Posts Tagged ‘Gluten-free oats’

Updated Gluten-free Flour Recipe(s).

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
amaranth

amaranth... naturally gluten-free, essential to our flour blends

I don’t believe there has been one moment in the last several years, that our gluten-free flour blend recipe has not been in a transition. Trying to create a blend of flours to be an all-purpose substitute for the one thing you aren’t using… gluten. It get’s tricky. But, if only….

My conclusion is that one flour blend is not enough! Little by little, we abandoned the idea of one working blend to achieve a wide variety of results and textures. We currently use three  distinct formulas for different final results.

We are also conscious of that almost omnipresent gritty texture, commonly found in gluten-free baked goods, which we believe we successfully avoid or exploit in some cases. For example, brown rice flour is uniquely well suited to making gluten-free shortbread!

I encourage people to be very skeptical when they encounter recipes that suggest you substitute a gluten-free flour blend 1 for 1 to make a gluten-free version”.  For one thing, the amount of liquid absorbed by various gluten-free flours is going to effect recipes differently. Perhaps your results will be edible, but will they be exceptional? If your going to take the time to gather ingredients and bake, shouldn’t you feel like what you make is good, not just good enough. Or, worser, good for gluten-free!!!

BROWNIE BLEND

This a dense blend we use in our brownie recipes. The blend itself has flours that absorb moisture and make a nice fudgy brownie. The brownies also use buckwheat flour to reinforce that fudgy  texture. This blend is perfect for brownies, but little else.

  • 7.5 ounces garfava flour
  • 6 ounces brown rice flour
  • 6 ounces potato flour
  • 4.5 ounces tapioca flour
  • 4 ounces amaranth flour

LIGHT BLEND

This is an ultra light whole grain flour blend we use for more cakey muffins, layer cakes, cookies and tarts. This blend is super light and fluffy. It has the most neutral character of all our flour blends. In changing to this flour, I find I need to use a little more xanthan gum and a little extra flour. I am using maybe an extra 1/2 ounce per 8 ounces of flour. The results bake light and maintain their rise.

  • 6 ounces amaranth flour
  • 10 ounces garfava flour
  • 5 ounces brown rice flour
  • 12 ounces  tapioca flour
  • 12 ounces sorghum flour

HIGH PROTEIN FLOUR BLEND

I stumbled upon this recipe a few years back when I was researching our Irish Soda Bread recipe. The recipe referred to this blend as high protein, so we call it that.  We love this in cornbread and quick breads and breadier muffins. It bakes a little bit denser than the light blend and is really nice used in a 50/50 combination with the light blend.

  • 10 ounces garfava flour
  • 10 ounces arrowroot flour
  • 10 ounces tapioca flour
  • 10 ounce millet flour
  • 5 ounces amaranth flour

In addition to selecting the appropriate blend for each recipe, in most recipes, we add different flours, depending on the character of the final item. Some of the flours we use this way are quinoa, almond, coconut, oat flour…

So you see… this idea that you can take a cup of gluten-free flour and use it for a cup of “regular” flour in a “regular” recipe, is kind of an irresponsible statement. Experiment carefully. And beware of recipes that tell you to just use a cup of any gluten-free flour blend.

The key to successful gluten-free baking, in my experience, is finding a way to hide the characteristics of the flours you use in a way that produces a treat that tastes like what you remember. A challenge for sure!!

I hope my experiences help you! I love the challenge of getting to know and use all the different gluten-free flours that are available to us these days. Feel free to share your favorite flour stories.

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Vegan and glutenfree oatmeal raisin cookies

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

vegan glutenfree oatmeal raisin cookies

OK. I love these cookies. We have taste tested and tweaked and perfected this recipe. All that remains is to submit it for the cookbook…. And add some chips and make it our monthly special
(let’s all be polite and not mention that the term monthly when applied to our specials is blatantly inaccurate! Periodic specials sounds weird! Doesn’t it?)

Ingredients: glutenfree oats, organic raisins,organic buckwheat flour, sorghum flour, walnuts, canolaoil, tapioca flour, organic teff flour, organic quinoa flour, organic coconut flour, organic coconut oil, spices, baking soda, xanthan gum, sea salt.

So order the deluxe version now. Or wait for the cookbook and make your own. Either way, please let us know what you think!

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The never ending search for the perfect gluten-free flour blend

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Sweet sorghum growing

Sorghum growing

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED HERE

For the most part, in gluten-free baking I have settled on a blend of flours that works in most recipes. It contains enough *carrier* flours and *functional* flours to yield good results. I generally use this blend for about 1/2 to 3/4 of the flour in a recipe and combine a few favorite flours for the balance of the flour. I find myself using a lot of buckwheat, additional sorghum, coconut, quinoa, amaranth and oats in various combinations, as suits the recipe.  The decision of what to use is based on the desired texture and flavor of the final product.  Most of these flours do not have flavors you want peaking through in your baked good.  Coconut flour in moderation, buckwheat flour and sorghum flour are the obvious exceptions.  Both coconut and buckwheat add a great flavor element to a recipe.  Sorghum is fairly neutral in flavor, while giving a great lightness of texture.  Introducing these flours into a recipe also enhances the nutritional value of gluten-free baked goods, which with lots of starches can be quite low.

In some cases, I find the flour mix without the sorghum is preferred. The choice is really just a way to vary textures in the final products. Often in recipes with this blend, I add sorghum in on its own in larger quantity than in the sorghum mix. Sometimes I use the concentrated starch properties of this blend in combination with other “carrier” flours to carry out a recipe.

