When I published my post "Homemade Baking Mixes," I worried how it contained so many possibilities that it might overwhelm many of you. In the past, I have experimented with an array of different flours and mixes. However, in the past year or so, I have really been in simplifying mode. I have enjoyed using the same mix for most my baking. That is the 1/3 part brown rice flour, 1/3 part oat flour, and 1/3 part bean and starch mixture- 1/3 of the bean and starch portion is bean and 2/3 of that is starch. For the starch I usually use 50% cornstarch and 50% tapioca starch. (Potato starch works great 50% with tapioca, if you have that on hand). For the bean flour, I usually use dry lentils, ground in the blender.
This is a very economical mix for me, especially when I buy oats in bulk. I know if you buy gluten-free certified oats the price goes up, but I'm guessing in comparison with other gluten-free certified products, you still will have a good priced mix.* This mix is a nutritious mix with good flavor and balance of texture. It has a sweet and nutty taste. The texture is moist, and not grainy. It feels great to know that when my girls are eating banana bars or muffins or bread and honey for a snack, the flour that I used is nutritious and wholesome. It's almost all whole grain.
For traditional-type cakes(ie yellow, white, or chocolate), I still consider a more light-weight gluten-free mix, such as rice and starch. But even if the mix is rice flour and starch, I use brown rice flour. I see that there are many mix recipes out there that have rice flour, starch, and garbanzo bean flour, and I think that is a good possibility for more traditional cakes, too. When I bake cakes or cupcakes such as banana, zucchini, or pumpkin, I use my all-purpose oat/rice/bean/starch mix. These more wholesome cakes have been more satisfying to me and my kids than the couple of traditional white cakes that I've baked for them. One of my favorite birthday cakes was my daughter's kabocha squash cupcakes I baked for her first birthday. They were deliciously flavorful and moist. We had coconut cooked frosting on top that really complemented the pumpkin flavor.
There are many good possibilities for baking without wheat. I do recommend checking out my other post "Homemade Baking Mixes" just so you're aware of many options. Perhaps you'd like to be in experimental mode with many different flours and mixes like I was for the first couple years. For me right now, however, it's great to have a simplified system of purchasing the same few ingredients, and with bulk prices, and to be eating whole grain products. I created this post to help simplify if any of you are overwhelmed. Perhaps my family again will venture to use alternate grains such as millet, quinoa, and teff at times in baking. I think it is a good idea to have a variety of healthy grains. But then those could be used in cooking rather than in baking mixes. Millet works great in any dish where rice is used, for example, you can have a millet stir fry instead of rice stir fry. Or easier, millet mixed with tomato sauce is something my girls like instead of spanish rice. Quinoa is also good for stir fry. I've made a chicken-basil bell pepper quinoa stir fry that I really like. (The girls didn't go for it, but I think they might go for quinoa- chicken-soy sauce stir fry).
*By grinding my own flour at home, I save significantly. I buy oats and rice in bulk. Oats and lentils grind in a blender to make flour. If you have a VitaMix or grain mill, you'll be able to grind rice into flour as well, or alternate kinds of beans, like white beans. I've even tried grinding white beans in a little cereal grinder, and though the flour was a little courser-textured, it was satifactory.
Showing posts with label flour substitutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flour substitutions. Show all posts
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Homemade Baking Mixes wheat-free and gluten-free
Combinations of a few or several flours/starches tend to work most satisfactorally when baking gluten-free. Yet baking with, say, five different flour products to replace wheat flour can be a bit more time-consuming and space-consuming. It used to be that every time I wanted to bake something, I'd go to the freezer where I keep gluten-free things, and often have to grab half a dozen different bags. Sometimes I would leave them all on the counter to bring them to room temperature before baking, which looks messy and takes up space on the countertop. When it came time to bake, I would need to measure out amounts from each bag. Sometimes it's more simple than that. Sometimes I only use brown rice flour and oat flour, and then a little xanthan gum, and maybe some tapioca starch. But that's about as simple as it goes for my baking. Until I implemented an idea from a book I read- why not measure out my flour mixtures in large amounts, and bag them up into gallon-size freezer bags?
I have a few different flour combinations that I readily use. I'll provide them on this post. It works well to bag up flour mixtures ahead of time in large quantities- then when it comes to bake, you only have one bag to remove from the freezer! You can also go about using baking mixtures in a different way- when you make a particular recipe, measure out dry ingredients for the recipe in one bowl, and then triple or quadruple the amount of flour /starches/ xanthan gum/baking powder called for in the recipe- all dry ingredients(except yeast, if using), and place in a large ziploc bag, label and date with the particular recipe title. This mix then is more than just a gluten-free flour mix; it's a complete mix of all the dry ingredients that belong to a particular recipe. If you prefer, you can measure the amounts of the dry ingredients for the recipe in individual quart-sized bags, so you have just the measurement of one single-batch in each bag.
Please note that the mixtures I provide do not contain xanthan gum. Back to the flour combinations that I recommend, in all of these ratios, I do not include xanthan gum in the mix. I usually add xanthan gum to the recipe when I bake, but want to allow flexibility for whether or not I add it and how much. Xanthan gum helps tremendously in preventing crumbling in gluten-free goods. Here are some common guidelines for using xanthan gum:
● Add ½ teaspoon xanthan or guar gum per cup of flour blend to make cakes, cookies, bars,
muffins and other quick breads.
● Add 1 teaspoon per cup of flour blend to make yeast bread, pizza dough or other baked
items that call for yeast.
Now for the combinations I presently use. I am still experimenting between different combinations, so there are quite a few here. The amounts given are large; you may want to make a smaller proportion of a mixture first, and try it out in a recipe. Depends how much you bake and how much space you have. Gluten-free flours keep longer and retain nutrients better in the fridge or freezer. I can keep two or three large mixes in my freezer at a time. If you're going to be baking gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, it may pay off to have an extra freezer- it's sure been nice for our family. I can bake large batches and have allergy-free food convenient and nutritious. I can have several bags of gluten-free flours in the freezer. I buy fresh produce at really good sale prices and stock my freezer with blanced vegetables(broccoli and cauliflower), with diced/sliced fruit, and with vegetable and fruit purees, which can be used to replace egg or milk in baking, fruit purees to use on top of waffles(peach, pear, plum...) instead of syrup, and to add nutrition to stews(squash, sweet potato, broccoli).
Cheapest nutritious blend for me and yet satisfactory in drop cookies, quick breads, muffins:
50% Brown rice and 50% oat flour, + 2 T. tapioca starch or cornstarch per 2 cups flour.*
This I do not bother to mix ahead of time; I do have oat flour and rice flour ground at home ahead of time, and stored in gallon-size bags or containers in the freezer.
