Easy to make homemade gluten free flour blend – perfect for baking cookies, muffins, cakes, and more.
I distinctly remember one particular conversation I had with a friend of mine several years ago. Her dad was going through a few health issues and needed to get tested for a number of things – one of them to rule out Coeliac Disease. Our conversation went a little something like this….
Me: Wait. What’s Coeliac Disease again?
My friend: I think it’s when you’re allergic to gluten – like in bread and pasta.
Me: Oh wow, that would be horrible. I could never do that. I’d miss pizza and bread too much. I’d be so skinny though.
Man, I can be such an idiot.
I also used to say that dating people you meet online is weird and I would never do it because there’s no way you could really get to know a person without being in their actual presence. Ha!
So naturally, here I am. Years later I’m married and living in a new country with the love of my life, a man I met online. The first time we met in person was after 10 months of getting to know each other via Skype chats and Facetime calls. By the time he was finally able to make the journey from England to Arizona, being together felt like the most natural thing in the world.
And it’s because of this man that I now have this gluten free food blog, dedicated to spreading awareness about Coeliac Disease and proving that a life without gluten is every bit as tasty as one without is….just without as many dining out options.
Life has a funny way of putting me in my place.
Also, eating gluten free definitely does not make you skinny.
Gluten Free Baking
I think when most people learn that they or a loved one have to give up gluten, it comes as a huge loss – and with reason. Here’s this thing called gluten and it’s everywhere. It’s more than likely a key ingredient in some of your favorite foods: bread, pizza, pasta, cookies, bagels….It’s almost literally in e v e r y t h i n g that isn’t a fruit or vegetable. Hell, it’s even used a filler in a lot of meat products. Giving up gluten for the average person means radically changing not only your diet, but your lifestyle. In summary: it sucks.
As someone who has loved baking for as long as I can remember, learning to bake gluten free has been….a process. It’s been a long, expensive, frustrating, but ultimately rewarding process.
If there is one thing to keep in mind with gluten free baking is that you need to have patience let go of your expectations. There are so many rules of baking that no long apply once you throw gluten out of the window and new rules to come and take their place.
For example, there’s no need to worry about mixing gluten free bread dough because there’s no gluten to over work. In fact, beating your cake batter for an additional 2-3 minutes is probably even a good idea because it adds air to the batter which allows for better rising.
Gluten Free Flour Blend
For this particular recipe I strongly recommend you do yourself a favor and invest in a kitchen scale. Because this blend will be used as an all purpose 1:1 substitute for gluten containing all purpose flour, it’s important that your measurements are accurate to begin with. If you still want to measure out the flour using cups then make sure to pack the flour into each cup and level off the top. When I measured and weighed my flours this way I was able to get within 5 grams each time.
Things to keep in mind about this gluten free flour blend
Make sure that you use potato starch and not potato flour. Potato starch will provide you with light, fluffy baked goods. The latter will break your teeth. However, tapioca starch and tapioca flour are actually the same thing so either label is fine for that one.
Make sure to check and double check that the flours you’re buying are free from cross contamination. Few things are more frustrating than when you buy flours for a gluten free flour blend only to realize that they are processed in a facility that handles wheat.
Finally, make sure that you take your time to blend all the flours together properly. Spend a couple of minutes whisking everything together, shake the flours around in a jar, and/or put everything in a food processor/ blender and go to town.
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- 1 1/4 cups White Rice Flour 180 grams
- 3/4 cups Brown Rice Flour |120 grams
- 2/3 cup Potato Starch | 112 grams
- 1/3 cup Tapioca Starch | 42 grams
- Add all your flours to a bowl and whisk together. Take the time to fully blend everything together evenly. You can also toss your flours to a blender/food processor to blend.
- Store in an airtight jar/container.
Adapted from Land O Lakes Makes about 3 cups, can easily be multiplied
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What to make with your new gluten free flour blend….
Sarah
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How would you make a yellow sheet cake recipe using this flour? What other ingredients do you need?
Hi Jessaca! I don’t have a particular sheet cake recipe I use but you might like this one http://theheritagecook.com/tender-yellow-cake-with-fudge-frosting-gluten-free/
Can i use this flour to make bread ?
As long as the recipe is calling for an all purpose gluten free flour (or flour blend) than that should work!
