Living gluten free can totally change the way you cook. Primarily, eating gluten free eliminates white flour from your diet, since it’s of course made from ground wheat. White flour is used in a variety of cooking techniques; obviously we use it in baked goods like muffins, cupcakes, cookies and brownies. But it’s also used to thicken sauces and soups, in batters for frying, and is even commonly put and hands and cooking utensils to prevent them from sticking to dough.
However, there are ways to work around your inability to use white flour. Luckily, flour can be made from a variety of grains and vegetables that do not contain gluten. These can be equally as useful for cooking and cooking preparation. We’ll review some of the top alternative flours below.
First, there’s potato flour, also known as potato starch. Potato starch can be used for baking, and is especially useful when blended with other alternative flours. It blends well into liquid and is great for thickening soups and sauces.
Another favorite of ours is tapioca flour. This gluten free flour comes from the cassava root and can be used for baking since it has the very light consistency of traditional cake flour.
Soy flour, good for baking heavier baked goods like brownies and cookies, has a nutty flavor and packs a nutrient-punch. Since it’s high in protein and fat, it’s a good dietary supplement to replace enriched flour.
There are many other alternatives and substitutes to white flour, including: rice flour, corn flour, cornstarch, cornmeal, white rice flour, and brown rice flour. You can search our online store for all of our gluten free flour offerings.
For cooking and baking, you can add certain substitutes to these flours to make sure they keep the sticky consistency that gluten gives white flour when cooking—xanthum gum and guar gum are gluten free and be purchased from us and in many health food stores.
It’s easy to replace white flour once you have the proper products; check out on online store and get cooking today!
Tags: gluten free baking, gluten free cooking, gluten free flours