*Note: You can omit the starch if you don't mind a little more dense product than a regular wheat white flour recipe. The starch in theory is meant to lighten the product and hold it together. Without starch, the brown rice and oat product is about the density, I'd say, as a wholesome whole-wheat product, probably not quite as dense, really. Rice flour and oat flour complement each other very well; rice flour by itself tends to yield a dry and gritty product; oat flour alone produces a gummy, heavy product. Together the properties off-set each other for a good product. This mixture is the cheapest I can make because I buy brown rice and oats in bulk and then grind them at home! Talk about cheap compared to buying specialty bags in the store! I just bought brown rice at under .50/lb and oats at .30/lb! For those who need gluten-free oats, you can order them bulk to save money from the small package price. Bob's Mill, last I checked, had 25 lbs for about $2 a pound.
The mix I currently use the most, for muffins, quick breads, and drop cookies:
33% Brown rice flour; 33% oat flour, and 33% bean/starch mixture(1/3 of that is bean, 2/3 is starch)*
ie: 3 cups brown rice flour + 3 cups oat flour + 1 cup GarFava or Garbanzo + 1 cup potato starch + 1 cup cornstarch or tapioca starch
*bean/starch mixture I often go with 1/2 of that bean, 1/2 of that starch-
ie: 1 1/2 c. lentil flour and 1 1/2 c. cornstarch for 3 c. brown rice and 3 c. oat flour
notes: I have tried this mixture for banana bread, waffles, and muffins. It yields an excellent texture and a great balance of flavor. It is more tender and a lighter-weight product than if you were to just use oat and rice flour. I do notice that without xanthan gum, the tender crumb is messy to eat, and there is a bit of starchiness in the product. I use xanthan gum when I have it available(as I presently do with all my flour combinations). I do think with how well rice and oat flour complement each other, you could decrease the amounts of bean flour and starch by half. This would yield not as light of a product; so this could be a matter of preference.
Oat and wheat free/ gluten free:
50% Brown Rice flour ; 25% millet flour; 25% starch combination(lately half of this is cornstarch and half is potato starch; but tapioca starch + potato starch is another very good option)
ie: 4 cups brown rice+ 2 cups millet + 1 cup cornstarch+ 1 cup potato starch(not potato flour)
Notes: have tried drop cookies(zucchini) and muffins- excellent texture for both, and good flavor. I did notice a slight bitter taste which was remedied by putting just a little drizzle of molasses in the recipe. Could also try using brown sugar for half the sugar called for.
4 1/2 c. brown rice flour + 1 1/2 cup bean flour + 1 cup millet flour + 1 cup cornstarch or tapioca starch + 1 cup potato starch
notes: have tried in zucchini bread; great taste and great texture. Crisp, slightly springy crust and moist inside.
50% brown rice flour; 25% bean flour(ie GarFava or Garbanzo); 25% starch combination
notes: This I actually haven't experimented with- but in theory should work well-although I wonder if you may want less bean flour- in books it says up to 25% flour can be bean.
From the Living Without magazine, a couple mixes I've experimented with just a bit:
Find this magazine online at http://www.livingwithout.com)
All-Purpose Flour Blend
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/4 cup cornstarch or potato starch
notes: I 've hardly used this mix because 1) nutrition is not nearly as good as what I use and not as wholesome as I prefer 2) this is more expensive for me then some of the other mixes. Where I might use this is for a nice white, yellow, or lemon cake. Something I want to be lightweight and delicate. Of course, use to your preference. This is meant to be interchange for white wheat-flour in any recipe.
Nutrition analysis as provided by Living Without magazine, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:each cup: 436 calories, 1g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 99g carbohydrate, 3mg sodium, 2g fiber, 5g protein
High-Fiber Flour Blend
1 cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour
1/2 cup teff flour (preferably light)
1/2 cup millet flour or Montina® flour
2⁄3 cup tapioca starch/flour
1⁄3 cup cornstarch or potato starch
Notes: now this has potential for me. I did try it for my zucchini-oat cookies, and was disappointed that the flavor was a little too strong, a little bitter. But then it's recommended to use light teff flour, and mine was regular or dark. I'm interested in experimenting more with this flour combination. I did notice that some molasses in the recipe(ie 1 tsp or less) helped cut the bitter flavor. I think adding cinnamon might help, too. Living Without magazine does note that this mixture is not for delicate-tasting products. It is intended for breads, pancakes, snack bars, drop cookies that use warm spices, raisins, or chocolate.
Nutrition analysis as provided by living without, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:
Each cup : 426 calories, 2g total fat, 0gsaturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 94gcarbohydrate, 9mg sodium, 6g fiber, 7g protein
High-Protein Flour Blend
1 1/4 cups bean flour (your choice), chickpea flour(garbanzo) or soy flour
1 cup arrowroot starch, cornstarch or potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch/flour
1 cup white or brown rice flour
Notes: I actually haven't experimented with this blend at this point. But I include it it here because of it's good protein content, and because living without states that it works well for products that require elasticity, such as wraps and pie crusts. This combination reminds me of another I have used a bit:
Nutrition analysis as provided by living without, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:
Each cup : 88 calories, 3g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 128g carbohydrate, 24mg sodium, 6g fiber, 11g protein
Bette Hagman has an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend that compares to Living Without's, but would have a little more nutrition and be cheaper(provided that your rice flour is cheaper than the starch you buy):
2 cups white rice flour + 2/3 cup potato starch + 1/3 cup tapioca starch.
I would use brown rice flour instead of white, to boost nutrition, unless you're making something you want to be as fluffy/lightweight as possible(like yellow or white cake). Brown rice has flavor than white rice, has a slight nutty taste. So for any baked good other than a lightweight cake, i'd prefer the all-purpose mix to use brown rice flour.
For more gluten-free baking mixes, search your local library or online for books by Bette Hagman or Carol Fenster. Bette Hagman has a book "Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread," in which she utilizes sorghum and bean flours, really boosting nutrition from the traditional all-purpose gluten-free mixes. My favorite gluten-free yeast bread recipe so far comes from this book. I think it's called "Four Flour Bean Bread." I haven't made any yeast breads for probably a year or more. Have tried maybe three or four total. But this bean flour bread I'd give a check or check plus.
Carol Fenster is a gluten-free baking expert and also has books for baking without any of the eight major food allergens.
I have a few different flour combinations that I readily use. I'll provide them on this post. It works well to bag up flour mixtures ahead of time in large quantities- then when it comes to bake, you only have one bag to remove from the freezer! You can also go about using baking mixtures in a different way- when you make a particular recipe, measure out dry ingredients for the recipe in one bowl, and then triple or quadruple the amount of flour /starches/ xanthan gum/baking powder called for in the recipe- all dry ingredients(except yeast, if using), and place in a large ziploc bag, label and date with the particular recipe title. This mix then is more than just a gluten-free flour mix; it's a complete mix of all the dry ingredients that belong to a particular recipe. If you prefer, you can measure the amounts of the dry ingredients for the recipe in individual quart-sized bags, so you have just the measurement of one single-batch in each bag.
