Gluten Free Flour Mixes

Gone are the days of grabbing a single bag of wheat flour and putting together a recipe. Now I have a huge arsenal of gluten free products to replace that one measly bag of wheat flour! All of you seasoned gluten free bakers out there know how expensive these products can be. I requested a flour mill for my birthday last year so I could mill my own flours and save a lot of money. I highly recommend the Nutrimill. It mills rice flour much finer than the prepackaged flours. I don't recommend milling your own tapioca pearls however, those little buggers are really hard. And of course nuts have a high fat content so they are a no-no too. Nut flours can be made easily in a blender or coffee grinder, MUCH cheaper than retail! I also buy rice and grains in bulk online and save tons. My rice flour costs me less than one dollar per pound!

Out of necessity, I put together a few different flour mixes to have on hand when I feel like baking. I have a high-protein mix and a multi-grain mix for bread making and an all-purpose mix for cakes, biscuits, pancakes, scones and quick breads. I have a scale to weigh the different flours but rarely use it. I like the old fashioned way, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off, easy! Here's the run down on what I use in my mixes.

All-Purpose Mix: (measured by volume not weight)

• two parts sorghum flour
• one part tapioca flour or Expandex
• one part potato starch or corn starch
• one part rice flour (medium grain or sweet rice)

I add 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum per cup of this flour mix when I make cakes and quick breads. I find the texture of biscuits and scones a little more tender when I only use 3/4 teaspoon per 2 cups of all-purpose flour and I don't add any xanthan gum when I make pancakes and waffles. The texture can seem a little gummy if you do.

Multi-Grain Mix.
I adopted this one from Gluten-Free Girl. She has a whole grain mix that is 40% whole grain and 60% rice and starch. It is a wonderful blend that works with most recipes. You can mix and match different flours to suit your own taste. She measures by weight not volume, so I have done my best to figure out the volume measurements for you as well. My favorite blend is below.

• 300 grams or 2-3/4 cup sorghum flour
• 100 grams or 3/4 cup light buckwheat flour
• 200 grams or 1-1/3 cups white rice or sweet rice
• 100 grams or 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons tapioca flour or Expandex
• 300 grams or 1-3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons potato starch

I like to sub in oat and teff flours from time to time when making Multi-Grain bread.
Add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum per cup of this flour for bread making. for better results use 1/3 less xanthan gum with an equal amount of ground chia seeds. If using 3 cups of this flour that would be 2 teaspoons of xanthan and 2 teaspoons of chia.

High Protein Bread Flour Mix:

• 3/4 cup Multi-Grain Mix
• 1/4 cup white bean flour, oat flour or unflavored whey protein

Use 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum per cup of this flour for bread making. For even better results, use 1/3 less xanthan gum and an equal amount of ground chia seeds. For a loaf of bread using 3 cups of flour I add in 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum and 2 teaspoons of ground chia seeds.