Ep 108 The Magic of Gluten Free Flours with Cinde

January 22, 2020 /

Let’s start the blog with the show notes for this Episode –

This week I have an in depth discussion with Cinde Little, The Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet about Gluten Free Flours.  Cinde wrote a series of blog posts about her experiences with different flours, starches and binders.  We chat about why there are so many flours and how they effect baked goods.  We also look at flour blends, and give some tips on making your own.  Cinde has provided two tables of her findings, which are on my blog for this episode at www.acanadianceliacblog.com

You can find Cinde online at www.everdayglutenfreegourmet.ca

I have many different interviews scheduled for the first couple of months of 2020, and if there is anything you’d like me to cover, please email me at acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com.

Sue’s Websites and Social Media –

Podcast https://acanadianceliacpodcast.libsyn.com

Podcast Blog – https://www.acanadianceliacblog.com

Facebook – @acanadianceliacpodcast

Twitter – CeliacPodcastCA

Email – acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com

Baking Website – https://www.suesglutenfreebaking.com

Instagram – @suesgfbaking

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUVGfpD4eJwwSc_YjkGagza06yYe3ApzL

     (search Sues Gluten Free Baking)

Email – sue@suesglutenfreebaking.com

Other Podcast – Gluten Free Weigh In – https://glutenfreeweighin.libsyn.com

My Thoughts –

I love to bake, and I suppose that’s why I operated a gluten free bakery for more than 10 years, and followed that with two seasons of a gluten free baking show on our local cable channel.  What makes gluten free baking different is that it is almost always an experiment.  I call my effort to make up new recipes “experi-baking”, and I usually have to try different forms of a new recipe many times to get it just right.

Gluten free baking isn’t like conventional wheat baking.   Things don’t puff up as much, hold in as much moisture, and spring back when you touch them.  In my experience, I could make the same recipe three days in a row and have three different results.  That made setting up a gluten free bakery an even greater challenge.  The products had to be consistent, not only in their taste and texture, but in size and colour. 

In the world of commercial baking, I had many failures, but everything was edible, and I learned as I ate my mistakes.  It took me a few years to settle down with a plan for a new recipe.  We stocked ten different flours in the bakery, so we had lots of choice, maybe too much choice.

Whenever, my baker and I were formulating a new recipe, we looked to see how different we wanted it to be from what we already made – a different flavour of muffin, a different type of cookie, or maybe it was something completely different.  We usually started with a basic wheat recipe and substituted my flour blend (2 parts white rice flour, 2/3 part tapioca starch, 1/3 part potato starch).  We would also alter a few other things to make the recipe more suitable for gluten free (adding extra egg, or gum, or liquid etc.).  Another trick we used was to make a basic recipe then split it in 2 or 3 equal portions to make revisions (a different amount of egg, different leaveners, different fats, different flavours etc.).

This process seems cumbersome, but it worked and we learned a great deal in the process.  I have to say, recipe development is something I still love to do.  My drawback now is that I’m the only one at home to eat the mistakes, and that’s not very compatible with watching my weight.  I have been fortunate to work with a couple of gluten free companies to help with recipe development for them.  I can’t say much now, but I’m excited to be able to share once products go to market.  I do believe the old saying – “do what you love, and it will never feel like work”.