A Few Gluten-free Baking Tips

The Frugal Farm Wife has these great gluten-free baking tips to share. I thought I'd pass them along. Thank you, Frugal Farm Wife!

• Bake bread at a lower temperature. Gluten-free bread batter tends to be very moist and needs a lot longer baking time than wheat bread. In order to accomplish baking a loaf that’s done in the middle, but not too brown on the outside, lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees, and lengthen the baking time. 
• When in doubt, Use gum. I’ll be the first one to shout “You don’t need gum in everything!” as a money saving tactic. Still, if there’s any doubt, use the gum. It can save you a lot of dispointment and wasted ingredients. I typically use guar gum, because it’s cheaper, or you can use xanthan gum. The point is that since gluten-free flours aren’t sticky like wheat is, you need to replace it with something. Generally, you’ll use about 1 teaspoon of gum per cup of flour for bread, and 1/2 teaspoon per cup for everything else.

photo from the Frugal Farm Wife

• Use a blend of flours. Of course, I highly recommend using a rice flour blendas a money saving strategy, but blending in some buckwheat, corn, and/or millet is really nice for flavor - especially in things like bread that don’t have a lot of other flavor contributors.
• Go mini. While you can make large loaves of gluten-free bread, it’s much, much easier to get awesome results with small things. So think mini loaves, cupcakes, and such.
• Increase baking powder. Once again, without gluten, flour isn’t very sticky, which makes it hard to trap the gasses caused by leavening agents, making your baked goods rise. You can increase baking powder by up to 25%. (I haven’t had very good results with increasing baking soda, but maybe that’s just me…)
• Add extra eggs to things like pancakes for extra moisture. Pancakes and waffles are really easy to make gluten-free, but the moisture of an extra egg is really nice!
• Add some protein! Gluten is a protein, which gives baked goods structure. You can combat the lack of gluten by adding some plain gelatin. This is much the same as adding gum, and I know some folks use gelatin instead of gum, but personally, I haven’t had great results doing that.

As you gain experinece using these general principals, and get a feel for how various batters and mixtures should look, gluten-free baking becomes second nature and you’ll find that you can tweak recipes to your liking, and even convert wheat recipes to gluten-free, all with amazing results. In fact, I think you’ll find the world of wheat-free food easy to love! 

What are your best tips for successful gluten-free baking?