Since making the switch to GF living, I've been playing with various flour combinations. As a lifelong baker, I was not willingly to give up on baking just because I could no longer use a familiar foundation (wheat flour). Gluten-free baking is different, and as with milk substitutes, one should not expect the results to be "just like" their wheaty/gluteny counterparts
Using a combination of GF flours helps the baker fine-tune the outcome. A little more brown rice flour, for example, will give a particular attribute that is different from that lent by sourghum flour. For a good list of what GF flours offer your baked goods, please refer to this Gluten Free Girl & The Chef post (the post is good, but the info to which I am pointing you is found at its end, so scroll if you must). Incidentally, if you are GF and unfamiliar with the Gluten Free Girl blog/website, please spend some time there. She has been hugely inspirational and an excellent resource for me as I continue to eat well - without the wheat.
Disclaimer: I am allergic to wheat and all of its relatives (spelt, for example) and not necessarily gluten intolerant. That said, most things that are "wheat free" use spelt, so I have found it must easier to just go gluten free. I feel fortunate that I do not have to worry about cross-contamination to the extent that someone living with Celiac's Disease must. I have multiple grain allergies, though, so I definitely still have to ask lots of questions and read labels in order to care for my health.
Okay, back to the flour mix. I've been tinkering with mixes, first using the Gluten Free Girl whole-grain all-purpose GF flour mix. I followed her ratios, using sorghum flour, potato flour, sweet rice flour, potato starch, arrowroot powder, and tapioca flour (since I can't use cornstarch). For my first batch, I swapped out the cornstarch for more potato starch. The result was pancakes and muffins that had a little more potato taste than we wanted, and in the case of the pancakes, it was as if I'd added instant mashed potatoes to the recipe. Ew.
Back to the drawing board, I decided to minimize and try to replicate our favorite off-the-shelf GF flour mix. We've been really happy with it, so I'll share it with you:
Arya's Current GF Flour Mix:
150 grams brown rice flour
100 grams sorghum flour
100 grams sweet rice flour
75 grams potato starch
75 grams tapioca flour
Mix together well. Note that I have followed Shauna's advice with regards to the ratios. I looked at what the store-bought mix listed in its ingredients, and made mine with 70% grainy flours and 30% starchy flours. It isn't exactly the same, but it's close enough!
I have used this successfully in pancakes, coffee cake, muffins, crackers, and pie crust. I hope that you like it, too.
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