Monday, April 17, 2006

Gluten-Free Flour Mix

For a long time my wife and I would use different proportions of our various gluten-free flour types for our various recipes. Then my wife invented this blend, which works for almost anything and makes baking much simpler!

1 part
  • Tapioca Flour
  • Potato Starch
  • Rice Flour
  • Quinoa Flour
2 parts
  • Amaranth Flour
3 parts
  • Millet Flour
We buy our quinoa, amaranth, and millet as grain and use a grain mill for our DeLonghi mixer. Tapioca flour, potato starch, and rice flour seem cheaper to purchase as already-ground flour, especially at certain Asain grocery stores.

Normally we do enough baking for a "part" to be 1 cup, so this mix prepares 9 cups of flour mix at a time. In the heat of summer we make less at a time.

Different grains have different protiens and different amounts of important vitamins. Even if we did not have anyone gluten-intolerant in the family, we would probably still use a flour mix similar to this one but with some whole wheat flour added, so our baking would be healthier than if it used only wheat flour.

This recipe will not work for certain breads (such as challah) that require the texture of glutenous flours. But it works for a surprising variety of recipes!

The flours that have gluten are the same flours that are not allowed during Pesach according to Sephardic customs (because when wet they naturally self-leaven). Among this flour mix's benefits is that it is usable during Pesach for recipes without yeast, baking soda, or baking powder.

UPDATE: During 2007 we changed our flour mix twice. The newer version are here.