Gluten Free Flour

Not All Gluten Free Flours Are Created Equal....Are You Looking For Something Better?

Sunday afternoon I pulled out a packaged cookie from the cupboard that I had received as a sample at the Gluten Free Expo in Des Moines a couple weeks ago and was reminded of why I am putting so much effort into making my own recipes and specifically my own gluten free flour blend.  I took one bite of the sample cookie and threw the whole thing away...why?  The texture from the rice flour in the cookie was so grainy that any taste or other redeeming qualities that cookie may have had were completely lost by the horrible texture.  This brand isn't the only one out there either.  Literally almost everything available to gluten free people on the store shelves contains rice flour.  Don't take this the wrong way--I am not anti rice as a food cooked and served with some veggies or meat, but rice as a flour and used in baked goods?  Thanks, but I'll pass.

When I initially found out that I was gluten free I told myself I wasn't going to eat nasty food....I would just go without bread if grainy and dried out was the only option available.  Once I started doing some research though I realized that there ARE other options; but it seems that no one is willing to experiment with other flours and completely eliminate rice flour.  Why is that?  It doesn't make any sense.  The only answer I can come up with is that rice flour is cheap and really doesn't have any flavor....but it also doesn't really add any nutritional value either.  

Back when I first started experimenting with various recipes and flours/flour blends I didn't have much success.  I threw a number of "experiments" away...I'm not even sure some of them could be called whatever they were supposed to be.  It took me four or five times before I found a pancake that I could actually eat.  I kept experimenting with various flours and finally created a blend of eight different ingredients (and NO rice flour!) that I could use almost cup-for-cup for a regular recipe.  I say almost because while the recipes that I did try just replacing my flour blend for regular flour did work, they weren't great without a few other tweaks to the recipe.  What I love about this flour blend is that I have made several baked products that people can't even tell are gluten free--the most exciting of which is the Devil's Food Cupcake recipe I created several weeks ago.  (Anyone reading this blog that tasted my cupcakes and wants to comment that would be great!)  :o)  Previously in another blog post I gave a recipe for a simple gluten free flour mixture that can be used for recipes.  I have since created a flour blend that contains eight different ingredients and is nutritionally superior to other rice flour blends. This new flour blend has a texture very similar to regular gluten-containing flour in baked goods.  I am hoping to start selling this blend very soon.  Post a note in the comments if you are interested in purchasing some flour, and I will keep you posted when I am able to get everything finalized...hopefully in the next week or so.