When you find out that you need to eat gluten free one of the first things you have to figure out is how to feed yourself.  For those with no special dietary needs it’s pretty simple.  Grab whatever meets your budget and tastes from the store.  For some of us it’s not that simple.  We have to think through what is safe for us, what is affordable, and then what is of halfway decent quality and as close as possible to the ‘regular’ food that we miss.  Never is that more obvious than when it comes to flour.  Wheat flour is a pretty simple and straightforward thing to buy.  Gluten free flour, on the other hand, is a unique balance of ingredients to try to most closely replicate the structure and quality of ‘regular’ flour.  Finding just the right recipe for a gluten free flour mix is a vital first step in gluten free baking.

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Gluten Free Flour Recipe

Many years after going gluten free I felt like I had hit my stride and knew exactly what I was doing.  Then along came one of my children who had a multitude of allergies I’d never dealt with before.  All of a sudden everything I knew about gluten free baking was out the window!  I had to figure everything out again when both almonds and rice became off-limits ingredients.  Thank goodness that stubborn streak that used to get me in trouble as a kid hadn’t worn off!  I researched all sorts of different flours and starches to find just the right blend.

Sorghum Flour

There are only 5 ingredients in my gluten free flour recipe, and the first one is whole grain sorghum flour. It offers a few distinct advantages.  First of all, it has a decent amount of protein, which helps maintain structure in our baked goods.  It’s also a bit of a nutritional powerhouse of an ingredient with good amounts of iron and several trace minerals.

Millet Flour

Whole Grain millet flour is the other ‘flour’ in in my recipe.  It adds a softness to gluten free baked goods.  Much like sorghum, it’s also full of wonderful nutrients like calcium and iron.

Cornstarch

Up next is cornstarch.  This should be a pretty familiar ingredient to you, even if you’re brand new to gluten free living.  It’s commonly used as a thickener, or to coat meat before cooking (like in a stir-fry).  It’s also a mainstay of gluten free baking!  It helps to add a lightness to gluten free baked goods without causing things to dry out too much.

Potato Starch

Much like cornstarch, potato starch (NOT potato flour) helps to keep gluten free baked goods light and airy.  In this gluten free flour mix I use both because they balance each other out.  Too much cornstarch can cause your final product to be a bit on the gummy side, but too much potato starch can make things overly dry and crumbly.  By using both, you get the best of both worlds!

Tapioca Starch

Tapioca starch is the final ingredient in the gluten free flour mix.  Similar to cornstarch and potato starch, tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour) helps to act as a binder in gluten free baked goods.  It helps offer different texture notes to the finished product, though.  Adding tapioca starch to your mix will help give it some crispness and chewiness.  It also helps things to brown a bit better, which can be harder to achieve in gluten free baking.