Multi-purpose Flour?

[katdw]

Hi, Was wondering if there is a multi purpose flour that I can make in bulk so I always have it for several recipes. I am brand new to all this andI am getting so overwhelmed. My daughter loves pizza, cookies etc. so any ideas would be great. I did post earlier in the "babies and kids" section but though this was the right spot for this. Can you tell I am new??(lol) Thank god for this site!!

[happygirl]

There are quite a few great flours out there (and, some not so great ones) and everyone has their own personal preference.

After trying many, many, many flours - our hands down favorite is Better Batter Gluten Free Flour. It already has xanthan gum added, which is often added to gluten free recipes.

website: Open Original Shared Link

We use it one for one replacement, don't have to add anything, and use it in all types of recipes.

[bbuster]

I use Bette Hagman's Featherlight flour for most things - cookies, cakes, bread, brownies

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 cup corn starch

1 tbsp potato flour (not potato starch)

I sometimes leave out the potato flour if I don't have it on hand. You need to add Xanthan gum to this, but depends on what you are making - about 1/2 tsp per cup of flour mix for cookies/brownies but about double that for cakes and bread.

I have a separate mix that I make in bulk for pizza crust. It is also from Bette Hagman's book The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread.

[jkmunchkin]

I use the one from Annalise Roberts cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics, but I think the Bette Hagman one is also a good one to use.

I would reccomend using the Superfine Brown Rice Flour from Authentic Foods as your rice flour for the blends. It doesn't have the grittyness that many of the others do.

[BigRoy]

I'm trying to find a recipe for bread that I like. I have tried several and they all turn out like bricks!! I have a 20 year old grandson living with us that I think has Celiac. He is very fussy and hates my breads that I have tried. I also want to make bagels, which he loves. I tried one recipe from Betty Hagmans book, but could not handle the dough, it was very moist, so I tried adding rice flour and I still couldn't work with it so it went in the garbage. If anyone has any ideas please post a reply

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Bigroy, the gluten-free batters ARE awfully moist and horrible to work with. They DON'T work if you add extra flour to them to make them look "right." That actually makes them "wrong!"

Try again, and stick exactly to the recipe, no matter what it looks like, okay? And stick to breads if you can--bagels are the very hardest thing to make, and maybe you should wait til you're a total pro at the breads before you tackle bagels.

I find Annalise Roberts' recipes much, much easier and also tastier than Bette Hagman's. I know Bette Hagman's recipes are popular, but I think it's because she was the first gluten-free cook out there, and also because she has SO many books out. The cookbook is called Gluten-Free Baking Classics, and is available on Amazon. You can also go to her website, where there are quite a few of her recipes. You have to hunt a bit for the flour mix, it's under the getting started section, but I can't remember exactly where. Anyway, the website is www.foodphilosopher.com.

As for the multipurpose flour, I like Annalise Roberts' blend, and used to make it, but found it very time-consuming, and also the finely ground brown rice flour is extremely expensive.

I now order flour in bulk from Betterbatter.org. it's a little more expensive than mixing it myself, but it arrives at my door from Amazon, and saves quite a lot of time, and that's worth a lot right there!

[GlutenGalAZ]

I'm trying to find a recipe for bread that I like. I have tried several and they all turn out like bricks!! I have a 20 year old grandson living with us that I think has Celiac. He is very fussy and hates my breads that I have tried. I also want to make bagels, which he loves. I tried one recipe from Betty Hagmans book, but could not handle the dough, it was very moist, so I tried adding rice flour and I still couldn't work with it so it went in the garbage. If anyone has any ideas please post a reply

Keep your hands wet when handling the dough. It makes it easier to handle plus it helps you shape the dough into the bagel shape. You can also spray your hands with say Pam but I find the water is easier to do plus you can easily turn the water on while cooking with you arm then spray your hands more with Pam Your hands will still get a little doughy.

The Gluten Free Pantry line (mixes) has some really good bread mixes if you want to try one already done up instead of a recipe... They have French Bread which is also a pizza mix and a White Sandwich bread mix.

GOOD LUCK

[Mtndog]

I'm trying to find a recipe for bread that I like. I have tried several and they all turn out like bricks!! I have a 20 year old grandson living with us that I think has Celiac. He is very fussy and hates my breads that I have tried. I also want to make bagels, which he loves. I tried one recipe from Betty Hagmans book, but could not handle the dough, it was very moist, so I tried adding rice flour and I still couldn't work with it so it went in the garbage. If anyone has any ideas please post a reply

I really like gluten-free pantry's Favorite Sandwich bread mix.

I also use Pamela's Baking Mix and gluten-free Pantry's Beth's All Purpose gluten-free Flour.

[climbmtwhitney]

I'm trying to find a recipe for bread that I like. I have tried several and they all turn out like bricks!!

We absolutely LOVE Pamela's "Wheat - Free Bread Mix". (Don't know why they call it "wheat-free" since it says elsewhere on the pkg that it's gluten-free and dairy free too.) It's a mix that you add eggs, oil, yeast (provided) and water to.

It's awesome baked fresh or kept in the fridge for a few days. Often I make 2 loaves and freeze 1 for later. What I like most is that it not only tastes delicious and looks/feels exactly like "regular" bread, but you don't have to toast it to make it taste good. And, it's NOT spongy which is so annoying!

