UPDATED: 4/13/11
A fundamental component of many of our recipes - especially baked goods - is our Artisan Gluten-Free Flour Blend. Those of you who own a copy of our cookbook, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking, will already be familiar with it (the recipe is on page 15). We're also continually developing new recipes for the NGNP blog, and use the Artisan GF Flour Blend there as well. So...it only made sense to post the recipe here on NGNP so it's readily accessible.
Single Batch (about 3 cups)
1 1/4 cups (156g) brown rice flour
3/4 cup (88g) sorghum flour
2/3 cup (90g) cornstarch
1/4 cup (37g) potato starch
1 tbsp + 1 tsp (14g) potato flour
1 tsp (3g) xanthan gum
Quadruple Batch (about 12 cups)
5 cups (625g) brown rice flour
3 cups (350g) sorghum flour
2 2/3 (360g) cups cornstarch
1 cup (148g) potato starch
1/3 cup (57g) potato flour
1 tbsp + 1 tsp (14g) xanthan gum
Common Substitutions
If you have a sensitivity to one of the components in the flour blend, not to worry. True to our blog title, that's no problem! Try these straightforward substitutions:
Sorghum - omit the sorghum, and substitute additional brown rice flour
Corn - omit the cornstarch, and substitute arrowroot flour (use about 2/3 as much arrowroot as you would cornstarch)
Potato - omit the potato starch and flour, and substitute 1/3 cup tapioca starch (or 1 1/3 cups tapioca for a quadruple batch)
Measuring Flour
By cup measure... Use the spooned flour method of measuring. Use a spoon to stir and lightly aerate your master batch of flour. Then use the spoon to scoop flour into your measuring cup. Lastly, use a straight edge, such as a knife, to level the cup of flour. Voila! (For more background on differences in volumetric flour measuring, check out this post.)
By weight... One cup of Artisan Gluten-Free Flour Blend weighs 125g. 'Nuff said.
- Pete
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
42 comments:
I've tried your blend with the potato subbed out and it works great!!
I recently used your blend to make corn muffins - used your corn bread recipe AND the muffins were superb! No onw would ever believe that they were gluten free! GB
THANK you for showing the recipe for your gluten free flour mix on your blog. Your book looks really good and I WILL buy it. You make me want to go out West and also to cook and bake great food! Thanks again, Kay Guest
Hi Stephanie... Glad to hear the potato sub worked well!
Hi Anonymous (#1)... So glad you enjoyed the corn muffins! Thanks for the compliments.
Hi Anonymous (#2, AKA Kay)... Very happy to share the recipe! Cooking and baking great GF food is much easier than people think! =)
Cheers, Pete
ok, I am math challenged. lol but when you say substitute about 2/3 arrowroot for what you would sub for cornstarch what would that be? Do you mean 2/3 of the 2/3 ? lol I am sure this is very straight forward, but I am not getting it. I am thinking for the quad batch it would be about 2 cups to sub the arrowroot, but I don't get the single batch. Am I following that right? I'd like to try the single batch first, but flours are expensive and I don't want to mess it up at that price. Thanks! Kelly
Hi CooperKelly4... You'd use 2/3 as much arrowroot flour as you would for whatever base quantity of cornstarch you're talking about. So, for a single batch of flour, you'd use 2/3 of 2/3 cup. This works out to just less than 1/2 a cup arrowroot flour for a single batch, and 1 3/4 cups arrowroot flour for a quadruple batch.
Cheers, Pete
I just bought your book, and am in the process of tagging recipes. Does the GF flour blend substiture 1:1 for a non GF recipe calling for all-purpose flour?
Hi Budger... Yes. Our Artisan Gluten-Free Flour Blend works great as a 1:1 substitution for all-purpose recipe. Some recipes will require modification (either more or less flour than a 1:1 ratio, and possibly supplemental xanthan gum), but 1:1 is a great place to start with any recipe.
Cheers, Pete
Is there a substitute for xanthan gum?
Hi MerrySunshine... We personally have never made a substitution for the xanthan gum. It's one of those magic ingredients in GF baking that's almost irreplaceable, at least in our experience. The most common substitution would be to use guar gum. However, guar gum's thickening properties don't hold up well with heat, hence xg tends to be overwhelmingly preferred for baking. If using guar gum, us about 1.5 times as much as you would xanthan gum to account for this difference in performance.
Cheers, Pete
How about some weights for the various ingredients? I weighed 3 different carefully measured cupfuls of brown rice flour and got weights ranging from 125 to 133 grams. However the standard conversion for rice flour is 1 cup = 160 grams. There's a substantial difference in volume between 125 grams and 160 grams. It would be really helpful to those of us who weigh our ingredients to know how much your cupfuls weigh.
