When it comes to working with Gluten-free flours, I really believe weighing them is best. I first learned about weighing vs measuring from The Gluten-free girl. One cup of Sorghum flour is not equal to one cup of Potato starch. I really don't even think you can compare Gluten-free to traditional flour when it comes to measuring in a recipe, they are totally different creatures. I know that some GF cookbooks still advocate measuring with a cup, but I think that is best left to the professionals.
So, what do you do if you want to try substituting in GF flours for traditional? My All-Purpose flour mix is a good place to start. You can sub in the same weight of other flours as long as you trade a flour for a flour and a starch for a starch. But what if you want to experiment and make a different mix? Or use all of one or two flours?
A great place to start is this blog. If you scroll down a bit on the page, you will see a PDF file that contains the weights of 1 "cup" worth of all the different GF flours. So, for instance, if you wanted to try a recipe with only Brown rice flour you would need to use 158 grams to equal 1 cup of traditional flour.
As with using Guar Gum and Xanthan Gum, I think a mix is best. You get different textures and subtle taste differences with mixes. I have tried recipes that use all Almond flour and (to me) they have an odd, greasy aftertaste because of all the oil in the nuts. But if you mix a bit of Almond flour in with other flours, you get a subtle nutty taste that is great. Same goes for Coconut flour.
Don't be afraid to experiment. It wasn't until I was motivated financially to play around with flours that I came up with my all-purpose mix.
Hi Heather,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Tina Jin, the community manager for a new blogger community called Gluten Free (www.atomicreach.com/tribe/glutenfree). This is a feed powered by Atomic Reach, and features bloggers writing about being or becoming gluten free. This community will focus on food, diet, tips, advice and personal stories on the subject. I want this Gluten Free community to be a place where expert advice and tips are consolidated in one place for everyone to digest.
If you decide to join, Gluten Free will publish the title of your posts and the first few sentences of each post. If readers want to read the full story, they’ll be pushed to your blog and give you traffic. These readers will be people who share the same passion and interests as you, which is the sole purpose of the community.
If you’re interested in joining our community, please e-mail me back at tinajin @ atomicreach.com with “Gluten Free” in the subject line. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.
Sincerely,
Tina