Master gluten free flours and how they work together in gluten-free baking
Can’t figure out which gluten-free flour to use? Almond? Coconut? Rice? Do they all work the same? Let’s take a look at the various gluten-free flours, starches, and gums, and how they work together in gluten free baking. AND learn how to make your own all-purpose gluten-free flour mix!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, but you will not be charged a penny extra! And mama, I never recommend products I don’t love or believe in.
I find it ironic that in my gluten-free journey I started off by thinking “there’s nothing I can eat!!” Because I then quickly found myself wondering, “which gluten-free flour do I use? There are so many!”
Apparently I can be a whiner…and maybe a touch dramatic.
But it feels dramatic! Food changes can be a very real, hard thing.
Ask anyone who wrestles with weight issues (on either side of the scale). Embarking on a new diet is just that. New.
But as it is with all things new, the newness fades into a very comfortable norm as you get to know it and find a rhythm.
My goal today is to help you simplify your gluten-free flours and know exactly how to make your own gluten-free flour mix.
When you start baking and cooking with gluten-free flours, you quickly find out there are a lot of flours. A lot of starches.
But not all “flours” can be used as regular flour would be used.
Here’s why:
Regular wheat flour has many components in the wheat itself, including gluten, that act as a one-in-all for baking. Gluten-free cup-for-cup flours mimic that wheat structure by building in starches, grains, and gums.
You need all of these components to mimic the wheat flour structure.
The best gluten-free all-purpose flours are blends
This means that they contain more than one ingredient.
To get the right balance you’ll need (remember from above?) starches, grains, and gums.
STARCHES YOU CAN USE:
Potato starch
Arrowroot starch
Cornstarch
Tapioca starch
GRAINS INCLUDE:
Oatmeal flour
Millet flour
Sorghum flour
Brown rice flour
White rice flour
Quinoa flour
Teff flour
Cassava flour (cassava is technically a root, but it works more like a grain than a starch)
GUMS YOU CAN USE:
Xanthan gum
Guar gum
Psyllium husk (though not an actual gum, it works like one from my research)
Flava water (also not an actual gum, but again, works like one)
NUT FLOURS CAN ALSO BE USED:
Almond flour
Coconut flour
Hazelnut flour
AND BEAN FLOURS (not my favorite…I think it tastes “gluten-free” or “gross”):
Garbanzo bean/flava flour
If you love to explore in cooking and try various blends, by all means, buy various flours and ingredients and play around with combos!
A good starting ratio for grains and starches is:
1 part starch, 2 parts grain (a 1:2 ratio)
So if you have 3 cups of starch, you want 6 cups of a grain flour
Then add in your gum (typically only about 1% or less)
If you like percentages more, here’s a good starting point for a cup-for-cup all-purpose flour:
60% grain, 39% starch, >1% gum
Here’s a picture for you visual peeps:
This can be made up of various grains and starches of your choice to equal these percentages.
Keep it simple
To keep things very simple, I stick to a smaller gluten-free collection of flours (have I mentioned I’m a mom to four kids?). These are the staple ingredients I keep on hand for all of my gluten-free baking:
Note: Anthony’s Goods brand is quickly stealing my gluten-free heart. They have some of the best ingredients for the best prices. I’m not sponsored by them, but I love them whole heaps. You can search all of their products on Amazon by going HERE
That’s it. I don’t keep sorghum or millet flours anymore.
After a lot of playing with various flours, I decided on just these for a few reasons.
- They’re versatile in recipes
I can use these in practically any recipe that I like to make. - They’re easy to find in the grocery store or online
All of these ingredients are so easy to locate! My local grocery store (shout out to WinCo) has all of them in the bulk section. But before they did, I was able to purchase them through Amazon for a very reasonable price. - They’re cost-effective
I won’t use the word “cheap” since that can mean something different to different people, but these are the flours that also save me the most money. Other flours are often more expensive and/or not as versatile so they don’t get used as quickly.