Please note that the mixtures I provide do not contain xanthan gum. Back to the flour combinations that I recommend, in all of these ratios, I do not include xanthan gum in the mix. I usually add xanthan gum to the recipe when I bake, but want to allow flexibility for whether or not I add it and how much. Xanthan gum helps tremendously in preventing crumbling in gluten-free goods. Here are some common guidelines for using xanthan gum:
● Add ½ teaspoon xanthan or guar gum per cup of flour blend to make cakes, cookies, bars,
muffins and other quick breads.
● Add 1 teaspoon per cup of flour blend to make yeast bread, pizza dough or other baked
items that call for yeast.
Now for the combinations I presently use. I am still experimenting between different combinations, so there are quite a few here. The amounts given are large; you may want to make a smaller proportion of a mixture first, and try it out in a recipe. Depends how much you bake and how much space you have. Gluten-free flours keep longer and retain nutrients better in the fridge or freezer. I can keep two or three large mixes in my freezer at a time. If you're going to be baking gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, it may pay off to have an extra freezer- it's sure been nice for our family. I can bake large batches and have allergy-free food convenient and nutritious. I can have several bags of gluten-free flours in the freezer. I buy fresh produce at really good sale prices and stock my freezer with blanced vegetables(broccoli and cauliflower), with diced/sliced fruit, and with vegetable and fruit purees, which can be used to replace egg or milk in baking, fruit purees to use on top of waffles(peach, pear, plum...) instead of syrup, and to add nutrition to stews(squash, sweet potato, broccoli).
Cheapest nutritious blend for me and yet satisfactory in drop cookies, quick breads, muffins:
50% Brown rice and 50% oat flour, + 2 T. tapioca starch or cornstarch per 2 cups flour.*
This I do not bother to mix ahead of time; I do have oat flour and rice flour ground at home ahead of time, and stored in gallon-size bags or containers in the freezer.
*Note: You can omit the starch if you don't mind a little more dense product than a regular wheat white flour recipe. The starch in theory is meant to lighten the product and hold it together. Without starch, the brown rice and oat product is about the density, I'd say, as a wholesome whole-wheat product, probably not quite as dense, really. Rice flour and oat flour complement each other very well; rice flour by itself tends to yield a dry and gritty product; oat flour alone produces a gummy, heavy product. Together the properties off-set each other for a good product. This mixture is the cheapest I can make because I buy brown rice and oats in bulk and then grind them at home! Talk about cheap compared to buying specialty bags in the store! I just bought brown rice at under .50/lb and oats at .30/lb! For those who need gluten-free oats, you can order them bulk to save money from the small package price. Bob's Mill, last I checked, had 25 lbs for about $2 a pound.
The mix I currently use the most, for muffins, quick breads, and drop cookies:
33% Brown rice flour; 33% oat flour, and 33% bean/starch mixture(1/3 of that is bean, 2/3 is starch)*
ie: 3 cups brown rice flour + 3 cups oat flour + 1 cup GarFava or Garbanzo + 1 cup potato starch + 1 cup cornstarch or tapioca starch
*bean/starch mixture I often go with 1/2 of that bean, 1/2 of that starch-
ie: 1 1/2 c. lentil flour and 1 1/2 c. cornstarch for 3 c. brown rice and 3 c. oat flour
notes: I have tried this mixture for banana bread, waffles, and muffins. It yields an excellent texture and a great balance of flavor. It is more tender and a lighter-weight product than if you were to just use oat and rice flour. I do notice that without xanthan gum, the tender crumb is messy to eat, and there is a bit of starchiness in the product. I use xanthan gum when I have it available(as I presently do with all my flour combinations). I do think with how well rice and oat flour complement each other, you could decrease the amounts of bean flour and starch by half. This would yield not as light of a product; so this could be a matter of preference.
Oat and wheat free/ gluten free:
50% Brown Rice flour ; 25% millet flour; 25% starch combination(lately half of this is cornstarch and half is potato starch; but tapioca starch + potato starch is another very good option)
ie: 4 cups brown rice+ 2 cups millet + 1 cup cornstarch+ 1 cup potato starch(not potato flour)
Notes: have tried drop cookies(zucchini) and muffins- excellent texture for both, and good flavor. I did notice a slight bitter taste which was remedied by putting just a little drizzle of molasses in the recipe. Could also try using brown sugar for half the sugar called for.
4 1/2 c. brown rice flour + 1 1/2 cup bean flour + 1 cup millet flour + 1 cup cornstarch or tapioca starch + 1 cup potato starch
notes: have tried in zucchini bread; great taste and great texture. Crisp, slightly springy crust and moist inside.
50% brown rice flour; 25% bean flour(ie GarFava or Garbanzo); 25% starch combination
notes: This I actually haven't experimented with- but in theory should work well-although I wonder if you may want less bean flour- in books it says up to 25% flour can be bean.
From the Living Without magazine, a couple mixes I've experimented with just a bit:
Find this magazine online at http://www.livingwithout.com)
All-Purpose Flour Blend
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/4 cup cornstarch or potato starch
notes: I 've hardly used this mix because 1) nutrition is not nearly as good as what I use and not as wholesome as I prefer 2) this is more expensive for me then some of the other mixes. Where I might use this is for a nice white, yellow, or lemon cake. Something I want to be lightweight and delicate. Of course, use to your preference. This is meant to be interchange for white wheat-flour in any recipe.
Nutrition analysis as provided by Living Without magazine, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:each cup: 436 calories, 1g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 99g carbohydrate, 3mg sodium, 2g fiber, 5g protein
High-Fiber Flour Blend
1 cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour
1/2 cup teff flour (preferably light)
1/2 cup millet flour or Montina® flour
2⁄3 cup tapioca starch/flour
1⁄3 cup cornstarch or potato starch
Notes: now this has potential for me. I did try it for my zucchini-oat cookies, and was disappointed that the flavor was a little too strong, a little bitter. But then it's recommended to use light teff flour, and mine was regular or dark. I'm interested in experimenting more with this flour combination. I did notice that some molasses in the recipe(ie 1 tsp or less) helped cut the bitter flavor. I think adding cinnamon might help, too. Living Without magazine does note that this mixture is not for delicate-tasting products. It is intended for breads, pancakes, snack bars, drop cookies that use warm spices, raisins, or chocolate.
Nutrition analysis as provided by living without, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:
Each cup : 426 calories, 2g total fat, 0gsaturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 94gcarbohydrate, 9mg sodium, 6g fiber, 7g protein
High-Protein Flour Blend
1 1/4 cups bean flour (your choice), chickpea flour(garbanzo) or soy flour
1 cup arrowroot starch, cornstarch or potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch/flour
1 cup white or brown rice flour
Notes: I actually haven't experimented with this blend at this point. But I include it it here because of it's good protein content, and because living without states that it works well for products that require elasticity, such as wraps and pie crusts. This combination reminds me of another I have used a bit:
Nutrition analysis as provided by living without, based on data by the U.S. department of Agriculture and food companies:
Each cup : 88 calories, 3g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 128g carbohydrate, 24mg sodium, 6g fiber, 11g protein
Bette Hagman has an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend that compares to Living Without's, but would have a little more nutrition and be cheaper(provided that your rice flour is cheaper than the starch you buy):
2 cups white rice flour + 2/3 cup potato starch + 1/3 cup tapioca starch.
