Our Top 3 Gluten Free Flours

Various flour ingredients in jars

Over the past 25 years of gluten free baking (how did that happen?!), we have learnt through trial and error which gluten free flours yield the tastiest and most reliable results. Whilst we were working on our wheat free cook books we had the valuable opportunity to experiment with a whole range of flours and really put them through their paces. Our speciality is baking gluten free cakes and tray bakes but we also devised savoury recipes which feature in the Honeybuns All Day Cook Book.

Are ready to use gluten free flour mixes any good?

In a word, yes. We use Doves gluten free plain flour in the bakery in our vegan and gluten free Dark Chocolate Brownie. This flour blend consists of: rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat. We find that chocolate brownies are more of a forgiving recipe than other less wet mixes. The Doves flour adds body and structure to the mix and any dryness is more than compensated for by the high molten chocolate content in the brownie recipe. We use 20% flour per tray in the brownie, compared to 30% flour in a drier mix.

We have found that we need more moisture when making products such as our gluten free lemon and ginger slice. The topping of this cake is made by blending ground almonds and sorghum which benefits from the natural oil in the almonds. The Doves flour, when we trialled it, resulted in a drier finished product.

So, in a nutshell, we find it is a case of using the right flour for the right recipe.

Make your own grain free, gluten free, FODMAP friendly flour blend

Another lovely FODMAP friendly gluten free flour mix we’d highly recommend is from the Gluten Free Flour Fairy. Biochemistry trained Vicki developed this award winning flour, taking her two years to develop the perfect blend. We found it brilliant for creating fluffy gluten free sponge cakes. Sadly, beyond our development kitchen and baking for team tea breaks we couldn’t make it work commercially- purely down to cost implications. According to Vicki herself, “I am no longer manufacturing and selling this flour blend due to price increases, insecurity of ingredients and manufacturing facilities.”

Incredibly generously, Vicki has shared her amazing grain free flour blend recipe online:

To make 1kg wholegrain gluten free flour blend combine:

  • 300g white teff flour
  • 300g sorghum flour
  • 200g tapioca starch
  • 100g buckwheat flour
  • 100g potato starch

We had great results using it for savoury and sweet pastry and sponge cakes.

In conclusion, a good gluten free flour blend is super convenient and can yield excellent results. So why then bother searching out more individual flours to blend yourself?

Making your own gluten free flour?

The advantages of blending your own gluten free flour mixes at home rather than buying off the shelf versions are:

  1. You can tailor a blend to your own dietary and nutritional requirements. We are absolutely not claiming to be making health foods – we make high fat, high calorie treats at the end of the day. At the same time, we remain mindful of using nutritious, natural ingredients to boost the nutritional profile of our cakes. For instance our signature shortbread bases are made from a blend of polenta, ground almonds and toasted nibbed almonds. These delicious nuts are the vitamin packed super heroes of your store cupboard. Almonds are high in vitamin E and antioxidants as well as having cholesterol lowering properties to boot. Akin to sneaking green veg into a pizza, we love adding nutritional benefits – naturally. NB: if nut allergies are an issue then ground seeds including sunflower, pumpkin and linseed can be used instead.
  2. Many global foods are naturally gluten free – so why not take inspiration from existing dishes? For instance, Italian baking has always been a big influence on our recipe development. Amaretti biscuits being a personal favourite, hence our love of using ground almonds in plenty of our cake recipes. An almond and polenta lemon or orange cake is now established here in the UK as a classic. We then took this blend of free from ingredients and tweaked it to produce shortbread bases and cookies. We’ve also created a delicious almond bread, featured in our Honeybuns All Day Cook Book, this way.
  3. Interest and experimentation. It can be so rewarding to figure out for yourself the right flour for the right cake. After heeding point number 2 above, we discovered the super versatile sorghum flour. This flour is commonly used in Asia, Africa and parts of America. We found that by mixing it with our ground almond blend we could produce fluffier, springier sponge like cakes. This was a bit of a Eureka moment for us.

Our favourite top three gluten free flours

Sorghum

Starting with sorghum flour. This is also called jowar/juwar/milo and is made from a grass seed, making it suitable for those who wish to go grain free. It’s commonly used in Asia and Africa but not very well known yet here in the UK. It looks and feels like a regular wheat flour. Soft and a slightly off white colour. You can now buy it in Tescos and other UK supermarkets as well. It’s widely available in Asian food stores and for online you can try Goodness DirectHealthy Supplies or The Asian Cookshop.

It’s commonly described as having a sweet flavour – when we trialled it on its own as the only flour in a recipe we detected a slight bitterness. Cakes tend to dry out a bit quicker if you just use it on its own, hence we blend it with one or two more flours to offset these issues. Ground almonds partner with it brilliantly owing to the almonds’ natural sweetness and oil content. I’d recommend keeping sorghum to 50% of your total flour content. One of my favourite sorghum flour recipes is our Rhubarb & Custard Cake from the Honeybuns All Day Cook Book.

Polenta

Polenta is a finely ground yellow flour, not to be confused with the ready cooked slabs of polenta you can find. It’s widely available now, please see previous supplier suggestions. It’s commonly used in Italian baking and we love, love, love it! It partners beautifully with ground almonds and I love the slight nutty texture and flavour you get. We use it happily in our Honeybuns gluten free cakes and shortbread bases. I guess a downside is that you get denser cakes from it. You can create lift  and fluff by adding gluten free baking powder, bicarb of soda and a splash of cider vinegar. One of my all time favourites is our Honeybuns Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe in the Honeybuns Gluten-Free Baking book where we use polenta with tapioca, ground almonds and sorghum.

Ground Almonds

Ground almonds are a hands down hero ingredient in gluten free baking. They’re packed to the rafters with vitamin E, natural oils and sweetness. They’re awesome in cakes, shortbreads and cookies. You just need to be careful to not use too much other fat when baking cookies or they tend to spread too much and fry. We use ground almonds in everything from breads to crackers, cakes and cookies. If nuts are an issue then swap in milled seeds. We really rate Linwoods milled organic flaxseed, sunflower & pumpkin seeds. You can get hold of this easily in supermarkets and health food stores or from their online shop.

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You might also be interested in reading our Top Tips on vegan baking ingredients.

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