Read next: The Best Fluffy Bread Rolls Recipe
My favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour blend looks like this:
Here is the exact recipe for my all-purpose gluten free flour mix
I have the recipe I use and a printable label at this post, but to keep you from jumping around, this is was I use:
- 6 cups brown rice flour
- 2 cups potato starch
- 1 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
How to use millet, oat, and sorghum flours
I have found these grains work best when mixed with rice flour. These are “thick” flours, and give a great structure to muffins and scones. But they are too thick, in my opinion, to replace all of the grain in a gluten free flour blend.
Your recipes should include 2/3 rice flour, 1/3 “thick” flour.
- 4 cups brown rice flour
- 2 cups sorghum, millet, or oat (or any combination)
- 2 cups potato starch
- 1 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
How to use grain-free flours
To mix things up, I also keep almond and coconut flour on hand. I like them for paleo recipes and to add some grain-free days or meals every so often.
Almond and coconut flour
These flours work very differently than grain flours.
Almond flour is very dense and tends to only work well in recipe with eggs to bind it. Gums aren’t quite strong enough to hold it together for cakes, cookies, or breads, etc.
You can safely use about 1/4-1/3 replacement of almond flour in place of an all-purpose gluten free blend in a recipe. If the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour, you can use 1 cup of gluten free flour blend, and 1/2 cup of almond flour.
You can also use 1 cup of almond flour in place of brown rice flour in the gluten free flour blend if you want to add more of a multi-grain, textured taste.
Coconut flour is tricky to work with as it expands quite a bit, absorbing a lot of moisture. So therefore it can quickly make things dry and crumbly. Coconut flour also needs eggs…and a lot of them…to help it bind well. It often pairs well with almond flour.
If you’re wanting to use almond and coconut flour in recipes, I highly suggest following solid recipes that specifically utilize these flours. They don’t work well in place of regular flour or even “gluten free flour” in recipes.
How to use bean flours
As I stated above, bean flours are not my favorite.
They taste like beans to me.
And usually when I’m baking cookies, I’m not after a bean flavor (call me crazy).
With that said, I know many people like to incorporate garbanzo bean flour into their baking.
A gluten free blend should look like this:
- 1 cup garbanzo bean flour
- 5 cups brown rice flour
- 2 cups potato starch
- 1 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
Paleo Dutch Baby Pancake recipe is included in this FREE download: 7 Gluten & Dairy Free Breakfasts E-book
To summarize:
- Flour is just something finely ground, but to mimic wheat’s profile you need to incorporate starches, grains (or nuts), and gums.
- A good all-purpose blend included 60% grain flour, 39% starch, and 1% gum
- Almond and coconut flour are excellent flours to use in gluten-free baking, but need tailored recipes to adjust to their properties
Resource: Texanerin is one of my favorite gluten-free bloggers. Her recipes are amazing, and she came up with the best coconut flour brownie recipe ever. You can check out her coconut flour brownie recipe here.
What mix is better for deep fry?
The gluten free flour blend I make is really good for frying. It’s pretty much a cup for cup flour. It’s 6 cups rice flour, 2 cups potato starch, 1 cup tapioca starch, and 1 T xanthan gum (the xanthan gum is not necessary for frying if you’re using an egg bath). Hope it turns out great for you!
Hi, I do not wuiet get it with percentages, can you give the measurments. SO we need 2 cup of gluten free flour and 1 cup of starch and xantan gum … how much?
The exact blend recipe I use can be found here. But I don’t mind sharing it here in the comments 🙂 It’s 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups potato starch, 1 cup tapioca starch, and 1 T xanthan gum. If you want to try a half batch to see if you like it, it’s 3 cups brown rice flour (white rice flour also works here), 1 cup potato starch, 1/2 cup tapioca starch, 2 tsp xanthan gum.
I hope this helps!
Do brown rice flour and white rice flour work the same? I have been using white rice, but would love to switch to brown rice flour if they are interchangeable.