I would use brown rice flour instead of white, to boost nutrition, unless you're making something you want to be as fluffy/lightweight as possible(like yellow or white cake). Brown rice has flavor than white rice, has a slight nutty taste. So for any baked good other than a lightweight cake, i'd prefer the all-purpose mix to use brown rice flour.
For more gluten-free baking mixes, search your local library or online for books by Bette Hagman or Carol Fenster. Bette Hagman has a book "Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread," in which she utilizes sorghum and bean flours, really boosting nutrition from the traditional all-purpose gluten-free mixes. My favorite gluten-free yeast bread recipe so far comes from this book. I think it's called "Four Flour Bean Bread." I haven't made any yeast breads for probably a year or more. Have tried maybe three or four total. But this bean flour bread I'd give a check or check plus.
Carol Fenster is a gluten-free baking expert and also has books for baking without any of the eight major food allergens.
Friday, April 17, 2009
How to Replace Wheat Flour in Baking
There are all kinds of possibilities for replacing wheat flour in baking. There are several types of nutritious grains, seed flours, flour made of coconut, sweet potato, even grapes...endless options that are healthy!
If you are starting out learning how to replace wheat flour, here is what I recommend:
As a rule of thumb, no single flour will adequately replace wheat flour. Combinations of flours work well together.
If you can have oats, use them! Regular or quick oats can easily be ground into flour in your blender. This flour is economical, very nutritious, and has a mildly sweet flavor and gummy texture that complements rice flour very well. Rice flour by itself is grainy and bland, and also dry. Oat flour by itself produces heavy, dense, and gummy products, in general. Together, these flours have traits that work together very well.
When I adapt a recipe using wheat flour, I almost always bake with either a nearly half and half ratio of brown rice flour and oat flour, or a combination of brown rice flour, oat flour, and bean flour(usually lentils ground in my blender). With these flours, I do add tapioca starch and xanthan gum as part of the measured amount of flour. Since tapioca starch and xanthan gum have sticky properties, and oats have gummy properties, I include the measure of tapioca starch and xanthan gum in my measure of oat flour, so that the full cup of rice flour can offset with its grainy properties. 1 Tablespoon tapioca starch/flour per cup of gluten-free flour is a widely used rule of thumb. A common rule of thumb for xanthan gum is 1/2 tsp per cup of gluten-free flour for cakes, cookies, and muffins, and quick breads, and 1 tsp per cup flour for yeast breads. In general, then, if a recipe calls for 2 cups wheat flour, I measure 1 cup of brown rice flour, and then measure 2 T. tapioca starch and 1 tsp. xanthan gum in a 1 cup measure, then fill the rest the way with oat flour. Actually, since oats do have some gluten and they do have properties more similar to wheat than non-gluten flours, I do sometimes add just 1 T. tapioca starch and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to a recipe with 2 cups flour. I'm experimenting with this. UPDATE from Nov 2010: check out my homemade baking mixes post- this simplifies things!
Xanthan gum helps the product to be much less crumbly, have an overall better texture, and have longer shelf/freezer life. Tapioca also improves texture, helps lighten the product, and makes a nice springy crust.
When using bean flour in a recipe, I don't quite use the 1/3 ratio. What I do is add cornstarch, potato starch, or tapioca to the measure of bean flour that I use. So, in a recipe calling for 3 cups wheat flour, I would add 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup oat flour, and then fill up a 1 cup measure with first tapioca starch(maybe 2 T.), then some potato starch or cornstarch(maybe 2 T.), then 1 tsp. xanthan gum, then the rest the way with bean flour. Or, I may use 1 1/2 cup. brown rice flour, 1 cup oat flour with the tapioca/xanthan gum rule of thumbs included in the measure, and then 1/2 cup bean flour.
I find that when I experiment with different ratios of flour in muffins or fruit/vegetable puree cookies(banana, pumpkin, etc), these products are pretty flexible. I end up with different results, but most my experiments are satisfying. I don't mind ending up with a muffin a bit on the dense side, as long as it has a good flavor, texture, and tastes wholesome! When I adapt a recipe, I record the changes I make, make note that I'd like it to be less dense next time, and decide what to tweak in the recipe to try to achieve an even better product. I have a notebook dedicated to recording my adaptations and results. I'm much more laid back about experimenting with food than I used to be, since I've discovered that most any "flop" you may have can be converted into something good. And I'm learning which types of products have more experimenting leeway(like muffins), and which products have less leeway(like yeast bread).
Because I use whole-grain oat flour, brown rice flour, often bean flour, and then just a little bit of starch when I bake wheat-free, the baked products that result are very wholesome and satisfying. These combinations of flour work very well for muffins, waffles, fruit cookies(banana, pumpkin, zucchini, etc), and quick breads(banana, zucchini, etc). Fruit crisp, oatmeal cookies, and oat pie crust work well with oat flour replacing all of the wheat flour in the recipe.
Oat flour, brown or white rice flour, and many assortments of bean flour are available at many stores. If the grocery stores you shop at don't have them, Whole Foods Market carries them. These can all be produced at home, however, at a much better price! Oat flour is easily made from grinding rolled oats(quick or regular) in a blender. Lentils also grind in a blender. Depending on how good your blender is, lentil flour may be a little course in texture, but still okay. A VitaMix machine works great! If you're serious about wholesome nutrition, a VitaMix machine really can pay off in initial cost. Especially for a family with allergies or food sensitivities. I use mine for grinding batches of flax seed(egg substitution), prunes or other fruit/vegetable purees(egg or dairy substitution or use in cooking), sunflower seed butter, lentils, hummus, countless whole fruit smoothies and whole fruit/vegetable juice, etc... I use my VitaMix nearly every day, and often a couple times in a day!
If you get a special container designed for grinding, you can use a VitaMix to grind rice and other grains into flour. You may want to look into buying a grain mill if you don't own one. Initial cost is high, but it could really pay off in nutrition and overall savings. Price ranges are broad, mine was $150, as it was used, but has worked great. I grind large batches of brown rice and oat groats into flour, and then store the flour in gallon-size freezer bags or in various containers in the freezer. Last year I used 50 lb brown rice, between baking and serving cooked, which I believe I paid about . 50/lb for. One year's worth of rice flour, then was only about $25! Brown rice has gone up in price, but still can be a lot cheaper to buy than to purchase already made brown rice flour. Oats are very economical. I can get a 25 lb bag regularly for .39/lb. Even if you find a sale on a 42 oz. container at $2.00(last year they went on sale for $1.00 at Smith's, but that was last year), that is still only about .75/lb.
