I make - Gluten-Free Flour Mix With Cornmeal

I've been experimenting with Phil Vickery's Gluten-Free Flour Mix with cornmeal. The original ratio among different types of flours lends to easy adaptions. There is no grittiness after baking, a typical side effect of cornmeal. The texture is always light and the dough seems well behaved in my hands. I've tried it with pie crust and fruit cake. The mix is nutritionally superior to most commercial mixes and I love the baking results so much that I think it deserves a post.

 

Gluten-Free Flour Mix With Cornmeal

25% Brown rice flour
25% Glutinous rice flour or Teff flour (this is the part you play)
30% Fine cornmeal
20% Cornstarch

The percentages specify the weight of each flour in the final mix.

To make 500 g of the mix, combine together 125 g Brown rice flour, 125 g Glutinous rice flour, 150 g Cornmeal and 100 g Cornstarch. Shake well before using.

I use Glutinous rice when I need lighter colored baking goods such as pie crust. I switch to Teff flour when I am making dark colored cakes (chocolate or fruit cakes).

Here are the nutritional values for the mix with Glutinous rice.

Here is the nutritional info for the mix with Brown Teff Flour.

I make - Mock Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour Mix

I was intrigued by the addition of pectin. It does make sense to use pectin to glue everything together and to provide some texture as well. I didn't come up with this mix. It came from Nicole Hunn, the author behind the excellent blog, Gluten free on a shoestring. So I made up 700 g worth to experiment. Watch this space!

Mock Better Batter Flour Mix

1 cup	Ingredients	4 cups	5 cups
42 g	brown rice flour	168 g	210 g
42 g	white rice flour	168 g	210 g
21 g	potato starch	84 g	105 g
21 g	tapioca starch	84 g	105 g
7 g	potato flour	28 g	35 g
4 g	xanthan gum*	16 g	20 g
3 g	pure powdered pectin	12 g	15 g
140 g		560 g	700 g

*I omit xanthan gum in my reproduction to make the blend more flexible for baking.

To make bread flour:

For bread flour with Ultratex 3

105 grams (about 12 tablespoons) Mock Better Batter gluten free flour (75%)

30 grams (about 6 tablespoons) unflavored whey protein isolate (21%)

5 grams (about 2 teaspoons) Ultratex 3 (4%)

Mock Better Batter Flour Mix

Update on 13/06/2020: have made (no-yeast) breadsticks, blondies and yogurt cake. One thing which stands out is that it's harder to tell whether the baking is done because the toothpick always comes out with some crumbs on. Wondering whether it's because of the addition of pectin. As for texture, I can't tell the difference.

I make - My Favorite Gluten-Free Flour Mix

After experimenting different gluten-free flour mixes, commercial or homemade, I started to get a feel of how each flour type impacts on the baked goods. By no means an expert, quite the contrary, I am still learning. One thing I know is the importance of starch, for texture. But starch is frequently nutritionally void. The key is to use wholegrain flour to improve overall nutritional values of the flour blend. The balance between wholegrain vs polished, flour vs starch is key to desirable texture of baked goods. My favorite flour blend is based on Gluten-free gourmand pastry flour mix which not only serves a great all-purpose gluten-free flour, easily swappable with conventional wheat flour for a given recipe but also of improved nutritional values.

My favorite gluten-free flour mix

100 g White Rice Flour

200 g Brown Rice Flour
100 g Buckwheat Flour
50 g Tapioca Flour/Corn Starch
50 g Potato Starch

I used to add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to the mix but now I no longer do so. This is because I found many cake/muffin and bread recipes simply don't need it. I only use xanthan gum to my scones or pie crust.