Wholegrain Gluten-free Flour Mix

Gluten Free Flours -- an ESSAY    Also see this Flour Table Link

First posted 6-20-08

For those of us that are gluten-free, this topic deserves some sifting through...  (bad, I know.)

There are four grains that celiacs must avoid and 24 others. Why are we not eating from the full spectrum! Let's be daring enough to investigate the 24! Be exciting, be gourmet, bake cutting edge cuisine!

Most celiac bakers settle on a flour, either a purchased mix or one that they combine themselves.  The perfect flour mix would be one that we could substitute in most applications. Unfortunately many of these that work well are not nutritious but are all made of starches. We are of the wholegrain generation! Let's use wholegrains whenever we can.

FYI: Useless statistic time? 12% of Americans do not know popcorn is a whole grain!

The wholegrain flour mix that I use seems complicated, but it's full of nutrients and fiber—it must be, it’s full of whole grains! During my initial GF morph transformation, I purchased a selection of flours (okay every one I stumbled upon) and one day my husband rummaging through the freezer could no longer identify any “real” food and that was when I realized I could stop hoarding my collection and start using the impressive array.

My best swap GF flour mix consists of a selection of  flours and if I run out of one, I swap in another.

1 c. Millet (Yes the popular bird seed was once considered people food—ask your grandma)

2 1/2 cups Rice flour – I try to use brown rice and grind, freeze and use it up before it goes rancid.

1 c Potato starch or corn starch (Bob’s Red Mill, or in 50 lb. bags at http://honeyvillegrain.com/) A STARCH!! WARNING, WARNING.

2 cups Tapioca starch also known as tapioca flour (I buy this at my neighborhood Asian or Indian store) I love the chew it gives food.

1 c. Sorghum flour (Bobs Red Mill or http://www.twinvalleymills.com/ in NE will ship) I buy it cheaper in grain and grind my own--and it lasts longer.

1 c. buckwheat flour I buy it online in groats and grind it myself.  waltonfeed.com

1 cup corn starch also cheapest at my Asian or Indian store


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If I have an urge, I use one of the following in the mixture also.  Most bakery items are pretty forgiving.

Coconut flour (http://www.bobsredmill.com/ or simplycoconut.com or grind your own from unsweetened flaked coconut.

1/2 c. Gar-fava bean flour is a mix of garbanzo and fava bean flour mix (Bob’s Red Mill )

1/2 c. Montina wild rice flour (When I’m feeling cash poor, sometimes I substitute a ground up Honeyville's wild/white rice flour blend or skip this ingredient entirely)

1 c. Almond flour (blanched and ground) or just meal made in my K-Tec blender (see Will It Blend on youtube) by blending almonds with a touch of rice flour to keep the mix from becoming almond butter. It's better if you have a food processor. That works best.

I have swapped out amaranth, quinoa, white bean, arrowroot starch, and teff successfully. These alternate grains are really good and tremendously forgiving. Good luck with your mix.

I have a good grain grinder and this makes everything less expensive to buy and store as a whole grain for longer storage, in larger quantities.

Flours we can eat:

Almond, Amaranth, Arrowroot, Black Bean, Brown Rice, Buckwheat, Corn flour, Coconut, Garfava bean, Garbanzo bean, Green Pea, Hazelnut, Millet, Pinto bean, Potato Flour and Starch, Quinoa, Romano bean, Sorghum Soybean, Sweet Rice, Tapioca root, Teff, Wild rice, White bean.

Bette Hagman’s (Praise Be Her Name) recipe books have introductions to a diverse number of exotic flours. She explains and discusses their properties and their substitution ratios, as well as offers mixes that one can make up for different recipes. (I love her French bread/Pizza mixture from Bette's The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread Recipe Book)