I have tried a few different gluten-free flour combinations, and also a couple purchased gluten-free flour mixes. The most basic combinations tend to be rice flour and starch such as tapioca and potato starch. By itself, this combination of flour is bland. Also, tapioca and potato starch have 0 grams protein, no fiber, and a lot of carbohydrates. With these mixes, other ingredients in the recipe are important for flavor and nutrition. I have made a yummy chocolate cake from a gluten-free mix, using yogurt instead of milk and flaxseed instead of egg.
There are several things you can do to boost the nutrition value of a gluten-free product, including adding flaxseed meal or baking with fruit or vegetable purees. Most notably, Carol Fenster and Bette Hagman, among other gluten-free experts, have found that bean flour such as garbanzo bean flour, or garfava bean flour or sorghum, really can improve the basic gluten-free mix of rice and starches. These bean flours add a mild flavor, improve texture, and definitely boost nutrition of the flour mix. I am pretty satisfied with a yeast bread recipe that calls for a few kinds of bean flour. It's actually my favorite yeast gluten-free bread that I've baked. It's called Flax Seed Four-Flour Bean Bread, by Bette Hagman. It uses a mix you can make at home: 3 cups Garfava Bean Flour, 1 cup Sorghum Flour, 4 cups Tapioca Flour, 4 cups Cornstarch. I'll post the recipe. UPDATE from Nov 2010: I have a new favorite bread recipe, see my post "Really Good Yeast Bread!"
If you cannot have oats, I recommend looking for flour mix recipes or products that have bean flour in them. Carol Fenster and Bette Hagman have recipe books that you could check out at your local library. They have several basic flour mixes that you can make at home and store in bags, for easy use in recipes. Several gluten-free bloggers post these flour mix recipes as well. In my post, "Flours to replace wheat," I have posted a garbanzo-bean flour mix that I have liked.
I often bake with lentil flour. Actually, I rarely bake with any other kind of bean. This is because I can make my own lentil flour at home in my VitaMix(or blender), for a much better price than purchased bean flours. I hesitate to make bean flour at home other than lentil or split-pea, because other beans are supposed to be soaked before cooking. I hear you can bake with home-ground beans such as pinto, etc., but the flavor is stronger, can be bitter, when compared to purchased bean flours that have been processed. Molasses can help, I hear, if you make and use your own bean flour. I just go with home-ground lentils. They're really nutritious, too!
UPDATE from Nov 2010: I like to bake with white bean flour as well as lentils. I've seen several places where people bake with bean flour other than lentils. The white beans I grind in my grain mill. They can be ground in the VitaMix as well, or even in a cereal grinder that I tried at my Mom's. The white beans haven't been too strong in flavor. I do add a little molasses when I bake with white beans(@1/2 tsp. blackstrap for most baked goods), but if you don't have any, I would try without.
The Living Without magazine has a page called Living Without Pantry Substitution Solutions. It is available online at livingwithout.com, and has four different gluten-free flour mixes. It adds direction as to which type to use for which purpose. It has a basic mix, a high-protein mix, high-fiber blend, and a self-rising flour mix.
For exploring baking with alternative flours not mentioned on this post(amaranth, teff, coconut, cabernet, etc), see my post "Flours to Replace Wheat." There are a couple of books I recommend that give the properties and best uses of several different flours, as well as ratio amounts of how much of a particular flour to use in a recipe. Livingwithout.com has a few different articles that help one to be familiar with a wide array of flours available to replace wheat. Search under "past articles."
Tip:
If you are not used to whole-grain products but you want the nutrition benefits of them, try baking with a combination of white rice flour and oats to begin with(together with any tapioca/cornstarch you might include). Then, replace half of the white rice flour with brown rice flour. Bake this way for a while. Finally, replace all of the white rice flour with brown rice flour. The brown rice flour is so much more nutritious, and has a nicer, nutty flavor. The only time I would use white rice flour, now, is for delicate, fluffier items such as a white cake. In yeast bread I might use part white rice and part brown rice flour.
In cooking rice for serving at a meal, your family can get used to brown rice. I used to only cook white rice for my family. We enjoyed it. I started cooking half brown and half white together, and we got used to that. Then we only had brown rice, and we got used to that. I ran out recently, and have gone back to cooking white rice, until I buy more brown(I'm searching for the best price out there on a large amount). I do not enjoy white rice anymore! My husband says he wants the brown back, he likes the brown as much as the white now, and he likes the nutrition benefits of the brown so much more. If you do not like brown rice right now, you can definitely gradually get used to it. You may find that you prefer it over the white rice! note- my kids still do seem to prefer white rice : ) but they eat the brown as I serve it : )
If you are starting out learning how to replace wheat flour, here is what I recommend:
As a rule of thumb, no single flour will adequately replace wheat flour. Combinations of flours work well together.
If you can have oats, use them! Regular or quick oats can easily be ground into flour in your blender. This flour is economical, very nutritious, and has a mildly sweet flavor and gummy texture that complements rice flour very well. Rice flour by itself is grainy and bland, and also dry. Oat flour by itself produces heavy, dense, and gummy products, in general. Together, these flours have traits that work together very well.
When I adapt a recipe using wheat flour, I almost always bake with either a nearly half and half ratio of brown rice flour and oat flour, or a combination of brown rice flour, oat flour, and bean flour(usually lentils ground in my blender). With these flours, I do add tapioca starch and xanthan gum as part of the measured amount of flour. Since tapioca starch and xanthan gum have sticky properties, and oats have gummy properties, I include the measure of tapioca starch and xanthan gum in my measure of oat flour, so that the full cup of rice flour can offset with its grainy properties. 1 Tablespoon tapioca starch/flour per cup of gluten-free flour is a widely used rule of thumb. A common rule of thumb for xanthan gum is 1/2 tsp per cup of gluten-free flour for cakes, cookies, and muffins, and quick breads, and 1 tsp per cup flour for yeast breads. In general, then, if a recipe calls for 2 cups wheat flour, I measure 1 cup of brown rice flour, and then measure 2 T. tapioca starch and 1 tsp. xanthan gum in a 1 cup measure, then fill the rest the way with oat flour. Actually, since oats do have some gluten and they do have properties more similar to wheat than non-gluten flours, I do sometimes add just 1 T. tapioca starch and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to a recipe with 2 cups flour. I'm experimenting with this. UPDATE from Nov 2010: check out my homemade baking mixes post- this simplifies things!
Xanthan gum helps the product to be much less crumbly, have an overall better texture, and have longer shelf/freezer life. Tapioca also improves texture, helps lighten the product, and makes a nice springy crust.
