Chantal’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend

This all purpose gluten free flour recipe is super quick and super easy to prepare. It is a great mixture especially for baked goods. It has a wonderful aromatic flavor and a great texture. Just make sure you have a kitchen scale on hand before you start.

I use this gluten free flour blend in my pancakes, bread, sambousek/samosa, cakes, pies, and anything that you can imagine.

Coconut flour is the key ingredient that gives it this aromatic flavor, but if you are allergic to coconut, you can substitute it with almond flour.

Protein in the flour mixture increases the elasticity and creates a moist texture in your backed goods. 1 cup of brown rice contains 5 grams of protein while 1 cup of white rice contains 4.3 grams of protein. This is why we will be using a higher percentage of brown rice in this gluten free flour blend.

Xanthan gum is used as an emulsifier in place of the gluten. Xanthan gum reacts to water as soon as it touches it. As it heats up it will eventually increase in elasticity allowing your baked goods to hold their form, and it will give them a slightly chewy texture rather than crumbly.

We will not be using xanthan gum at a high rate in this gluten free flour blend. The reason for this is that each individual recipe uses a different amount of xanthan gum to achieve its desired texture and to allow us to manipulate it as we wish. For instance, most breads and baked goods will use a higher rate of xanthan gum while recipes like gluten free crepes and gluten free pancakes use a lower amount of xanthan gum.

The amount of xanthan gum used in this blend is tailored toward the recipes that require a lower amount of xanthan gum. When using this blend with baked goods, you will be required to add extra xanthan gum. The amount to be added is solely dependent on the recipe.

surprisingly, 1 cup of potato starch has 11 grams of protein while 1 cup of all-purpose wheat flour has 13 grams of protein. However, the proteins that are present in potato starch are different than the proteins in wheat. Which by the way, The majority of these proteins are the gluten that is present in wheat flour. Therefore, we cannot assume that potato starch will behave in the same manner as wheat flour does.

1 cup of Tapioca starch has 2.7 grams of protein. Coconut flour stood at 23 grams of protein per 1 cup of flour.

I have performed an experiment using the different types of flour by volume rather than weight in order to see how they perform when exposed to water and heat.

In the picture above you can see the different types of flour used in this recipe. I placed an equal amount of 1 tablespoon of each flour in its assigned bowl. The first thing to note here is of course the texture of the flour. If we were to measure them by weight, the amount by volume would be very different. Perhaps in the future I will make another experiment, done by weight, regarding the different types of flour.

The above picture shows the drastic difference between the different types of flour when mixed with water.

When The Potato starch got in contact with the water it behaved in a similar way to cornstarch when it is exposed to water. The potato starch stiffened, and when it got mixed with the water, it separated from the water and most of the starch settled at the bottom of the bowl.

The Tapioca Starch did not stiffen as much as the potato starch did when it got exposed to water. And when mixed with the water, more of the starch stayed in contact with the water rather than settling to the bottom of the bowl.

On The other hand, the brown rice flour absorbed all the water and it had a thick consistency.

You would think that white rice flour would behave in the same way that brown rice flour would when it is exposed to water, but this was not the case. The white rice flour had a much looser consistency than the brown rice flour when mixed with water. By volume, it hydrated at a much lower amount of water in comparison to the brown rice flour.

The coconut flour as you can tell, absorbed all the water and still had a very dry consistency.

So far, we’ve learned that we cannot interchange these ingredients by volume, or use the same amount of water in each of them by volume.

After mixing these ingredients with room temperature water, I decided to see how they behaved when exposed to heat. I decided not to stir them while they were being exposed to heat since most of the gluten free recipes such as baked goods, pancakes, crepes and such do not require stirring while they are being baked or pan fried.

When the Potato Starch got cooked, it gelled at the bottom where it was closer to the heat, and the top was powdery and dry. Of course, any type of baked goods will probably be mixed with eggs, xanthan gum, and other ingredients that will help in the emulsification and gelling process. However, from this experiment we conclude that it is probably best not to use it in very large quantities in a flour blend.

The tapioca flour behaved in a very similar manner to the potato starch. However, it did seem to congeal at a much higher rate where it came in contact with the water. It looked like collagen in appearance, when collagen is in its cold state, but it was super stretchy. Therefore, again using a high amount of tapioca starch in a gluten free flour blend would be a mistake. Even though Tapioca starch had the lowest amount of protein, it seemed to have the most stretch when it was cooked.

As you can tell, the brown rice flour behaved the best out of all the different types of flour when mixed with the same volume of water, and cooked at the same temperature. It held itself together the best, and it was slightly chewy on the inside.

Even though the white rice flour was hydrated at a lower amount of room temperature water than the rice flour did, When it was cooked it dried out and was less chewy than the brown rice flour. This implied that for it to be cooked properly, or to have a similar texture as the brown rice flour when cooked, it requires a larger amount of water.

I have made recipes with both white rice flour, and brown rice flour independently without the inclusion of any other flour, and I can say that they both can be used in recipes on their own without any additional flour. However, the amount of water added to each type of flour should differ depending on its behavior.

As you can tell here, coconut flour requires the most amount of water in order to give it a desirable texture. Therefore, it would be prudent to use a small amount of it in our gluten free flour blend. It’s main role is to give a nice aromatic flavor to our recipes, and of course the wonderful amount of protein that it has to offer which in effect enhances the texture of the baked goods as well.

coconut flour is also used as the main flour in many paleo and low carb recipes. So it can be used on its own, but the recipes would have to have a lot of congealing agents and liquid in order to accommodate for the texture and dryness of the nature of coconut flour.

From this experiment, we can tell that even though protein was present in all of these different types of flour, the proteins that are present in one type of flour differ from the proteins in another type of flour. That would in term affect the behavior of the flour as differing types of proteins behave differently from one another.

and now for the recipe

Ingredients

1 pound brown rice flour

0.4 pounds potato starch

0.7 pounds white rice flour

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

0.07 pounds tapioca flour

0.13 pounds coconut flour

Utensils

Large mixing bowl

Whisk

Kitchen scale

Measuring spoons

Large scoop or spoon

Storage container with a tight lid

Directions

1. Measure all ingredients and place into mixing bowl.
2. Mix everything together using a whisk until well combined.
3. You may need to use a spoon every now and then to pick up the unmixed flour around the edges and the bottom of the bowl.
4. Store flour mixture in a container with a secure lid in a cool dry area.
5. In general, you can use this flour mixture in place of all-purpose wheat flour in a one to one ratio. For extra binding, you can add a little bit of xanthan gum depending on the recipe.

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