Tips for gluten-free baking (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to gluten-free baking? ›

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

One of the challenges is that when gluten-free dough is thickened with additives like starches and gums, it becomes sticky. Some bakers dust sticky dough with flour, but that's problematic with gluten-free formulations.

Avoid contamination with products containing gluten:

Always use clean surfaces, utensils, pans, and pots. Keep gluten-containing food away from the meal you are preparing, including oil used to cook these foods. Use separate gluten free tools and kitchen items if possible.

Best Overall: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour

This mix, which has all recognizable ingredients (including sweet white rice flour, which is the main ingredient in mochi, a nice light, powdery, starchy flour that doubles as a binder), worked well in all three of our tests.

“Properly balancing the starches, proteins and hydrocolloids is essential.” Aaron Reed, senior food technologist, Cargill, echoed that bread is the hardest product to replicate when developing a gluten-free product.

Long-Term Cardiovascular Risks of Gluten Free Diets

Hyperglycemia and an increase in insulin resistance and obesity has been reported as well. These diets are also not recommended for a pregnant woman.

A gluten-free diet is based on the products which have a high glycemic index and are devoid of dietary fiber. These foods contain many simple carbohydrates and fats. These factors can give rise to nutritional deficiencies, constipation, and the development of the metabolic syndrome [82].

Gluten-free batter is almost always more wet than traditional batters, and gluten-free baked goods are almost always more dry. The more you practice, the more you'll adjust to this new reality and tweak recipes and baking times accordingly. Never try to make a wheat bread recipe gluten-free. It just won't work.

However, these alternative flours do not have the same properties as wheat flour, which can make baking gluten-free bread a challenge. One of the main challenges in making gluten-free bread is achieving the same texture and rise as traditional wheat bread.

Why add vinegar to gluten-free bread? ›

Apple Cider Vinegar – Superpower your Gluten-Free Kitchen! Apple cider vinegar is often used in baking, but why? It is a great leavening agent, but it also has powerful flavour enhancing properties. I find it adds the perfect amount of depth of flavour, and helps activate baking soda creating a lovely airy texture.

Eggs are natural leaveners that help boost the rise and volume of bread. Eggs also add moisture, flavor, and protein to gluten-free bread recipes. If you select a gluten-free bread recipe that includes eggs, you have a better chance that the resulting bread will have good color, more volume, and softer texture.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Gluten-free goods tend to brown faster and take longer to cook through. So they need to be baked at a slightly lower temperature, for a slightly longer time. Every recipe is different, but in general, try lowering the temperature by 25 degrees and baking the item for 15 minutes longer.

Xanthan gum: Critical in gluten-free baking, xanthan gum holds ingredients together, providing elasticity and springiness. Like baking soda or baking powder, you need only a little to make a big difference.

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

Eggs can replace many of the functions that gluten provides, such as binding, enhancing texture and helping set the structure of the final product. Besides eggs, which are protein-based, two starch-based products often used to bind and thicken gluten-free baked products are guar gum and xanthan gum.