When using bean flour in a recipe, I don't quite use the 1/3 ratio. What I do is add cornstarch, potato starch, or tapioca to the measure of bean flour that I use. So, in a recipe calling for 3 cups wheat flour, I would add 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup oat flour, and then fill up a 1 cup measure with first tapioca starch(maybe 2 T.), then some potato starch or cornstarch(maybe 2 T.), then 1 tsp. xanthan gum, then the rest the way with bean flour. Or, I may use 1 1/2 cup. brown rice flour, 1 cup oat flour with the tapioca/xanthan gum rule of thumbs included in the measure, and then 1/2 cup bean flour.
I find that when I experiment with different ratios of flour in muffins or fruit/vegetable puree cookies(banana, pumpkin, etc), these products are pretty flexible. I end up with different results, but most my experiments are satisfying. I don't mind ending up with a muffin a bit on the dense side, as long as it has a good flavor, texture, and tastes wholesome! When I adapt a recipe, I record the changes I make, make note that I'd like it to be less dense next time, and decide what to tweak in the recipe to try to achieve an even better product. I have a notebook dedicated to recording my adaptations and results. I'm much more laid back about experimenting with food than I used to be, since I've discovered that most any "flop" you may have can be converted into something good. And I'm learning which types of products have more experimenting leeway(like muffins), and which products have less leeway(like yeast bread).
Because I use whole-grain oat flour, brown rice flour, often bean flour, and then just a little bit of starch when I bake wheat-free, the baked products that result are very wholesome and satisfying. These combinations of flour work very well for muffins, waffles, fruit cookies(banana, pumpkin, zucchini, etc), and quick breads(banana, zucchini, etc). Fruit crisp, oatmeal cookies, and oat pie crust work well with oat flour replacing all of the wheat flour in the recipe.
Oat flour, brown or white rice flour, and many assortments of bean flour are available at many stores. If the grocery stores you shop at don't have them, Whole Foods Market carries them. These can all be produced at home, however, at a much better price! Oat flour is easily made from grinding rolled oats(quick or regular) in a blender. Lentils also grind in a blender. Depending on how good your blender is, lentil flour may be a little course in texture, but still okay. A VitaMix machine works great! If you're serious about wholesome nutrition, a VitaMix machine really can pay off in initial cost. Especially for a family with allergies or food sensitivities. I use mine for grinding batches of flax seed(egg substitution), prunes or other fruit/vegetable purees(egg or dairy substitution or use in cooking), sunflower seed butter, lentils, hummus, countless whole fruit smoothies and whole fruit/vegetable juice, etc... I use my VitaMix nearly every day, and often a couple times in a day!
If you get a special container designed for grinding, you can use a VitaMix to grind rice and other grains into flour. You may want to look into buying a grain mill if you don't own one. Initial cost is high, but it could really pay off in nutrition and overall savings. Price ranges are broad, mine was $150, as it was used, but has worked great. I grind large batches of brown rice and oat groats into flour, and then store the flour in gallon-size freezer bags or in various containers in the freezer. Last year I used 50 lb brown rice, between baking and serving cooked, which I believe I paid about . 50/lb for. One year's worth of rice flour, then was only about $25! Brown rice has gone up in price, but still can be a lot cheaper to buy than to purchase already made brown rice flour. Oats are very economical. I can get a 25 lb bag regularly for .39/lb. Even if you find a sale on a 42 oz. container at $2.00(last year they went on sale for $1.00 at Smith's, but that was last year), that is still only about .75/lb.
I have tried a few different gluten-free flour combinations, and also a couple purchased gluten-free flour mixes. The most basic combinations tend to be rice flour and starch such as tapioca and potato starch. By itself, this combination of flour is bland. Also, tapioca and potato starch have 0 grams protein, no fiber, and a lot of carbohydrates. With these mixes, other ingredients in the recipe are important for flavor and nutrition. I have made a yummy chocolate cake from a gluten-free mix, using yogurt instead of milk and flaxseed instead of egg.
There are several things you can do to boost the nutrition value of a gluten-free product, including adding flaxseed meal or baking with fruit or vegetable purees. Most notably, Carol Fenster and Bette Hagman, among other gluten-free experts, have found that bean flour such as garbanzo bean flour, or garfava bean flour or sorghum, really can improve the basic gluten-free mix of rice and starches. These bean flours add a mild flavor, improve texture, and definitely boost nutrition of the flour mix. I am pretty satisfied with a yeast bread recipe that calls for a few kinds of bean flour. It's actually my favorite yeast gluten-free bread that I've baked. It's called Flax Seed Four-Flour Bean Bread, by Bette Hagman. It uses a mix you can make at home: 3 cups Garfava Bean Flour, 1 cup Sorghum Flour, 4 cups Tapioca Flour, 4 cups Cornstarch. I'll post the recipe. UPDATE from Nov 2010: I have a new favorite bread recipe, see my post "Really Good Yeast Bread!"
If you cannot have oats, I recommend looking for flour mix recipes or products that have bean flour in them. Carol Fenster and Bette Hagman have recipe books that you could check out at your local library. They have several basic flour mixes that you can make at home and store in bags, for easy use in recipes. Several gluten-free bloggers post these flour mix recipes as well. In my post, "Flours to replace wheat," I have posted a garbanzo-bean flour mix that I have liked.
I often bake with lentil flour. Actually, I rarely bake with any other kind of bean. This is because I can make my own lentil flour at home in my VitaMix(or blender), for a much better price than purchased bean flours. I hesitate to make bean flour at home other than lentil or split-pea, because other beans are supposed to be soaked before cooking. I hear you can bake with home-ground beans such as pinto, etc., but the flavor is stronger, can be bitter, when compared to purchased bean flours that have been processed. Molasses can help, I hear, if you make and use your own bean flour. I just go with home-ground lentils. They're really nutritious, too!
UPDATE from Nov 2010: I like to bake with white bean flour as well as lentils. I've seen several places where people bake with bean flour other than lentils. The white beans I grind in my grain mill. They can be ground in the VitaMix as well, or even in a cereal grinder that I tried at my Mom's. The white beans haven't been too strong in flavor. I do add a little molasses when I bake with white beans(@1/2 tsp. blackstrap for most baked goods), but if you don't have any, I would try without.
The Living Without magazine has a page called Living Without Pantry Substitution Solutions. It is available online at livingwithout.com, and has four different gluten-free flour mixes. It adds direction as to which type to use for which purpose. It has a basic mix, a high-protein mix, high-fiber blend, and a self-rising flour mix.
For exploring baking with alternative flours not mentioned on this post(amaranth, teff, coconut, cabernet, etc), see my post "Flours to Replace Wheat." There are a couple of books I recommend that give the properties and best uses of several different flours, as well as ratio amounts of how much of a particular flour to use in a recipe. Livingwithout.com has a few different articles that help one to be familiar with a wide array of flours available to replace wheat. Search under "past articles."
