Everyone who has been baking gluten-free for some time knows that all gluten-free flours are different. There is no “One Size Fits All” flour that can make every recipe adequately nor suit every celiac; from Bread to Cakes to Pasta and Pastries, all require some differences.
Just as there are different grades of wheat-based flours, such as all-purpose, pastry, and cake flours, as well as hard wheat and whole wheat, you need different gluten-free flour mixtures to achieve the best results in your baking.
Experimenting with various gluten-free flours
It can be time-consuming and expensive when you are a busy person who needs to have a gluten-free home for one or more family members. I faced these challenges in the early years when beginning the gluten-free lifestyle through necessity.
I decided to experiment with various blends of flour to save time preparing foods. I wanted one or two flours like I had been used to with wheat cooking and baking. Eventually, I came up with four main flours plus some bread and pizza mixes to save time. It took a lot of doing to find combinations that worked in my traditional recipes, and that also tasted good.
By blending mixes ahead, I saved so much time. Standardizing the blends also meant having more even results every time.
It is incredible that everywhere you go, you meet someone besides you who needs to eat gluten-free. Your social life as a celiac or gluten-sensitive person or family is essential. I always brought some of my baking when we would all go out to a function, such as a church supper, celiac support group meeting, or potluck supper. It was not long before I had people asking for the recipes.
One woman asked me to bake her bread every week. It was hard to say no, but it was not practical for me at the time. But in my heart of hearts, I could not keep these recipes to myself!
This began quite a gluten-free journey, and you can read more about it on the About page.
This journey led me from sharing foods with friends to entering the gluten-free flour blend business to then writing a cookbook. And the journey continues as I learn new things to share with readers all of the time.
Although our family members had no trouble with corn, I found some people couldn’t tolerate it. Some can’t tolerate Tapioca, and others can’t tolerate Potato or Nightshade. The list goes on.
This led me to do further testing to be able to create mixes that a broad section of people can tolerate. Naturally, I have always been concerned with creating healthy recipes. Good nutrition is essential for anyone and even more so for those on a gluten-free diet. Over the years, more naturally gluten-free flours adding more nutrition became available. Online shopping opened up varieties that local stores could not afford to stock, allowing us to have more variety and nutrition in our food.
It makes a lot of sense these days to blend your own mixes. You have no more wasted food because it didn’t taste good or was not functional in a recipe!
Flour Blend Recipes are now available in my cookbook, Gluten-Free You Can Do It.
No need to be discouraged on your new gluten-free diet any longer.
If you are new to living gluten-free, you can get very discouraged trying to cook and bake. Since different combinations of gluten-free flour bake very differently than wheat flour, you need some taste-tested recipes that you can rely on at the outset.
It can be devastating when recipes fail, and you have to discard expensive to make foods. Some people give up, like the gentleman I met at a function years ago who tried one of the donuts I had brought. He couldn’t believe it. He had not had a donut in over twenty years. You can live on very simple, naturally gluten-free foods. But now and then, it is great to have something special.
I’m sure many people on a gluten-free diet can relate.
After years of juggling gluten-free flours, I came up with some pretty foolproof blends. On one occasion when I did a taste test at a function and brought some of my gluten-free scones. One woman closed her eyes in delight and said, “Now that is a scone! I have so missed being able to have these.”
I took some cookies to my hairdressers one time to try, and they passed them out. There were such good comments. It made my heart feel good. They are all wheat-eaters normally, so I was happy they passed the taste test. It is one thing to please those on a gluten-free diet, but I always wanted to be sure everyone would find what I baked to be delicious.
Yes, there are some things that you can’t duplicate perfectly, like Croissants and Puff Pastry. But I have come pretty close. My freshly made pasta was served in a restaurant, and no one realized it was gluten-free until they were told. These recipes are now available in my Gluten-Free You Can Do It cookbook.
They say gluten-free bread is hard to make!
Yes, it took quite a few trials to make these gluten-free Baguettes. They are so delicious, and now you can make them too. The recipe is in my cookbook.
The Beginning Stages of Healing mean your diet can be limited at first.
Remembering the early stages of healing when starting a gluten-free diet, I also wanted to consider making flour mixes that would be safe for anyone to begin with yet work well enough and taste good enough so that they would be great for every stage in a gluten-free diet.
Because many in the early stages of a gluten-free diet can’t tolerate everything, it is important to have simple recipes to begin with. Beans and some other naturally gluten-free grains that are more nutritious can be hard to digest in the beginning.
with a touch of Aztec Harvest Blend Mix #4 for added nutrition.
I always say, “You can get someone to take a bite out of politeness, but you can’t get them to finish the whole piece or ask for another if they don’t like it! “
It is a great time to be gluten-free; you can have many delicious foods these days.
Gluten-Free, You Can Do It -by Trina Astor-Stewart. Contains charts for Trina’s Flour and Bread Mixes. Three Series Of Mixes: Original, Corn, Nightshade, Tapioca, and Rice Free Mixes. Over 300 Recipes. The ebook is available on Amazon.