Your comment about this being a process is so apt. Thank you for making it a bit easier to sort out gluten-free baking. What a journey it’s turning out to be.
Totally! It’s been almost 4 years now since switching over to gluten free and I’m still learning little things here and there with cooking/lifestyle. I’m so glad I’ve been able to help!
ive been thinking that maybe 1/2 cup of slightly ground chia seeds or flax seeds added would make for a flour that would hold together better..just thinking
It’s something to play around with and try! I do think adding chia/flax might effect the amount of moisture a recipe needs and impact on the texture but it would be a great way to add some extra nutrients in the flour
Hi Sarah, Thanks for sharing .My query is can use instead of potato starch and tapioca starch with corn flour.
While you can always try it out and see how it works I don’t think it would work out quite as well. In theory corn starch does similar things to potato and tapioca but when you break it down they all do have different tastes, textures and properties. You would also need to reduce the amount of corn starch needed. In baking I know that you usually need about half the amount of corn starch as you do tapioca flour which would end up throwing off some of the amounts here
Hey Sarah! Can this be used as a cup for cup flour?
Thanks so much!
Absolutely!
Hi! I’ve been looking at a ton of gluten-free flour blends online and many of them have xantham gum in them to hold things together. Is there a reason you don’t put it in your blend? Do you add it later when you’re making a recipe? So far yours looks like the easiest blend to make, so I’m just curious! Thank you!
Hey Cassie! I decided not to include it in my flour blend for a couple reasons. At the time I made this blend my husband was still having a lot of gut issues related to the celiac disease. I found that a lot of people with stomach issues could sometimes be triggered by xanthan so we decided to cut it out and see if it made a difference. At this point he has so many foods that could set him off so I’m not sure if the xanthan was actually the problem.
Since we stopped using it so much in baking I personally don’t think as many gluten free recipes actually need it. There are definitely some recipes that I think benefit from it – I’m working on gluten free cinnamon rolls right now and the xanthan free ones never seem to work out right. In those cases I include it in the recipe to just add it in as you go. Otherwise I figure it’s one less thing to add, ya know?
Okay great! Thanks so much for the response. Before I started researching different recipes I always just assumed gluten-free flours needed xantham gum in them (based off of working in a cafe that occasionally made gluten-free items that always contained xantham gum). After looking up what xantham gum is made from I’m happy to know it isn’t always necessary. I’m going to try this flour blend out today 🙂 Thank you!
Looks like a great and simple blend! Can I use white rice flour as a substitute for the brown rice flour? I don’t have any brown rice flour to hand and want to make these for a special occasion coming up. Thanks so much! 🙂
Thanks Annie! That will work just fine! Hope you like it!
Thanks so much Sarah. Can I ask if you have used this flour for brownies before? I have a traditional recipe that’s an old favourite of mine. I would love to convert if I can make it work!
I have to say of all the glutenfree blends I have tried, this one works the best for me so far. I make a batch and store it in the fridge and use it in most of my baking. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Sarah!
That makes me so happy to hear! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment – they make my day!
Can I use this as a diabetic to make more diabetic friendly desserts?
Hey Autymn! I would treat this flour as you would a regular all purpose flour. Since it’s made up of starchy flours it’s one that’s probably best used in moderation for healthier desserts. I’ve heard that coconut flour is a good flour for diabetics because it’s lower in carbs and higher in fiber
Sarah, can I just substitute the coconut flour for the rice flour? I too am partial to coconut flour…?
HI Susan! I wouldn’t recommend subbing coconut flour for the rice flour here. Coconut flour is extremely absorbent which can makes it a difficult flour to substitute. As a general rule of thumb you would usually only need 1/4 cup coconut flour for every 1 cup all purpose/grain based flour. Nourished Kitchen has a really good post on coconut flour that I’ve found to be helpful – if you go to the section called “Baking With Coconut Flour: What You Need to Know” she has a lot of info about how you might be able to use coconut flour in recipes. http://nourishedkitchen.com/baking-with-coconut-flour/
Hope that helps!
This looks like the perfect blend! I have been mixing up a similar mix lately as it’s so much cheaper to make your own!
Thanks Kristy! I wish I had tried making my own so much sooner!