Tip:
If you are not used to whole-grain products but you want the nutrition benefits of them, try baking with a combination of white rice flour and oats to begin with(together with any tapioca/cornstarch you might include). Then, replace half of the white rice flour with brown rice flour. Bake this way for a while. Finally, replace all of the white rice flour with brown rice flour. The brown rice flour is so much more nutritious, and has a nicer, nutty flavor. The only time I would use white rice flour, now, is for delicate, fluffier items such as a white cake. In yeast bread I might use part white rice and part brown rice flour.
In cooking rice for serving at a meal, your family can get used to brown rice. I used to only cook white rice for my family. We enjoyed it. I started cooking half brown and half white together, and we got used to that. Then we only had brown rice, and we got used to that. I ran out recently, and have gone back to cooking white rice, until I buy more brown(I'm searching for the best price out there on a large amount). I do not enjoy white rice anymore! My husband says he wants the brown back, he likes the brown as much as the white now, and he likes the nutrition benefits of the brown so much more. If you do not like brown rice right now, you can definitely gradually get used to it. You may find that you prefer it over the white rice! note- my kids still do seem to prefer white rice : ) but they eat the brown as I serve it : )
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Flours to replace wheat
I was aware first off of the use of rice flour, oat flour, and barley in wheat recipes. I'd also come across spelt and Kamut and rye and buckwheat. But I felt confined to rice and oats. Even barley goods gave my toddler a rash. The first products I made with rice flour were grainy and dry. I then learned that rice flour works best when combined with other flours or starches. I've also learned that ingredients to add moisture, texture, and flavor help, such as applesauce, banana, chocolate, xanthan gum, etc. I have learned more about ingredients that complement rice flour, and have been opened to a whole array of possibilities in baking satisfying products for my kids! I'm amazed at the nutritive value of several alternate flours. Go to livingwithout.com for articles on alternative flours and nutrition facts.
I highly recommend checking out from the library Jones' The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook(2001) for learning about alternate flours. She has an easy to read, informative discussion on flavor and color, breading, thickening, and baking performance, as well as tips and recipes for utilizing roughly 20 different types of flours, including high-protein and nutrition-packed quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat flours, as well as flours made from nuts or seeds. I'm excited to experiment with these flours.
Another book to utilize is The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, by Marilyn Gioannini, 1997. She steps the reader through the process of adapting recipes to be free of common allergies. She has overviews on non-wheat flours as Jones does. As far as learning about adapting recipes goes, her book was more overwhelming, at first, then Jones, because things aren't organized in tables as well as Jones. But she has a wealth of valuable help if you're interested in learning to adapt recipes on your own. If you'd like to just try specific recipes already developed by an experienced cook, Gioannini has several for several different types of flours.
If you're more interested in having recipes that can be followed exactly, it might help to know that Gioannini and Jones have a good variety of recipes utilizing a wide variety of alternate flours. Jones does seem to gravitate towards combinations of amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa. She's not afraid of more pricey flours, it appears, but these flours are highly nutritious(and they give more flavor than rice does). : ) If you want to cook with very basic and less expensive ingredients, I recommend checking out from the library The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Rominger. It is the point of these authors to have recipes which you can make without needing to go to specialty health food stores. They use rice flour in their baked goods. In skimming their recipes, I don't even see tapioca starch or xantham gum being used. Ener-G egg replacer or tofu are the only specialty foods I see in the baked goods recipes.
Now, if you're going to try out alternate flours other than the basic rice flour, where do you start? I get overwhelmed pretty fast in wanting to try out several types of flours at once. The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, by Marilyn Gioannini, 1997, gives some basic recipes that use simply one or two alternate flours at a time, allowing the baker to try the flavor and texture of a new grain. I found making waffles helped me explore new grains. Gioannini has recipes for oat flour pancakes or waffles, quinoa pancakes/waffles, and buckwheat, rye, and spelt pancakes or waffles, each separate recipes, using one grain per recipe. This author also has simple yeast breads, with several recipes only using one alternate flour. If you want to explore bean flour, I suggest garbanzo-oat waffles(mr.breakfast.com). And you can interchange various legumes in place of the garbanzo. Try red or green lentils, they're mild and grind easily in a blender. Both Gioannini and Jones give descriptions of flavor and texture of several flours.
As a rule of thumb, a combination of a few alternative flours works best for replacing wheat flour in baked goods. Jones mentions how much of each flour, proportion-wise, she would use in a recipe. For example, she suggests 30- 50 percent brown rice flour in a recipe(she doesn't even use white rice flour, by the way, brown rice has more nutrition. I rarely use white rice flour anymore as well. I like the nutrition and flavor of brown rice flour-it's kind of nutty like wheat). 50 percent rice and 50 oats or 30 percent oats, rice, and barley each are combinations she mentions. With some experimenting, I've discovered I like either a basically 50/50 rice and oat combination(I add 1-2 T. tapioca and 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum into each cup of oats, so there is a little less oat than rice); or I follow a basic 1/3 oat, 1/3 brown rice, and 1/3 of a bean/cornstarch type mix, using home-ground lentils. Basically I just put some cornstarch with the lentil flour(maybe 2 T. cornstarch with enough lentil flour to make 2/3 cup), and put some tapioca with the oat flour, or I just use a little less than 1/3 ratio of lentil bean flour and use more rice flour in its stead. The tapioca starch/xanthan gum add-ins go into the oats measurement. The bean/cornstarch type mix idea I got from a garbanzo bean/cornstarch-based gluten free mix by souldog. http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html It would probably be helpful to try out that mix, then see if you want to use lentils instead(I do because it's so cheap and easy to grind them at home).
It might help to know which flours are related to wheat, and which are not. Scientifically, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, millet, rice, wild rice, sorghum, and teff are in the same food family(Gioannini, p. 16). Kamut and spelt are ancient types of wheat, but can sometimes be tolerated by those allergic to wheat. (Note: They should be avoided by people with celiac disease(Jones, p 5) I do read from "Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies, " by Scott H. Sicherer, M.D.(2006), that spelt is usually treated by the immune system the same as wheat is. So I would take caution if you try this variety of wheat. He also cautions that buckwheat has been associated with severe reactions. I've gotten the idea from several sources that buckwheat is tolerated by many that are allergic to wheat, it's not a member of the grain family. So, I guess try it out if you want, but be cautious. Maybe ask your doctor for his advice. Most often people allergic to wheat can enjoy grains from the same family, and then other non-related foods such as quinoa. Discovering which grains or alternate foods is the trick, I guess. Anyone have a list of the most often tolerated grains for those allergic to wheat? I do read that rice is the very least allergenic of the grains(Jones, p 9). Dr. Sicherer cites that oat and rice both are not immunologically strongly related to wheat(Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies, p. 64).
Oats, rice, wild rice, barley, rye, and millet are commonly in grocery stores. Gioannini says that experience has shown rye and barley to be most likely to cause reactions in this group of common grains. I have found most all the flours mentioned in this post in specialty stores including Whole Foods Market. Often grocery stores have most all the grains mentioned, in the Bob's Mill brand.
