Basic Gluten Free Cooking Tips

If you remember nothing else about gluten free cooking there is one golden rule that never seems to fail me.

If you are trying to use a recipe using wheat flour and replacing it with gluten free flour:


Always use more liquid than the recipe says!



That's it! That's the number one rule. How much depends on what you are making and what flour you are using. But experiment! That's part of the fun of baking!

For example if I'm making a GF sponge cake I add a bit of milk after the flour. The mixture looks more runny than it would if it wasn't GF but the cake comes out much more moist.

Also, again if you are trying to transform recipes that you used to use before diagnosis, if the recipe calls for self-raising flour either:

1) Use normal GF flour and add a teaspoon of GF baking powder per 100g of flour. Supercook do one but be careful - it looks like their non-GF one and I find supermarkets often mix them up.

2) Some companies actually make self-raising flour (Orgran do) but these are quite expensive if you can't/don't get them on prescription.

I personally go for option one.

Also buying some Xanthan Gum was a lifesaver. This is a naturally gluten free product that can be used to replace gluten in GF products. It adds some of the stickiness and versatility lost by using GF flour.

I use it mainly in bread (or use GF bread flour which already has it added) but also find it useful in muffins and sponge cakes. (recipes to follow!)