GF Baking Tips

Baking with Gluten-free materials isn't always easy, so we developed this section to provide some helpful hints and tips when working with non-traditional types of flours and additives, as well as providing some general baking tips.

For this site: tsp. = teaspoon, Tbsp. = Tablespoon.

BASICS OF BAKING AND COOKING GF (written by: Susan Mahood) 

Good baking and cooking principles are the same, regardless of what types of ingredients you use.

The big difference in baking or cooking GF is that rice flour and some other GF flours do not rise or stick together like wheat flour. This requires the addition of other GF ingredients to help with the texture and moisture of the mix.

 

THE VERY, VERY BASIC BEGINNINGS:

• Always start with a clean workspace and spotless tools. Assemble your tools and ingredients on your clean workspace before starting. (This prevents the last-minute panic trips to the supermarket for ingredients you thought you had, but didn’t.)
• CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATES on your ingredients.
• KNOW WHAT IS GF (see list of GF flours and “hidden” sources of gluten). READ THE INGREDIENTS IN YOUR INGREDIENTS!
• Preheat your oven (or prepare fryer or grill). Set oven rack in center unless recipe says otherwise.
• Use nonstick cookware whenever possible. Discard any nonstick cookware that is scratched or peeling.
• Pans that are shallow or have a hole in the center (such as bundt pans for cakes) allow for more even rising and cooking of GF mixtures. (See “How to Flour a Pan,” ahead.)
• A sturdy stand mixer (with beaters and dough hooks) is a big work saver and produces better results.
• If you are not a baker, start with good quality GF mixes for the item(s) you want. Read the directions carefully before starting. Later on, you can learn to adapt “wheat” recipes to GF.
• Basic food handling safety: WASH YOUR HANDS. Do not sample uncooked mixtures containing eggs. Keep pets or small children confined.
• FOCUS ON WHAT THE CELIAC CAN EAT. FIND SUBSTITUTES FOR FAVORITE FOODS FIRST. Home cooking is more work, but it is also healthier for everyone. With planning, you can have leftovers for busy days or frozen items for last-minute events.

 

THE GLUTEN-FREE FLOUR PRINCIPLE:

Rice flour by itself handles like fine sand: it is coarse, does not rise, and tends to crumble (unless it bakes into a total brick). To achieve a decent texture and have the item rise while baking, you need to add other GF ingredients that give the mixture more elasticity, moisture and/or more air bubbles. These may include: corn starch; potato starch; xanthan gum; soy flour (strong, oily taste; not tolerated by everyone); tapioca flour; extra eggs; ground nuts (when tolerated);

or GF pudding mix (which is basically corn starch with sugar and flavoring). Some recipes call for buttermilk as well; if you do not want to bother buying a whole carton of buttermilk, add one tablespoon cider vinegar to one cup of regular or lactose-free milk. It will curdle & thicken, which is what it should do.

 

YOU CAN STILL “BREAD” MEATS TO FRY OR BAKE THEM. Use corn or rice flour or ground-up GF cereal as a “breading.” You can wash the meat in cold water, pat dry with clean paper towels and dip in beaten egg and water (one egg + one tablespoon water) or in milk in order to get the dry coating to stick to the meat. Remember, spices add the flavor!

 

YOU CAN STILL HAVE GRAVIES AND SAUCES. Use corn starch in place of wheat flour for these; your results will be better than wheat flour. For each cup of liquid you wish to thicken, add one tablespoon corn starch to enough COLD water to stir into a pourable mixture. Stir this slowly into other ingredients and bring mixture to a boil (watch for bubbles). It will thicken and become more translucent.

ANY sauce or gravy will burn and stick to the pan unless cooked over low to medium heat and stirred CONSTANTLY.

 

BASIC BAKING: HOW YOU PUT THINGS TOGETHER

MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

 

Regardless of whether you are baking with or without gluten, if you are baking from scratch, the WAY you put the ingredients together will affect your results. You will generally get yummier goodies if you use the old-fashioned “formula” for assembling your batter or dough.

 

- Grease your baking pan. Using a clean paper towel, swab enough GF shortening from the can to wipe evenly over the entire inner surface of the pan, especially corners, unless recipe instructs otherwise. If the recipe calls for “flouring” the pan, or you want to make extra sure your cake doesn’t stick to the pan, add a couple of tablespoons of GF mix or plain rice flour to the already greased pan. Pick up the pan and tilt and tap it until the flour is evenly stuck to the grease. Dump out any extra GF flour.