Sonya

[Wonka]

) You want four main types of flour in your mix--

Bodifiers-- Teff, Sorghum, Rice, bean flours, brown rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, and cornmeal are a few options. These provide bulk and protein as well as the vitamins (if any, teff is a great source of vitamins).

Modifiers-- Tapioca starch, cornstarch, potato starch, arrowroot powder. These provide lightness and smoothness to the mix.

Moisturizers-- potato starch (this is a duel status item and should be counted in the ratio as a modifier, but if you use too much it will over moisturize the mix), potato flour. These counterbalance the drying tendencies of modifiers.

Extenders-- guar gum, xanthan gum, pectin, (to a degree) fruit acids, and, to a degree, flaxseed. These substitute for gluten and add extra body and stretch to the flour mix, as well as extend the shelf life of your baked goods.

A good ratio to make is 2 cup bodifier: 1 cup modifier: 1/4 cup moisturizer: 3 tsp. extender

[katdw]

So, if I basically use one of each catergory this will be my multi purpose flour? Now, with this flour can I use it in any recipes asking for regular flour? Another words can I use it for breads, doughs, cookies etc.?

[Wonka]

So, if I basically use one of each catergory this will be my multi purpose flour? Now, with this flour can I use it in any recipes asking for regular flour? Another words can I use it for breads, doughs, cookies etc.?

Just pick a flour from each category, using the recommended amounts for each group, and mix together. I use it for all my baking unless a recipe calls for separate flours (and even then I sometimes just use my mix, keeping to the same volume of total flour listed).

[GFLady]

hi, I am new to this forum, but very excited to share and GET some ideas. I am originally from Hungary, married an American, so my English is not perfect. I am sorry about that. :-)

Anyways, I am trying to find an all purpose mix too. I tried Bette Hagman`s, the 2 part rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch and 1/3 part tapioca starch. It seems that anything I bake with it gets to be crumbly and when you eat you wanna choke it is so dense. I guess that`s how I can describe it. I experienced this with the rice flour before, but I thought this combination will work since so many people like it. I have a huge batch mixed up, because when I first read the ratios, it said 6 cups, 2 cups and 1 cup. I was crazy enough to miss that much up. I need to use it!! Any ideas of successful baking with that mix? Maybe I just don`t have the right recipes.

[GFLady]

I forgot to mention, that I am one of those "lucky" ones, who is allergic to corn as well. So no cornstarch please!

[nasalady]

I'm trying to find a recipe for bread that I like. I have tried several and they all turn out like bricks!! I have a 20 year old grandson living with us that I think has Celiac. He is very fussy and hates my breads that I have tried. I also want to make bagels, which he loves. I tried one recipe from Betty Hagmans book, but could not handle the dough, it was very moist, so I tried adding rice flour and I still couldn't work with it so it went in the garbage. If anyone has any ideas please post a reply

I've tried lots of the commercially available mixes and some of the Bette Hagman recipes as well, but so far the BEST gluten free bread recipe I've come across is on the "Mennonite girls can cook" blog site:

Open Original Shared Link

This bread is absolutely amazing! The hard part is finding the white bean flour; there are only a couple of companies that carry it and I had to order it online. But it was DEFINITELY worth it! So much better than garfava flour!

You must follow Julie's recipe precisely, and when she says cover it with a towel as it rises, I find that I have to remove the towel just before the dough rises high enough to reach it, or it will stick to the towel and will fall when the towel is peeled off. When she says it will resemble too-thick cake batter, that's exactly what it looks like.

Let it rise in a warm, switched-off oven, then leave it in the oven while the oven is pre-heating to avoid causing the bread to fall (it's very sensitive to being moved/bumped/jostled).

JoAnn

[lpellegr]

So, if I basically use one of each catergory this will be my multi purpose flour? Now, with this flour can I use it in any recipes asking for regular flour? Another words can I use it for breads, doughs, cookies etc.?

I would caution you that if you're new to this and you think you can just substitute this gluten-free flour mix in your old recipes and get the same results you're going to be disappointed. Very seldom is it that simple. I would recommend that you buy a gluten-free cookbook or two and start trying out the recipes as written until you feel comfortable with them, or look up recipes on this site. If you have been a baker in the past and made your own bread, forget all of that. I used to knead bread all the time and make pizza from scratch once a week, but gluten-free baking has been a challenge even after 4 years, especially since I am too cheap to buy premade mixes. I buy rice, tapioca, and other flours at an Asian market to get the best prices and make my own flour mixes. I do have to pay more for xanthan gum and exotic flours at Whole Foods or online, but sometimes it's necessary. After you have been experimenting for a while you will find a few recipes for breads and muffins and cookies that work for you and you'll be able to satisfy your needs with them, but expect to have a lot of flops at first. Look through this forum for recommendations on which cookbooks - I started with Bette Hagman, but from what I've read in recent years there are others that might be more successful and simpler. Bette uses a lot of ingredients that most people don't have on hand and her textures could be improved upon. Whatever your results, keep trying. And remember, flops can always be made into crumbs for another use.