Adventures in gluten free baking

[Speedy]

So! Today I went to the bulk store and got some gluten free flours with which to start playing. I kind of just went on my own personal knowledge and thoughts rather than following a premade recipe per se. I started with biscuits, since that's what inspired this, and I had some mild success. They're definitely not as flaky as regular flour biscuits (gluten flour?) but they've got some flake, and a good flavor to them. I'll probably keep working and tweaking, but if you want to give it a try, go for it.


I started by making some flour. I combined 1 lb of rice flour with 2 tbsp each of tapioca flour starch and potato starch.



2 cups flour mix

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter (alternative, or half butter/alternative and half shortening)

1 cup buttermilk, milk, or milk alternative



Form into patties and bake at 400* for 15 minutes.

Unfortunately they're a little too sticky to roll and cut.

[Speedy]

BTW, I'm assuming ya'll know how to cut in the butter lol.
I remember there was also talk about brownies so I'm thinking that's going to be next.

[Speedy]

I'll have to go back down to the bulk food store. The flour mix I made seems pretty good for savoury foods. I'm thinking that for sweet goods I'll probably do something like almond flour, sweet rice flour, and tapioca flour

[sheilathetank]

My mother is a gluten free pastry chef. If you run into any issues or need tips, let me know and I can see what she suggests.

[rugger]

Jan 11, 2019 19:34:41 GMT -6 sheilathetank said:

My mother is a gluten free pastry chef. If you run into any issues or need tips, let me know and I can see what she suggests.

I think any general tips would be appreciated by the GF crowd here.

[sheilathetank]

Jan 11, 2019 20:00:09 GMT -6 rugger said:

Jan 11, 2019 19:34:41 GMT -6 sheilathetank said:

My mother is a gluten free pastry chef. If you run into any issues or need tips, let me know and I can see what she suggests.

I think any general tips would be appreciated by the GF crowd here.

I'll ask her tomorrow when she gets up.

[Speedy]

I went back and tried the biscuits again and they're actually better than I first thought. Very moist, good flake, you can cut them and they don't crumble. Only issue is they're a tiny bit salty but I think that might be me adding too much salt. Definitely not mad at them!

[tj]

Jan 11, 2019 20:06:25 GMT -6 sheilathetank said:

Jan 11, 2019 20:00:09 GMT -6 rugger said:

I think any general tips would be appreciated by the GF crowd here.

I'll ask her tomorrow when she gets up.

I fucking knew it! You are totally my kill spirit.

[sheilathetank]

Jan 11, 2019 20:39:44 GMT -6 tj said:

Jan 11, 2019 20:06:25 GMT -6 sheilathetank said:

I'll ask her tomorrow when she gets up.

I fucking knew it! You are totally my kill spirit.

Well technically the credit goes to my mom for this one. 😉

[tj]

Jan 11, 2019 20:41:28 GMT -6 sheilathetank said:

Jan 11, 2019 20:39:44 GMT -6 tj said:

I fucking knew it! You are totally my kill spirit.

Well technically the credit goes to my mom for this one. 😉

“Technically” sure. But you are our liaison. And that makes you stellar.

[grumpycakes]

Is kill spirit a thing the kids are saying these days?

[milano]

Jan 12, 2019 17:49:08 GMT -6 grumpycakes said:

Is kill spirit a thing the kids are saying these days?

Kill spirits are totally rad.

[rugger]

Ok this isn't a GF question, but it is a baking-substitutes question, so I'm hijacking this thread for a sec.

Anyone have thoughts on the best milk-alternative to use in sourdough English muffins? The recipe I want to use calls for 1 cup of milk. Normally, I'd go for canned coconut milk, but not sure if that's the best choice for English muffins.

What about flax milk? Or oat milk? Or something else completely? Thoughts??

[tj]

rugger I’m feeling nut milk. I agree that coconut feels too heavy to me.

[rugger]

Jan 14, 2019 20:08:56 GMT -6 tj said:

rugger I’m feeling nut milk. I agree that coconut feels too heavy to me.

But would Almond milk be too...nutty? Is cashew milk more mild?

[mapleme]

Jan 14, 2019 20:11:08 GMT -6 rugger said:

Jan 14, 2019 20:08:56 GMT -6 tj said:

rugger I’m feeling nut milk. I agree that coconut feels too heavy to me.

But would Almond milk be too...nutty? Is cashew milk more mild?

My vote would be for oat milk. The oatyness would blend well with the flour and toasted cornmeal.

[tj]

Would nutty be a bad thing??

Ive never cooked with oat milk. But I’m sure it’ll be fine. I matter what you use.

[Speedy]

I personally find cashew milk to be the most similar nut milk to cow milk, but agree that oat milk might be the best. Try it and let us know!

[grumpycakes]

rugger I always had the best luck with unsweetened carton coconut milk for baking bread products. It’s not as rich or coconutty as canned. I find nut and oat milks make the bread too heavy and dense.

[rugger]

Jan 15, 2019 20:53:12 GMT -6 grumpycakes said:

rugger I always had the best luck with unsweetened carton coconut milk for baking bread products. It’s not as rich or coconutty as canned. I find nut and oat milks make the bread too heavy and dense.

Well, dang. I picked up a shelf-stable carton of oat milk yesterday. Don't want it to go to waste, so I'll try it out, but will definitely keep the carton of coconut milk in mind if I fell the need to change it to next time

[brandiewine11]

Jan 15, 2019 20:53:12 GMT -6 grumpycakes said:

rugger I always had the best luck with unsweetened carton coconut milk for baking bread products. It’s not as rich or coconutty as canned. I find nut and oat milks make the bread too heavy and dense.

Same. Even now I always use this for baking as it what we have on hand anyway. Never an issue and I don't think it lends a coconut taste at all. 

[Speedy]

I haven't gotten around to making brownies yet, but I wanted to report in and say that I used my flour mix for chocolate chip cookies the other day and it worked out fabulously. As a gluten eating person, even I found them to be delicious. I just subbed it out 1 for 1 and added about a tbsp of milk to the mix. I did have to cook them right away since I was in a bit of a hurry, but if I had time I would have made the dough and put it in the fridge for at least an hour or 2, so that the starches could work. I've also made chocolate chip cookies a ton of times with margarine (the stick kind works best to sub for butter) and it turns out fine, might not even need the milk that way since margarine tends to be a bit more liquid-y. I can toss up my chocolate chip cookie recipe if anyone would like that one in particular.

[Speedy]

Reviving this thread because I'm planning on starting my experimenting again. I have a good friend who was recently doing allergy tests and was told she's allergic to wheat flour. She's also allergic to dairy and eggs. I love to treat my friends and she's agreed to be a guinea pig lol.
Does anyone have any ideas for a decent all purpose egg replacement? I know of flax eggs and cornstarch eggs. Has anyone done any experimenting themselves?

[mapleme]

Nov 24, 2021 0:57:50 GMT -6 Speedy said:

Reviving this thread because I'm planning on starting my experimenting again. I have a good friend who was recently doing allergy tests and was told she's allergic to wheat flour. She's also allergic to dairy and eggs. I love to treat my friends and she's agreed to be a guinea pig lol.
Does anyone have any ideas for a decent all purpose egg replacement? I know of flax eggs and cornstarch eggs. Has anyone done any experimenting themselves?

What egg replacer you should use depends greatly on what you're making.