Anita, fantastic question! Brown and white rice flour are totally interchangeable. It just depends on your preference. I have personally found that my brown rice flour is less gritty than white rice flour. That’s the biggest reason why I use it 🙂
Thank you. These formulas will make it so easy to create my own flour blends with accuracy!
Diane, thank you for your comment! I truly hope it helps make your life easier. Much love to you!
Hi, thank you for all your info. My daughter can not have gluten, rice, or beans. Trying to make a flour blend for bread has been overwhelming. Any wisdom you might have on this? Mainly right now I have Almond and Coconut flours.
Thank you again,
Michele
Hi Michele! I feel for you. It can all be very overwhelming. We took out dairy and eggs for months (along with our normal gluten-free diet), and it was hard to find a new way to eat. Can your daughter have oat flour?
As for a flour blend recipe, almond and coconut flour are best used in recipes tailored to them. So a blend isn’t quite effective, as each recipe may vary.
For different textures, like cookies, scones, yeast bread, or biscuits, you’ll need a different ratio of each. Tapioca starch will be your friend in baking, too! It’s best to keep a jar of each to use for each recipe you need. I don’t have a pure almond flour bread recipe on my blog, but this bread recipe looks really good: Almond Flour Sandwich Bread. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions or reach out with an e-mail! I’d love to help problem solve.
I have been gluten free for about 4 years. While I don’t have celiac, I do have a terrible gluten allergy/sensitivity. Baking I miss the most. I have had very little success with GF baking. I will use these GF suggestions and ratios. Thank you. If you have tried and true recipes. I would love to try them. Thank you so much
Hi Susan!
Thank you for taking time to leave a comment. The gluten free flour blend I use works really well cup for cup in most cake and cookie recipes. I make chocolate chip cookies just using a regular cookie recipe but replacing the flour with my gluten free blend. They turn out great.
Bread is definitely the hardest to change to gluten free because it’s a very different technique.
I have a few recipes that I make almost every week (and don’t fail me unless my oven or my yeast is on the fritz ;)) that I’d love to share with you.
–Best ever GF sandwich bread
–Fluffy dinner rolls
–GF pizza crust that’s ready to use in 35 minutes
–Cranberry orange scones
–Flaky gluten free pie crust
I use my flour blend recipe in all of these. Let me know if I can help in any other way! Wish you the best <3
I have been cooking and baking with gluten free food for 29 years, since my husband at the age of 55 discovered he was bothered by glutensils when he was overcome with an intensely itchy rash, which only became more intolerable with the various creams and medicated ointments he tried on it. Strict avoidance of wheat was the cure for it, and the short route to a course of stomach misery and new rash if he was so foolish as to try wheat products of any kind!
I have found the most cost effective and generally available products to b e ones that generally follow your recipe, but I did not have the exact proportions, so I thank you kindly…. I may now be able to get bread-making underway, as that has eluded me. My best proportions were 1:2:1/2 of white rice , brown
Rice, tapioca starch, & 1 tsp. of xanthum / 3 cups of mix.
Hi!.what I have read n known gluten free blend needs 40%grain 59%starches1%gums
With your blend it is possible to create muffins cake cookies pancakes breads buns
I just want to know as I have too gluten allergy.
Thanks
Hi Erika! I prefer a grain-heavier blend and have had great success using it to make all of those items! It’s definitely possible to use it for muffins, cake, cookies, pancakes, bread & buns.
Here are a couple of my favorite recipes that I use this flour in:
Healthy & filling breakfast cookies
The best GF sandwich bread
Perfect pumpkin scones
Crisp and chewy pizza crust
I hope that helps! 🙂
Thank you so much. This was a very useful read. I’m going to develop my own GF flour.
I’m so glad to hear this, Mary! Thank you for taking time to comment. Let me know if I can help further. I wish you the best!
My niece has been recently diagnosed with celiacs disease so her mom is trying to make her bread and other treats at home, the problem we have is every flour blend we can find has rice in it and my niece is allergic to rice. Could you recommend a recipe for an all purpose flour blend that does not have rice in it.
