Substituting
Gluten
Gluten, a protein found in wheat flour, is what gives structure to
baked goods. It gives breads, muffins, and cakes their soft spongy
texture. To replace gluten, you'll need to use other thickeners like xanthan gum
or guar gum in your baking.
For each cup of gluten-free flour
mix, add at least 1 teaspoon of xanthan or guar gum.
Xanthan
Gum
This comes from the dried cell coat of a microorganism called Zanthomonas
campestris. You can purchase it in health food stores and some supermarkets.
Guar Gum
This powder comes from the seed of the plant Cyamopsis tetragonolobus.
It is an excellent gluten substitute and it is available in health food stores
and some supermarkets.
Pre-Gel Starch This
gluten substitute helps keep baked goods from being too crumbly. This too, can
be purchased at most health food stores.
Homemade Mixes
Start with recipes
that use relatively small amounts of wheat flour like brownies or pancakes.
Gluten-free versions taste almost the same as their wheat-based cousins. These
two gluten-free flour mixtures can be substituted for wheat flour
cup-for-cup:
Gluten-Free
Flour Mix I
1/4
cup soy flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
Gluten-Free Flour Mix II
6
cups white rice flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour
4 cups sorghum flour
Gluten-Free Flour Mix III
2 2/3 cups Tapioca
flour
2 2/3 cups Potato
starch
1 cup gabanzo+fava bean flour
(Keep this in the freezer and only measure out
what is need for each recipe. Also
double the amount of leavening agent used and increase cook time by about 10
minutes.)
Acorn Flour is made
from ground acorns and can be used as a substitute for wheat flour. It was used
by Native Americans.
Amaranth Flour produced from ground amaranth grain. It was commonly used in
pre-Columbian meso-American cuisine. It is becoming more and more available in
Health stores.
Almond Flour made from ground almonds .
Arrowroot Starch It is cultivated for a starch obtained
from the roots, which is also called
arrowroot.
Bean Flour produced from pulverized dried or ripe beans.
Brown
Rice Flour Made
from unpolished brown rice, brown rice flour retains the nutritional value
of the rice bran.
Corn
Flour This
flour is milled from corn and can be blended with cornmeal to make cornbread or
muffins. It is excellent for waffles or pancakes. Corn (maize) flour is popular in
the Southern and Southwestern US, Mexico, Central
America, and Punjab
regions of India and
Pakistan, where it called as Makkai Ka Atta. Finely ground corn flour that has been treated
with food-grade lime is called masa
harina and is used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexican cooking. Corn
flour should never be confused with cornstarch,
which is known as "cornflour" in British English.
Cornstarch A
refined starch that comes from corn, it's mostly used as a thickening agent for
puddings, fruit sauces, and Asian cooking. It is also used in combination with
other flours for baking.
Cornmeal Cornmeal can be ground
from either yellow or white corn. This is often combined with flours for
baking. It imparts a strong corn flavor that is delicious in pancakes, waffles,
or muffins.
Chestnut flour Greyish in colour and sweet-tasting is
popular in Corsica for breads, cakes and pastas. It is the original
ingredient for "polenta", still used as such in Corsica and other
Mediterranean locations. Chestnut bread keeps fresh for as long as two weeks. In parts of Italy it is mainly used for desserts. It gives baked
goods a nice chewy texture. Try it in white bread or French bread recipes. It
is also easily combined with cornstarch and soy flour
Chickpea flour is of great importance in Indian
cuisine and in Italy. Its seeds are
high in protein. Also known as garbanzo bean, ceci bean, chana, sanagalu, and Bengal gram.
Coconut flour made from
ground coconut meat and has the highest fiber content of any flour, having a
very low concentration of digestible carbohydrates makes an excellent choice
for those looking to restrict their carbohydrate intake.
Kamut
and Spelt Flours These
are ancient forms of wheat. While they aren't appropriate for gluten-free
diets, they can be often be tolerated by people with wheat allergy.
Potato Starch Flour This is a
gluten-free thickening agent that is perfect for cream-based soups and sauces.
Mix it a little with water first, then substitute potato starch flour for flour
in your recipe, but use half the amount called for.
Potato Flour often confused with potato starch, is a
peeled, cooked potato, mashed, mostly drum dried and ground potato flakes using the
whole potato and thus containing the protein and some of the fibers of the
potato. Having an off-white slightly yellowish colour. Potato flour is cold-water soluble.
Peasemeal or Pea
Flour is a flour
produced from roasted and pulverized yellow field peas.
Mesquite
Flour is made
from the dried and ground pods of the Mesquite tree which grows throughout North
America in arid climates. The flour has a sweet, slightly nutty flavor and can
be used in a wide variety of applications. Rich in dietary fiber (25%)
and protein (13%). It also contains significant quantities of calcium,
magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and the amino acid lysine, and it is low-fat
(only 3%).
Soy
Flour This
nutty-tasting flour has a high protein and fat content. It's best when used in
combination with other flours, for baking.
Sorghum Flour made from
grinding whole grains of the sorghum plant. It is called jowar in India. It is one of the better
flours to use as the base for flour mixes.
Tapioca
Flour Is
a purified form (pure starch)of cassava flour which comes from the roots of the
cassava plant.
White
Rice Flour This
is an excellent basic flour for gluten-free baking. Because it has such a bland
flavour, it is perfect for baking, as it doesn't impart any flavors. It works
better with other flours as it tends to crumble. Look for types called fine-textured white rice
flour. depending on how finely it’s milled,
cornmeal can be used for making bread or dishes such as Mexican tortillas or Italian polenta. Available in
most health food and supermarkets.
Gfree flour
mix from allrecipes.com