So here for your consideration are the two gluten-free blends I have been using. I keep some of each made up at all times. I use far more of the second blend which is really just a sorghum enriched variation of the first.

GLUTEN-FREE BLEND #1

  • 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 cup white rice flour
  • 1 1/4 cup garfava flour
  • 1 1/4 cup potato flour
  • 3/4 cup tapioca flour

GLUTEN-FREE BLEND #2

  • 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 cup white rice flour
  • 1 1/4 cup garfava flour
  • 1 1/4 cup potato flour
  • 3/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1.5 cup sorghum flour

And don’t forget the xanthan gum!

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Posted in gluten-free baking, gluten-free flours | 2 Comments »

Gluten-free flour redux

Friday, August 21st, 2009

When I first started to get more creative with my gluten-free baking, I had the thought that I could create a basic all-purpose flour to use in any recipe. Make baking simple. Who was I kidding? That has never been my way of baking. I like combined flavors more than simple flavors. For gluten-free baking, there are certain properties you want to promote — mostly lightness and cohesion, so a basic mix that accomplishes this is a great idea. It has been a whirl wind of experimentation and researching and tasting! My basic formula has gone through quite a few formulas. I am pretty stuck on the most recent one that I posted recently (July). It is quite bland (in the good sense) and versatile.
Here it is again:

Gluten-free flour blend

  • 1 cup white rice flour
  • 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 1/4 cup garfava flour
  • 1 1/4cup potato flour
  • 3/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1 1/2 cup sorghum flour

This provides a great foundation for most of the recipes I do. Having experimented with several other flours — buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, millet, coconut, gluten-free oat — I have found that if I bake a recipe with at least 50% of this blend, I can then select other flours based on the item I am creating. This blend has good binding properties and is quite light in flavor. It is a lot like all-purpose wheat flour. On its own, it doesn’t have a great flavor profile, but it does a great job holding all the tasty bits together. In most baked goods, I like to boost the flavor with tasty flours or spices or coconut oil!!! The flour on its own works really well in brownies and fruit breads — pumpkin, banana, zucchini, applesauce. As I re-read that sentence, I find myself thinking out loud about trying it in the pumpkin brownies for the fall.
I recently used a combination of buckwheat and coconut flours, along with the blend to make a really tasty chocolate chip cookie. I had been making the cookie with just the flour blend, but it really needed a little more flavor depth. The coconut flour, used in moderation, added a lightness and sweet/rich flavor. The buckwheat also provided a flavor depth, and the cookies baked up really light.

That’s all for now……

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The quest continues: Gluten-free flours

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Those that know me, know I did not select the word “quest” lightly in these on-going discussions of gluten-free flours.  That mocking of my own scientific nature,  is the story of my baking life.  Man, I think about all these crazy flours all the time, and there is just one thing that bugs me.  I miss the nutritional edge my product had when I first started using non-wheat grains.  The evolution from wheat is clearly necessary.  The usage of white flour in our culture is appalling.   Whole wheat flour doesn’t really appeal to me and I don’t use it unless it is requested.  I personally have no allergies or intolerances to any foods.  I prefer to use whole grains that taste good AND add nutrition to the final product.  I am seriously morally opposed to any form of consumption of animal anything.  With these  considerations, I have approached baking.

As the years have passed, I’ve known people with all sorts of food intolerances, and I’ve really enjoyed developing products for them, and for a whole range of consumers.    I think I am good at adapting to all kinds of diets because I think so much.  It is through all this thinking that I have come to my latest dilemma.  I wonder if my product is all that healthy these days?

Many of these gluten-free flours that I have been working with don’t seem to be particularly healthful.  They are not unhealthy,  but they don’t make your snack less sinful.  They make it truly an indulgence.  Here is the nutritional information for tapioca flour, a common gluten-free choice.

Ingredients: tapioca

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size 1/4 cup (30g)
Calories 100 Calories from fat 0
Amount Per Serving – % Daily Value
Total Fat 0g – 0%
Saturated Fat 0g – 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg – 0%
Sodium 0mg – 0%
Total Carbohydrates 26g – 9%
Dietary Fiber 0g – 0%
Sugars 0g
Protein 0g
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 0%
Iron 2%

The bean flours have more nutritional value.   A typical flour I use is garfava flour.  Here is the nutritional information for the same amount of that.

Ingredients:  garbanzo & fava bean flours

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size 1/4 (30g)
Calories 110 Calories from fat 15
Amount Per Serving – % Daily Value
Total Fat 1.50g – 2%
Saturated Fat 0g – 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg – 0%
Sodium 5mg – 0%
Total Carbohydrates 18g – 6%
Dietary Fiber 6g – 24%
Sugars 3g – 8%
Protein 6g – 12%
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 2%
Calcium 4%
Iron 10%

A bit more nourishing.  For me, that is definitely something to consider, although bean flours can have a strong flavor and should be used carefully to avoid changing the flavor of the final product. Now that I have a good basic baking mix that adapts well to all kinds of recipes, instead of changing it, I will start adding small amounts of other flours, as appropriate, especially quinoa and millet, to enhance the nutritional value of the final baked good.  Especially quinoa and millet.  Quinoa and millet are both highly nutritious whole grains.  Gluten-free oats, are another consideration.  I just worked with them for the first time this week.  They are thick and hearty, and worked really well in the fruit bars.  In this recipe I grind them into oat flour.  The thing about using a whole grain, is that it takes up liquid differently than a more purely starch flour.  The tiny oats bits aerated this product beautifully.

And so the quest continues….

My nutritional information is from my good friends at Bob’s Red Mill, without whom, finding quality gluten-free ingredients would be so much harder!

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