Using Alternative Flours and Substituting Gluten

Using Alternative Flours

Potato Starch Flour - This is a gluten-free thickening agent that is perfect for cream-based soups and sauces. Mix a little with water first, then substitute potato starch flour for flour in your recipe, but cut the amount in half.
Tapioca Flour - It gives baked goods a nice chewy taste. Use it in recipes where you would want a chewy texture. It would work nicely in bread recipes such as white bread or French bread. Easily combined with cornstarch and soy flour.
Cornstarch - It is mostly used as a clear thickening agent for puddings, fruit sauces and Asian cooking. It is also used in combination with other flours for baking. It can be purchased in a health food store.
Corn Flour - Good when blended with cornmeal to make cornbread or muffins. It is also excellent for waffles or pancakes
Cornmeal - This is often combined with flours for baking. It imparts a strong corn flavor that’s pretty good in pancakes, waffles, or simple white cakes.
White Rice Flour - This is an excellent basic flour for gluten-free baking. It is milled from polished white rice. Because it has such a bland flavor, it is perfect for baking because it doesn't give the batter any additional flavors. Also works well with other flours.
Brown Rice Flour - This flour comes from unpolished brown rice. It has more food value because it contains bran. Use it in breads, muffins, and cookies.

Note: You can buy any of these flours at health food stores and can almost always find rice flour or Bob’s Red Mill flour mix at Walmart, Target, or other grocery stores. When using these flours, you will need to add a gluten substitute, like xanthum gum, to hold everything together.

Substituting Gluten
Wheat flour contains gluten, which keeps cookies, cakes and pies from getting crumbly and falling apart. It’s what makes baked goods have a good texture because it traps pockets of air. This creates that airy quality that most baked goods have when you use traditional wheat flour. When using non-wheat flours, gluten substitutes must be added to help keep this structure. For each cup of gluten-free flour mix, add at least 1 teaspoon of gluten substitute for cakes and cookies, and at least 2 teaspoons of gluten substitute for breads.

Good gluten substitutes are:
Xanthum Gum – This works well as a gluten substitute in yeast breads along with other baked goods. This one is my favorite. It can be expensive but it goes a long way since you only use a teaspoon or two at a time (if you’re cooking for me, you can always ask me to bring some too)
Guar Gum – I’ve heard that this one is pretty good, I’ve never used it. But if it’s cheaper than Xanthum gum, go for it. It does the same thing.