Hi Molly... Thanks for your comment. So far, we haven't taken the time to work out weights for the components of our flour blend for two reasons. First, only a small handful of people have requested it. And secondly, when it comes to measuring ingredients at the level of teaspoons and tablespoons (as for the xanthan gum), we don't own a kitchen scale that sensitive (and we're betting that most of our readers don't either). However, we do know that there are folks like you who would like the weights. At such point as we have a scale that will work for that purpose, we'll record the weights and update the post. Until then, the spooned flour method of measuring has never failed us - stir your flour with a spoon, spoon the flour into a measuring cup, and use a straight edge to level the cup. I get consistent results every time. Your three trials were within 6% of one another. If you get that kind of consistency using the spooned flour method of cup measuring, I'd say to trust those numbers...
Cheers, Pete
Does the bread freeze well?
Hi Anonymous... I'll be honest. We've never frozen the bread. It just doesn't last that long in our house - we eat it too soon! But, I don't see any reason why it would freeze well. Slice it first, freeze it, and then thaw and lightly toast slices as you would any other frozen GF bread.
Cheers, Pete
Thank you so much for posting the weights for your blend! That makes substitutions so much easier for me, since the different kinds of flours and starches have different weights.
I noticed that in your flour blend substitution list, you had substitutes for all but the rice flour. I can't have rice. Is there a substitute for the rice flour?
Hi Anonymous... The brown rice flour is the fundamental basis for our flour blend, making up the highest portion by both volume and weight. As such, we currently don't have a substitution for it. However, you can try using a rice-free GF all-purpose flour blend with our recipes. Other readers with rice sensitivities have taken this route to good effect. Hope this helps!
Cheers, Pete
Pete,
When you state that the weight of your flour is 124g, how did you come by that number?
I have found that if I use that weight to convert your recipes in your book, I end up needing a bit more flour (specific recipes are the pizza dough and the sandwich bread).
Just now I measured a cup of the flour mix using the scoop and level method (as per recommended), and it was 132g. Now I know why I have more success doing volumes in the recipes vs. weight.
I guess I should also note that I use the arrowroot substitution (can't have corn) which makes everything a bit lighter.
Anyway, I would be interested in comparing notes. Have you had any issues using 124g as a weight replacement for the recipes?
Hi Susan,
The short answer is that we arrived at 124g per cup by two different methods: a) finding the average weight of our flour blend, when the master batch was measured out by volume, and b) finding the average weight of the flour blend, when the component flour ingredients were measured out by weight, and then weighing cups of the mixed flour blend. I took the average of 10 individual cup measurements, and no single cup deviated from the average by more than 2 grams.
The longer answer is that, for recipes developed by cup measure, prior to our conversion to baking by weight, 124g per cup is a close approximation, but an imperfect one.
For example, when measuring by cup volume, although Kelli and I use the exact same method, our respective cups of flour weigh slightly different, because of subtle differences in how we level our cups of flour.
For another example, while 1 cup of flour might weigh 124g, 1/2 cup of flour does not equal 124g divided by 2, nor does 1/4 cup flour equal 124g divided by 4. That's because 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1 cup flour all have slightly different densities. (Said another way, if you measured 1 cup flour, and if you measured 4 quarter cups of flour, in both cases, you'd have one total cup of flour. But they'd weigh differently, because the four individual quarter cups had a different density than the single 1 cup.) Thus, if you're making a recipe that, say, calls for 1 3/4 cups flour, you'd volumetrically measure out 1 cup plus 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup, for example. That result will be different than measuring out 124g x 1.75. Make sense?
So...that's a long-winded way of saying, for our older recipes, 124g is pretty darn close, but not always perfect. We personally haven't had much trouble using it in our older recipes, but feedback such as yours is helpful.
Thanks!
Pete
I can't find sorgham (sp?) or potato flour, though stores here do have potato starch. I replaced the S flour with brown rice flour per the recipe, but used home-ground oat flour instead of the potato flour. I'm new to G free baking, but a blog I read said potato flour is "gummy" and so are oats. It seemed to work.
CAUTION TO THOSE WITH TRUE CELIAC (rather than those like my husband with a mild intolerance): only use certified gluten-free oats if you try this. Quick cooking works best if you have to use a coffee grinder to grind them.
Hi MK... Thanks for sharing your substitution. As we note, you can also always omit both the potato starch and flour, and use tapioca starch instead.
Cheers, Pete
I can't have tapioca flour (despite having just bought a 2 kilogram bag.. D'oh!), is there anything you recommend to substitute it?
Thanks!
This is a great blend - thank you so much! Your book is on my holiday list this year :-)
Quick question - once I make the big batch of the flour mix, should I store it in the freezer? And how long would it keep well stored in an airtight container, not frozen?
Thank you for all your hard work that we are benefiting from!
Hi Gabs... I'll admit, I'm confused by your tapioca question. Our flour blend doesn't call for it, unless you're specifically substituting tapioca for one of the ingredients, such as potato. All the substitutions are listed in the post.
Hi KarenTaylor... Many thanks for your compliments! If you use the flour blend regularly, there's no need to store it in the freezer. Kept in an airtight container, it should be good at room temp for weeks. If you don't use it often, keep it in the fridge.
