Hello!As you may know, all the recipes found on this blog are Gluten Free! Gluten Free baking can be intimidating. The four ratios can be finicky, though once you play around with it for a while, you can start to get a feel for how the consistency of dough and batters should look like, and understand what flours you should use for which recipes.
I feel like any gluten-free baker has their favorite blend of flours that they know they can rely on and expect to work in most recipes. Here is my favorite mix, I have been using it in place of regular flour for most baked goods lately, and it hasn't given me any problems yet. I like it because there aren't any strange 'specialty' ingredients in it like arrowroot, or quinoa flour...though they would both work well too.
1 C Sorghum flour
1 C Oat flour
1 C Potato/Corn starch
1 C Brown Rice flour/Sweet white rice flour*
2 T Gluten free baking powder
*sweet white rice flour will yield a flour that resembles a white, 'all purpose' flour.
If you want a 'whole wheat' flour feel, you can substitute the rice flour for teff flour.
I do agree with the many assertions that gluten free baking works better when the ingredients are weighed out using a food scale. Maybe someday I'll do a post on measured out flours using a scale, but I like this for most recipes. The benefit to weighing flours out is it ensures that the proportions are exactly equal, when you measure flours out using a measuring cup the amounts can vary depending on the weight of the flour and how much it is packed into the measuring cup. If it is weighed out, then the amounts are consistent. BUT, the majority of the time, I'm too impatient to measure out flour and would much rather scoop a cup of flour from a large bin like the majority of people, and that's where this blend comes in. It's quite flexible, and I will add different flours depending on what I have on hand. I will add more oat flour (my favorite part of the blend) if I make a bit too much, for example.
Now Spring is almost upon us, so enough of the white flours, here's some colorful flowers to look at, though I don't suggest you eat them :)
I will be trying this combination for pizza dough. Any thoughts? I haven't been able to find a great g-free pizza dough. They are flat, tasteless or have too many herbs, and are just plain awful. I want a pizza I can sink my teeth into again.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Jacqueline
I am so sorry, I have been away for awhile, but I am back and working diligently on getting more recipes back up here! Pizza dough can be tricky because of the characteristic 'chewie-ness' and stretch of the dough that gluten gives pizza. I would suggest using a little xanthan gum in the flour mixture to help with that.
DeleteBut pizza dough is a great suggestion, and I will work on one to add to this blog! Thank you!
Here is another question. Where can I buy Sorghum flour? I have found all the other ingredients at Meijer, but not he Sorghum. Is there another name for it or where I can go? I live in southeast Michigan. Thanks -Jacqueline
ReplyDeleteHello!
DeleteI have been able to find Sorghum at Whole Foods and sometimes at Kroger. Lately I have also been grinding up oatmeal to a fine flour in a food processor, and substituting that if I am running low on any of my other flours. It has worked pretty well for me so far. I hope this helps!