Hi Tiffany! I would suggest finding special bread recipe that is tailored to being rice-less. Gluten free bread is just finicky! As for a rice-free flour blend, sorghum flour and oat flour would be a great replacement for the rice flour (millet would also work well). I’d suggest using 4 cups of sorghum, 2 cups of oat flour, 2 cups of potato starch, 1 cup of tapioca starch, and 1 tablespoon xanthan gum.
This blend should work as a cup for cup replacement in cakes, cookies, biscuits, pancakes, etc.
Let me know if I can help further!
Can I substitute replace potato starch with tapioca starch all together?
Hi Freda!
Potato starch is slightly heavier than tapioca starch, so you may want to replace the potato starch with 50-75% tapioca starch, and the rest with extra rice flour or cassava. Too much tapioca starch can prove to be a bit gummy.
A flour blend that may work well for you is: 7 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups tapioca starch, 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
Or 6 1/2 cups brown rice flour, 1 1/2 cups tapioca starch, 1 cup cassava, 1 tablespoon xanthan gum.
Let me know if I can help more! 🙂
Help! I understand nothing about baking in general. Lol. I have been gluten free for two years and really struggle because I’m allergic to tapioca. I can’t eat 99% of gluten free foods or recipes. I have finally decided I just need to make my own flour and start making my own breads and such. I use gluten free bisquick quite a bit. But everything I make has the same texture and taste. I can’t do bread with it. I need a good bread flour. What would you recommend? Could your recipe be good without the tapioca?
Brittany! I so feel for you! Tapioca is EVERYWHERE in the gluten free world, but thankfully, YES, you can totally make an awesome flour without it. I’d suggest using part potato starch and part arrowroot starch to replace the tapioca flour. You can also fully replace it with arrowroot, but it can be a bit more expensive than potato starch, depending on where you get it. If you have no issues with corn starch, you can also replace the tapioca with corn starch.
This will make a fantastic all-purpose flour (breads included!): 6 cups brown rice flour (or white), 2 1/4 cups potato starch, 3/4 cup arrowroot (or corn) starch, 1 T xanthan gum.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I love to talk gluten free food 🙂
Hi,
I want to know if I can mix rice flour, sorghum, oat flour, tapioca, potato starch and xanthan gum to make a blend and in what measurement. Thanks
Hi Nancy! Yes, those are all great flours to use. The rice, sorghum, and oat flours will be used for the grain portion. You can play around with what measurements of each you want, but a good starting place would be 3 cups rice flour, 2 cups sorghum, and 1 cup oat flour. For the starches, add 2 cups potato and 1 cup tapioca, and then 1 tablespoon xanthan gum. If you want to make a smaller batch, just halve the amounts 🙂
Let me know if I can help more!
thanks for the blend ideas. do you have a bread recipe that is dairy free, egg free, and gluten free? does this recipe work with basic egg replacer?
Hi Wendy! I’m glad you dropped a comment! The sandwich bread recipe I have posted HERE can actually be made without eggs (it’s already gluten and dairy free). I used chia seed eggs to replace the eggs and it turned out pretty well! It did need to be heated up for best taste, though.
I also make gluten, dairy, egg free dinner rolls that are AMAZING. I make them just about every week. They’re really soft and great for sandwiches as well. I’ll link the recipe HERE.
I can’t have tapioca or xanthum gum. Any suggestions for a good GF flour mix for baking I can make myself?
Hi Charlotte!
Yes, absolutely! You can replace the tapioca starch with potato starch or arrowroot powder, or a combo of both. You can also eliminate the xanthan gum. To use the flour as a one for one substitute for cookies or pancakes or the like, you’ll need something to help bind the flour, such as an extra egg or psyllium husk powder.
Let me know if I can be of further help or clarification 🙂
An example of a great flour mix for you might be:
6 cups rice flour
2 1/2 cups potato starch
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
-add 2 teaspoons psyllium husk powder for every cup of flour called for