- “Cream” together sugar(s) and GF shortening or softened butter or GF margarine FIRST. (Do not melt butter or margarine unless the recipe says to!)

Measure these ingredients, put in mixer, and beat on medium speed until they look uniform and fluffy, usually several minutes.

• Add eggs, one at a time (unless recipe says otherwise). Beat well after adding each egg. Hint: crack each egg into a small clean bowl before adding it to your mixture. You can fish out any bits of eggshell with a piece of the rest of the shell of that egg; for some reason, the shell attracts its parts, almost like a magnet. If the egg looks or smells funky, you can throw it away without getting rid of everything in your mixing bowl. DO NOT USE EGGS THAT ARE CRACKED. Throw these away. Do not store eggs in the door of your refrigerator; it is not cold enough there. Best to keep them in their original container in the middle of the ‘frig. Eggs can be contaminated with salmonella; do not leave out at room temperature longer than needed.
• Add other liquid ingredients (vanilla, molasses, applesauce, buttermilk, milk, etc.) and beat well.
• Dry ingredients that have been sifted together can be added at this point. Add gradually, and scrape the sides of the mixing bowl with a nylon spatula as you work.

 

SIFTING DRY INGREDIENTS: “ Normal ” flour sifters – if you can find one – do not handle GF flour mixtures well. I use a wire mesh strainer and a metal spoon. Measure the flour(s), baking soda or powder, salt and other dry ingredients (inc. spices) into the strainer while it is resting over a clean mixing bowl. Use the spoon to stir these and push them through the wire mesh. For best results, sift three times.

 

- Stir in raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, or other textured items last. These are a real help with “breaking up” gluten free batter or dough and thus improving texture as well as nutrition and taste.

 

• Pour batter into prepared pan. If making cookies, cover bowl of dough and refrigerate between batches. Generally, ovens will only accommodate one or two cookie sheets at a time. If you stack cookie sheets on two oven racks, one will not cook as well or as quickly as the other.
• Place pan in oven and SET A TIMER for the minimum cooking time stated in the recipe. Use a toothpick inserted in the center to see if your cake is done; if not, reset the timer for 5-10 more minutes. Cookies should be golden brown around the edges. Brownies and breads will be “set” (not gooey) on top or in the middle.
• When done:
• Allow cakes to cool in pan five minutes. Place a wire cooling rack over the top of the pan and hold tight while you flip the pan over and hopefully your cake falls out onto the rack. Loosen edges with a clean blunt knife if they are stuck. Sheet cakes (squares or rectangles) can be left in the pan to cool and be frosted. Round layers and bundt cakes are removed from the pan before finishing cooling & then frosting or icing.
• Cookies should cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then be transferred to a clean paper towel with a nylon spatula to finish cooling. Store in airtight container when cool.
• Brownies, corn bread, etc. can be left in pan and covered tightly when cooled.
• Loaves of bread should be removed from pan the same way you would a cake. Wrap or cover tightly when cool.

 

Gluten free baked goods tend to dry out more easily than wheat flour items. They also grow mold more easily. When in doubt, refrigerate or freeze wrapped, cooled items.

 

PIZZA IS POSSIBLE! There are decent, premade frozen pizza crusts available commercially, or you can use a GF bread mix, following directions for pizza crust or rolls. Remember to read the ingredients in all of your toppings.

 

The only item I have never been satisfied with is GF pie crust. Maybe some can master it; I have not. Make a crumb crust using ground GF cookies or cereal by putting them in a freezer bag and crushing with rolling pin or wooden meat mallet.

Follow instructions as for “graham cracker” crusts. For pumpkin “pie” at Thanksgiving, we prefer to bake the pumpkin filling in custard cups (set in a shallow pan with about an inch of water in the bottom before baking). Stick a knife in the center to test for doneness; if it comes out clean, custard is ready.

Meringue crust works well for cold pies like pudding or ice cream pies, but it does not last long and quickly begins to return to a liquid state.

 

MOST OF ALL: DO NOT GIVE UP! My first GF cake resembled quarry tile.

Over time, you will learn what works and what doesn’t. Once you become less afraid to experiment, you can create some truly delicious GF foods!

 

Toothpick check: When baking most cake/bread-like items, you can check to see if the inside is done by inserting a clean toothpick, and when you pull it out if the center material has stuck to it and is gooey it needs more time. If the toothpick comes out clean it is done all the way through.

 

 

 

 

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