Although only 1% of Americans have celiac disease which makes being gluten-free essential, many people realize it’s difficult for them to digest gluten and they feel better without it. In fact, 83% of Americans who have celiac disease are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions, and a 100% gluten-free diet is the only existing treatment for celiac today.
In some of my recipes and on the Recipe Notes page, I mention that you can use your own flour. What I mean is, that you may not want to use the flour I use – Organic Unbleached White Whole Wheat – due to the gluten. If you try to bake with plain gluten-free flour from the store, a lot of your recipes won’t turn out very well. Gluten is a stretch and sticky protein, which helps make things chewy and crispy, so if you’re making anything that needs stretchy dough for example, you need to substitute somehow for the gluten.
Better grocery stores also have pre-made gluten-free flour mixes. But they often have ingredients in them to make dough stretchy and/or sticky that people are trying to avoid, such as xanthum gum. It isn’t very difficult, though, to make your own gluten-free flour and store it in a large, air-tight container to have on hand whenever you want it. The process will include some experimentation on your part to end up with a flour that you like that serves your purposes. There are a many gluten-free flours to use in your mix, some of which are starches (white rice flour), some are higher in good fats (almond flour), and some are higher in protein (oat flour) which you certainly want. They also absorb moisture differently, so you can imagine how they work differently in different types of recipes.
I recommend watching Gluten-Free-Girl’s video and reading her tips on making your own flour mix. You can be gluten-free and enjoy all of the foods and fun baking experiences you want. In fact, once you get your gluten-free flour mixes down, you will find that some recipes come out better. Some of the cake bread recipes that I’ve shared instruct to only mix until combined and not over-mix. You don’t have to worry about that with your gluten-free flours because you cannot activate the gluten by mixing since it doesn’t exist.
You can make enough gluten-free for one recipe that you don’t make very often, say a pizza, and make large quantities for recipes that you want to do more often, like breads. Always having the flour on hand will keep you cooking and baking all you want. Have fun playing with all of the gluten-free flours – there are probably more than you imagined!
