Gluten-Free Baking Ingredients: The Full Arsenal

Gluten-Free Baking Ingredients: The Full Arsenal

One of the hardest things about recipe development for gluten-free bread is getting your gluten-free baking ingredients right. For example, the wrong psyllium husk turns your bread purple, and some flours — like stone-ground rice flour — leave your bread gritty and sandy. (In fact, until I discovered wet-milled rice flour, I never baked with rice flour at all.)

These are the gluten-free products I use. These are Amazon affiliate links — gluten-free bread testing is an expensive hobby, so Amazon will pay me a tiny bit if you buy something.

Gluten-Free Rice Flour

Most gluten-free baking arsenals include three: white rice, brown rice, and sticky rice (aka sweet rice flour, aka mochiko). I like Authentic Foods’ California-grown rice (supposedly California rice has less arsenic), but Asian grocery store brands are cheap and excellent in any rice flour recipe.

White Rice Flour is the bulking flour, particularly in white gluten-free recipes. Until I discovered wet-milled fine white rice flour, I relied on starch-heavy gluten-free recipes; now I often use it instead — it’s cheaper, easier to digest than pure starch, and yields bread that isn’t gummy when served warm.

Brown Rice Flour — I hardly use it, but it’s good for feeding your sourdough starter and works as a sub for white rice in a pinch.

Sticky Rice Flour, aka sweet rice flour, aka mochiko, comes from short-grain sticky rice and is best known (in my house, at least) for the coating on mochi ice cream balls. I love using it to add stretch, particularly in enriched breads that tend to break down when eggs and fat are added. Don’t sub it for white rice flour.

Gluten-Free Starches (Potato, Arrowroot, Tapioca)

These give fluff, and — in the case of tapioca and arrowroot — a little chew to your breads, cakes, and cookies. I like Anthony’s Goods; they’re fine, organic, generally reasonably priced, and well-stocked. But honestly, Bob’s Red Mill and other grocery store brands work just fine here too.

• Potato Starch
• Arrowroot Powder
• Tapioca Starch

Ancient Grain Flours for Gluten-Free Baking

Millet brings a slight golden hue, a little nutty sweetness, and a good bit of protein to your gluten-free bakes. It gives focaccia its crisp golden crust, and many of my breads contain millet as the whole-grain component. I prefer Relative Foods’ organic millet, but the Food to Live one isn’t bad, if slightly coarser and yellower.

Sorghum is a very useful flour to have on hand. It’s very absorbent, and too much gives a funny flavor, but used judiciously it’s strong and reasonably neutral. It’s also just really cool — a far more sustainable grain to grow than wheat; the whole world should eat more sorghum, not just us gluten-free folks. I like it white and finely milled, to keep bread from getting gritty.

Teff is the tiniest grain in the world and a staple of Ethiopian cuisine. Ivory and regular teff taste the same, but ivory looks nicer, so that’s what I get. It adds earthiness and protein (i.e., structure) to bread. My usual go-to was out, so I’m trying this one and will update you.

Grain-Free Flours (Not Made From Grains)

Cassava Flour — I buy a lot of this. I like it in non-yeasted applications as a substitute for rice. I exclusively use Otto’s, preferably Otto’s Organic Cassava, and sometimes wait for sales on their site. I try to buy organic, and I like to buy it in bulk.

Green Banana Flour — I use this in my chocolate chip coconut cookies, and I have a green banana loaf that I think is truly delicious; it’s earthy and not very banana-y, but I love its subtle stretch. It’s a super sustainable product — lots of green bananas go to waste. I just wish it were more affordable.

Coconut Flour — I’ve tried different ones; this one is good.

Almond Flour — Here I buy organic too, because conventional is high in glyphosate, and I buy extra-fine so I don’t get any grit in my baked goods. I typically buy the Food to Live brand — yes, it’s expensive and sometimes unavailable, but it’s great.

Binders for Gluten-Free Bread (Hydrocolloids)

Gluten is a kind of glue; to get that same effect in gluten-free baked goods — structure, elasticity, etc. — we need stuff that binds our baked goods together. Hydrocolloids (aka gums, aka stuff that gels) help hold onto water and create stiffer, more manageable doughs. Some also help hold moisture in the finished product, keeping your bread fresh longer. I’m working on a separate post to explain all this, but for now:

Psyllium Husk Powder is the hero of gluten-free bread. I can’t imagine tackling the project without it.

Acacia Senegal Powder — I add a little bit to my bread (10g a loaf) and it stays moist and fresh on the counter for days, plus who couldn’t use a little fiber boost.

Xanthan Gum — Many folks use xanthan gum in cookies and cakes; I don’t (hence the small package), but I do use a pinch in pie dough and tortillas, and I find it helpful in breads I want to hold their shape — rolls, ciabatta, croissants, bagels. Just ¼ tsp in these recipes makes them easier to work with and keeps them from slumping in the oven. Guar gum works well as a substitute here.