Making Your Own Gluten Free Flour Blends

Making your own gluten free flour blends is simple and straightforward. It is cheaper to mix your own flour blends than to buy them. It’s quick and convenient to pull ready-made flour blends out of the fridge to use in a recipe. It only takes a few minutes on a Saturday to make your own flour blends, and they are there for the rest of the week (or longer), ready to be pulled from the fridge on a moment’s notice. This is especially helpful when are kids running underfoot – the less there is to think about measuring and sifting, the better!

(Multi Grain Flour Blend before sifting)

I’ve had great luck with all of the different flour blends I use. I like different blends for different recipes, which gives me greater control over the taste and texture of whatever it is I’m baking – breads, cookies, cakes, or what-have-you. But if you just want to try something simple, the All Purpose Flour Blend made with rice flour is a good one to start out with. It is important to remember to thoroughly sift your flour blends (with a sifter or a whisk) so you don't end up with pockets of one type of flour. Store your flour blends in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container (labeled gallon zip bags or Snap-n-Seal plastic containers work well).

(Multi Grain Flour Blend after sifting)

Once you get used to baking gluten free and you have a feel for how the different flours work together and how they taste, try substituting flours on you own or making your own flour blend. Just keep in mind that the ratio of starch flours (arrowroot, cornstarch, potato and tapioca) should be kept to between 1/3 and ½ the total of your other gluten free flours – otherwise, your baked goods may turn out dense, gummy or fallen in the middle.

Guide to Using Xanthan Gum
It is better to add xanthan gum to your recipe than to add it to the flour blend you store in your fridge, because different recipes need different amounts of xanthan gum. Keep in mind this guide for using xanthan gum:
1 to 2 tsp. for cakes and quick breads
2 tsp. for breads or pizza crusts
1/2 to 1 tsp. for cookies, or none at all
I’ve seen guides calling for these ratios for every cup of gluten free flour, but I’ve been using these ratios per recipe and it’s worked just fine (especially if there are eggs in the recipe, as egg acts as a binder).

How I use my flour blends:

All Purpose Rice Blend - cakes, cookies, quick breads, muffins, scones, savory pie pastry

All Purpose Sorghum Blend - pie pastry, pancakes, muffins, quick breads, cakes

All Purpose Millet and Sorghum - quick breads, muffins, cakes, scones, sweet pie pastry

Pancake and Wafflle Mix - pancakes and waffles, maybe crepes and crumpets too

Bean Flour Blend - sandwich bread, savory pie pastry

Multi Grain Flour Blend and Another Multi-Grain Blend - sandwich bread, quick breads, muffins, scones, cookies, pie pastry, pizza crust, cornbread…this is a good all-purpose mix -

High Protein Blend - yeast breads, french bread, pie crust, pizza

Sorghum Chickpea Blend - The best blend for cookies – also good for soda breads, pie pastry, biscuits, scones

- yeast bread, cornbread

(Flour blends taking over the top shelf of my refrigerator!)

(Bob's Red Mill taking over my freezer!)