsh flavor of some of the other flours. It also helps to increase binding, especially since I cannot tolerate any of the gums that are typically used as binding agents. I have used as much as half a cup in a recipe that calls for two cups of gluten-free flour. I am not confident in using any more.
Bob’s Red Mill Arrowroot Starch Flour
Arrowroot also stays in my cabinet. It is a good substitute for cornstarch, though in a pinch I have also used tapioca for this purpose. They achieve about the same texture in a liquid blend. I have not tried using arrowroot in a flour mixture.
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Brown Rice Flour
I started using brown rice flour after my allergic reaction to quinoa. Brown rice flour gives a nice, stable texture to my dough without a strong unpleasant taste. I use it for about one half to three quarters of the flour mix depending on what I am looking for in texture. If I want a light and fluffy dough, I stick to the rice and fill the rest of the mix with tapioca. If I want a crunchy dough, e.g. cookies, I lower the rice content and add some heavier grains.
I have not tried Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free White Rice Flour
Bob’s Red Mill Bean Green Pea Flour
Green pea flour was another new introduction after my reaction to quinoa. Green pea is a hearty flour with lots of fiber, very much like its bean cousins. It has a strong taste, though perhaps less so than the bean flours. In a cookie recipe, green pea flour provides a good crispy texture; and I only need to use it for about 30 per cent of the flour mixture.
Bob’s Red Mill Baking Powder
This is not a flour. If you need a gluten-free baking powder, here it is. One of the recommendations given to me to increase the rise of my muffins was to increase the baking powder slightly. It worked.
I disclose here that I am an Amazon affiliate and a dedicated supporter of Bob’s Red Mill. All of the above links lead to Amazon pages for products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase products after following links from this page, you will be supporting the hard work that I do on this and other sites in my site network. If you like my posts and want to support the site but don’t want to purchase, please consider donating via the Paypal button.
I should also disclose that we purchase some of our ingredients from Mountain Rose Herbs. This is an excellent source for organic herbs and spices, olive oil and other oils, and related products. This has been my resource for baking soda for quite some time. I can’t recommend them enough!
Still thinking about flour?
- Learning From My Younger Self - February 10, 2024
- more reflections on ITD - June 30, 2023
- On travel while at ITD: reflections after day 1 - June 27, 2023
- ITD day 1 - June 27, 2023
- ITD day 1 - June 27, 2023
- Job Descriptions, Inclusivity, and Equity for People with Disabilities - October 15, 2022
- Traveling without a Guide Dog: Experience with Cane and Walker - October 14, 2022
- Disability and Church, Intersection - June 11, 2022
- Review: When Chronic Pain and Illness Take Everything Away - June 11, 2022
- Grammar and Style Resources for Writers - June 9, 2022
