Biscuits, Cornbread, 2 Flour Mixes, and Stocking your Wheat Free Pantry

Just to warn you -- your pantry is going to be quite different, now that you're not using wheat flour anymore.  Baking without wheat flour involves combinations of other flours to achieve a good result.  So to start, you're going to need as a minimum:

White Rice flour
Potato Starch
Tapioca flour
Cornstarch (it's used like a flour in non-wheat cooking)
Xanthan Gum

Other flours that you'll eventually want to include:

Brown Rice Flour
Cornmeal and corn flour
Garfava Bean flour (a combination of Garbanzo bean flour and Fava bean flour)--Bob's Red Mill makes one
Sorghum Flour
Potato flour (just a small amount -- it's different from Potato starch, which you'll use a lot of)

Some other items that will make your baking easier:

Egg Replacer
Unflavored gelatin
Dry milk (not instant)

Some other things you'll need that you may already have:

Vinegar
Yeast

You may be able to find all these items at a natural foods store, if you have one near you.  If not, you can find them online.  Some of the companies that carry these types of flours are Authentic Foods, Jowar, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods, Ener-G Foods, Inc., Nancy's Natural Foods, and many more.  Oriental Food stores are often good sources of rice flours as well.  If you can find it, Superfine Brown Rice Flour will give you the most tender baked goods.  I've been having a hard time finding it where I live, but Authentic Foods makes it.

There are two flour mix formulas that I use more than any others, and always have some made up and on hand.  These are from Bette Hagman, the patron saint of gluten-free cooking.  One of her books,  The Gluten -free Gourmet Bakes Bread, has lots of mixes and recipes that are great.

The most basic gluten-free flour mixture is:  (for 6 cups)

Rice flour                   4 Cups
Potato Starch             1-1/3 Cups
Tapioca Flour             2/3 Cup

You can increase this if you want to store a larger quantity, but keep the ratios consistent, and measure carefully.  This flour mixture produces baked goods that are similar to "white flour" products that you're used to, but without the superfine flour, you may detect some graininess in the finished product.

The other flour mixture I use alot is called Four Flour Bean Mix.  For 6 cups:

1-1/3 Cups Garfava Bean Flour
2/3 Cup Sorghum Flour
2 Cups Cornstarch
2 Cups Tapioca Flour

This produces baked goods that are similar to "whole wheat" products -- heavier, denser, etc.  Because this flour mixture is higher in protein, it can be substituted cup for cup in your regular recipes with pretty good results, as long as you add about 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of flour used.  Because there is no rice flour in it, there is no graininess.  If you like a product somewhere between "white" and "brown", you can mix the mixtures. 

Here are the two quickbread recipes I promised you:

Wheat Free Cornbread

2 Cups cornmeal or corn flour (I like to use 1 cup of each)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. xanthan gum
Mix above together with whisk.  In another bowl, whisk together:
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Cups buttermilk
Add dry ingredients to wet -- mix gently.  It'll be lumpy.

Put into a pre-heated, greased dutch oven or cast iron skillet. 

(Just stick it in your oven while it's pre-heating.)  It will bubble up around the edges when it hits the hot skillet.  Bake at 400 until golden brown on top, about 25 min.

Cut into wedges and break out the butter and honey!  Yum!

Biscuits

2 Cups flour mix--either Gluten-Free Mix or Four Flour Bean Mix or 1 Cup of each mixture (I like 4-flour)
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
6 Tbsp. butter
1 Cup buttermilk
Mix dry ingredients together.  Cut in butter until size of peas.

Stir in buttermilk.  Add more if too dry.  Pat out to 1/2" to 3/4" thick.  Cut into rounds. 

Place on greased cookie sheet.  Brush tops with additional buttermilk.  Make about 12 biscuits. 

Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Note:  If you are following this blog, but not gluten intolerant and want to try the recipes, I'll let you know when you can substitute regular flour for the non-gluten flours and still have a good result.  For the biscuit recipe above, just substitute 2 cups regular flour for the gluten-free mixes, and eliminate the xanthan gum.