Cheers, Pete
I have an allergy to rice flour, tapioca flour and am finding it hard to find a recipe for a flour mixture without those two. I bought almond meal/flour and quinoa flour. Could I use those instead of the rice flour, and if so, in what quantity? I found potato starch but not potato flour and I also couldn't find sorghum flour. Is there anyway you can help?
Hi Nicole... Almond flour, Coconut flour, Potato starch and flour, Bean flours (garbanzo and fava), Quinoa flour, and Buckwheat flour are all options for you to create a blend. You'd want to use some, but not all. We don't use some of those flours regularly in our own baking, so I'm reluctant to suggest quantities and ratios. In general, you'll probably want to have a good amount of whole grain / high protein flours, plus some starches to help texture. You might also try checking some paleo and/or grain-free blogs, since they'll stay away from the rice flour. Hope this helps!
Cheers, Pete
I am beyond excited to find this recipe and I just put your book into my cart at chapters.ca.
We are recently gluten free due to our daughters allergy and sensitivities and this is going to help us out a lot.
thanks again!
Hi Annie... Welcome to No Gluten, No Problem! We're honored to be a resource for you as you adjust to your daughter's gluten sensitivity. Happy gluten-free cooking and baking!
Cheers, Pete
Is there a way to make this without rice flour? I am allergic to wheat, rice, soy, grains, seeds, etc... I have been experimenting with corn flour, almond flour, and potato flour...
Hi Melaney... Whole grain brown rice flour is the main ingredient of our blend, and we don't have a convenient substitution for it. Many readers have had good success using other all-purpose GF flour blends with our recipes. Given your dietary restrictions, you might consider blends that use nut and bean flours. Also, I noticed you said you are allergic to grains AND that you are experimenting with corn flour. These would seem to contraindicate, so be careful.
Cheers, Pete
Hi! I left a message a while back about being allergic totapioca - i meant i'm allergic to tapioca AND potatoes. Any suggestions?
I'm new to the site and I've already learned a lot. I have a friend that needs gluten free baked goods (especially cookies) and he doesn't bake, so I'm doing my homework here.
In your flour recipe you indicate that you can replace the potato flour and potato starch with tapioca starch (I assume you mean starch and not flour). If you replace those two with tapioca starch the cost differnce is considerably more expensive. My friend isn't allergic to potato so would there be any other reason (better taste, better consistency, etc.) to replace the potato with the much more expensive tapioca starch?
By the way, I love the fact that you give the precise weight measurements rather than just cup measurements. This makes a lot more sense! (by the way, you didn't give weight measurements for the tapioca starch).
Rather than worrying about sifting vs. spooning, wouldn't it be easier to just use a proper weight as a "cup" measurement equivalent? Would the sifted weight of 4 ounces be the best choice.... whether you actually sifted it or not? I have gram scale that I use for cooking.
Thanks for all your research!
Hi Gabs... If you're allergic to both potato and tapioca, omit them and use additional cornstarch. That's probably your best bet. Good luck, and happy baking!
Cheers, Pete
Hi Anonymous... Glad you've found our blog, and that it's been a good resource for your gluten-free baking! The primary flour blend recipe is one we recommend. We provide alternatives, such as tapioca in lieu of potato, for people who may have additional sensitivities to ingredients in the blend, such as potato. We only recommend making those subs if you need or want to. We do offer a "proper weight measurement" as you note, for one cup of flour. It's all there in the post. Happy baking!
Cheers, Pete
My husband and I are new to eating gluten-free and so far I've had great success with your recipes! Unfortunately some of the health food stores we've gotten ingredients from don't list much information on their packages. I was just wondering if you happened to know the nutritional information on your flour blend, either per cup or for a batch? Thanks so much!
Hi A.Kitchen... You can see the nutritional info of our Artisan GF Flour Blend per cup, in comparison to roughly a dozen other all purpose GF flour blends, in a blog post here: http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.com/2011/01/great-gluten-free-all-purpose-flour.html
Cheers, Pete
I recently bought Gluten-Free Cupcakes in order to accommodate my granddaughter's allergies to wheat and corn. I substituted the cornstarch and xanthan with arrowroot starch and guar gum. Taste and texture were very good. Husband really like the Chocolate cupcake, however, I started noticing a slight bitter after taste. As I am new to GF baking, is this generally the case or is it something I'm possibly doing wrong? Thank you.
Hi JeanneW... Glad you've enjoyed the taste and texture of the cupcakes! You shouldn't be getting a bitter aftertaste from the chocolate cupcakes. Two possible culprits come to mind: 1) some brands of guar gum will impart an aftertaste, and 2) depending on the chocolate/cocoa you're using, some darker chocolates will naturally have a more bitter flavor.
Cheers, Pete
I love the flour blend as is when I want a "whole wheat" taste. For more of an "all purpose" taste, I replace 2/3 of the sorghum with millet. This lightens the flavor and provides an almost malty character just like regular all-purpose wheat flour!
Sounds great, Cynthia!
Cheers, Pete
Post a Comment