I’ve been baking with gluten free flour for a while now, and one of my biggest pet peeves is how expensive most of the flours can be. I think one of the biggest barriers to people shifting their eating habits in general is cost – or at least perceived cost.
For the last year I’ve really been playing around with gluten free flour. Trying to see what works, and what doesn’t work to making baking as simple as possible. The reality is store bought gluten free flours are generally awesome. They work. I am a particularly big fan of anything Bobs Red Mill. They make a great, quality product that I would absolutely recommend to anyone looking for a great flour. They also make a variety of mixes – bread, pancakes, muffins etc.
But the reality is these products can be expensive. They make your life easier, BUT are often time 2-3x the price of refined flour. Which makes buying them sometimes feel like a drag.
You don’t need to worry though, because I’ve obviously got your back.
DIY, Gluten-Free Flour Blend to the rescue!
I’ve been experimenting with various gluten free flours for a while now, and I’ve come to some pretty simple conclusions about whats needed in a gluten free flour to make it successful:
- Starch – You NEED a starchy ingredient in your flour blend. This can be arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, potato starch – the only one I would stay away from in corn starch. Corn tends to be genetically modified, sprayed with tons of pesticides, and would not be a great option if you’re looking to make a healthy gluten free flour blend.
- A “Soft” Flour – I’m calling this component soft flour, or you could call it “thin” flour – you just need a flour in there that is going to give your baking a nice fluffy feel. For me, my go-to is always brown rice flour. Brown rice flour will not stand up on it’s own as a solo baking flour (like oat flour, or say almond flour) but it provides a nice, fluffy texture when incorporating with other flours.
- A Thick Flour – I have found that great “thick” flours include chickpea, sorgum (which I use in this recipe), and oat flour are pretty good! The thick flour gives your baking some sustenance, and bulk which are useful when making muffins and pancakes so they don’t just, you know, fall apart!
I’ve found that if a gluten free flour has these three components, it’s pretty much good to go!
Lots of gluten free flour recipes will call for a mixture of like 6-7 different flours – which even to me sounds pretty daunting. So I wanted to keep this recipe super simple to make your life a lot easier.
This is the blend I use for almost all my baking. Occasionally I’ll use say just chickpea flour + arrowroot starch, or other flours mixed with a starch – but this one has been my go to! You can use it for muffins, pancakes, dough – anything else you would use all-purpose flour for. I would caution however, that if you are following a very specific recipe, which calls for specific amounts of specific flours, to follow those exact measurements. But anywhere that says “all purpose gluten free flour” – go ahead and use this mix!
In order to make this blend add together 2 cups brown rice flour, 1.5 cups sorgum flour and 1/2 cup arrow root starch into a bowl and whisk together. I’ve found that this amount fits perfectly into a large mason jar. Play around with your flour blend and jar, and see what works for you! It’s totally ok to have a little extra of each flour and not use these precise amounts.
Ingredients
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- Place all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together. Pour flour into a jar, label and store in your pantry!
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