Amaranth, arrowroot, buckwheat, legumes(including soy), potato, quinoa, and tapioca are ground into flour and are not related to wheat. Nuts and seeds also can be ground into flour, and be used for up to 25 percent of grain flour, says Jones(12). Check out livingwithout.com for information about cabernet flour, which is from grapes! Look into coconut flour, ground teff, sweet potato flour- there's a whole new world of possibilities to explore!
Consider buying xanthan gum. It's pricey, but is used in very small amounts. It helps make up for lack of gluten. Several non-wheat flours don't contain gluten, or have it in very low amounts as compared to wheat. Gluten binds flour molecules together, helping reduce crumbliness and giving structure to enable leavenings(yeast, baking powder, etc) to work effectively(to make the baked goods rise). The xanthan gum, then, acts in the stead of gluten, reducing crumbliness, helping baked goods to retain moisture, and helping the product to keep a good texture longer on the shelf or in the freezer. Caution: too much xanthum gum can make your product gummy. A general rule of thumb:
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of flour for cakes, cookies, muffins, quick breads.
1 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour for yeast bread, pizza dough, other yeast products.
As an alternative, Marilyn Gioannini(The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, 1997) doesn't use xantham gum in her recipes, she says it often creates problems(such as gumminess). She's experimented to get just the right combinations of leavenings for her recipes. She uses psyllium seed husk, flax seed, and arrowroot powder, sometimes together, sometimes not.
Here is a link that reviews several different all-purpose baking mixes you can make at home that are gluten-free. http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/rec/mixes.html I know there are several good all-purpose gluten-free baking mixes available in stores. But I want to know how to cook baked goods from scratch, and I think they could get quite a bit more expensive than if I find cheaper ways of getting non-gluten flours. (Buying non-gluten flours is pricey and may not be much less than buying the mixes is, I haven't compared enough to know, but in home grinding rice flour, oat flour, and bean flour, the cost is really reduced).
When adapting recipes, it will help to know which alternate flours contain gluten, and which are "essentially gluten free." Jones gives a list of each(p 5). I do not know if the "essentially gluten free" is safe for people with celiac disease. Contain gluten: spelt, wheat, kamut brand, rye, oat, barley. "Essentially gluten free," amaranth, arrowroot, brown rice, buckwheat, chickpea, legumes, nut and seed flours, potato, potato starch, quinoa, soy, tapioca starch, teff.
Some of my experience so far with baking with alternate flours:
After trying a couple rice flour recipes and finding them grainy and dry, I steered clear of rice flour recipes, at least where rice was the only or main flour. but I just recently decided to give a second chance to baking with rice flour as the main flour in my recipes. I tried out various cookie and cake recipes. I conclude that rice flour, even, as the only flour in a recipe, can make decent goods. I do still agree with Jones that rice flour recipes are best when combined with other flours or starches. I made a rice flour/applesauce drop cookie from The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook that was surprisingly pretty good. But it was a little grainy, and the cookies crumbled easily. They were, however, delicate and moist, and the flavor was okay. Adding raisins helped disguise the fine grainy texture, where chocolate chips did not. Substituting 1/4 c of arrowroot flour for rice flour(where 1 c rice flour was called for), resulted in a more bland cookie, which was still a little grainy, and was too "starchy."
I made some cookies calling for large proportions of potato starch with the rice flour, and these were delicate and rich. Only a little grainy, if at all. A little starchy, but still, quite impressive. Just not my preferred type of cookie. They were very rich(lots of butter-flavored shortening, in my case, rather than butter), and they were very sweet. Actually, one type, "Just like Nilla Wafers," (found in The kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Hammond), seemed to get better after sitting out two or three days. They are growing on me. They have a crunchy, yet not grainy, consistency like Vanilla Wafers do. My toddler really likes these cookies. I'm interested in trying the recipe with half the sugar and half the fat. But potato starch is quite expensive, and it doesn't have the nutrients that several other alternate flours boast.
I prefer cookies to be more wholesome, nutritious. I usually prefer them for a snack rather than for a dessert. I am not a butter cookie fan! I like cookies made with about 1/2 the fat called for. I love zucchini-oatmeal cookies made with part whole-wheat flour. I enjoy banana oat cookies. I do love chewy chocolate chip cookies, especially with coconut.
As for the rice cake recipes I recently tried(The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook, Hammond), I was impressed that the texture was moist and NOT GRAINY! I tried a chocolate cake which was quite good, and a carrot cake, which was not so good(lacked flavor). Though the chocolate cake had good chocolatey flavor and a good texture(if a little "wet," it was at least moist and not grainy), it's flavor was flat. I like the "nutty" flavor of wheat, and intend to find flours that provide flavor with depth. And I'm very interesting in exploring flours that good nutrients that mimic or surpass wheat. I'm also interested in recipes that utilize the "cheaper" grains. I can grind my own rice flour out of brown rice. I can grind my own oats and legumes. Even spelt and rye are cheaper than buying potato starch or quinoa or amaranth. I want to have some good basic recipes that are mostly rice flour or oats or beans, and then experiment with the more expensive alternate flours that provide extra good nutrition(the quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat specifically). Then, I can make some of my baked goods out of cheaper flours and some out of more expensive, more nutritious flours.
I've successfully made banana cookies and oatmeal scones with only oat flour(which I make simply by grinding oats in a blender), but the products are heavy. If I recall correctly, the cookies and banana bread I have baked only with oat flour or with large amounts of oat flour, had a texture that would "gum" to the top of my mouth a little as I chewed. Oat flour and rice flour combined with some starch(and flax seed for a little more flavor and better texture)is a good mixture, but I'm always looking to improve the taste and texture of what I'm making. It tends to make a better product to use several flours in combinations.
A couple months ago, my mother sent me a newspaper article from her local paper. It highlighted a Gluten-free restaurant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y, called Soul Dog. The restaurant shared it's recipe for Gluten-Free Baking Mix. See http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html
It used mostly chickpea, or garbanzo flour(also gram or ceci). I had never heard of baking with bean flour! Garbanzo flour actually is a staple in India, I've learned. Awareness of this use of garbanzos has opened up an exciting door for enjoying baked goods. I first tried cookies which were featured in the newspaper article. Also online at http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html
Besides being sweeter and more salty than I personally prefer, they were as good as wheat -based cookies! I altered the recipe to be less sweet and less salty and a little less fattening, and they were almost just like the cookies I grew up on! Dough made from garbanzo flour has a disturbing flavor, I think(and it's not good for digestion to eat raw legumes anyway), but once cooked, the flavor is mild. I search for garbanzo flour recipes on the internet from time to time. Garbanzo-oat waffes are moist and seem to have egg in them, when they do not! This is an amazing recipe, I think. The recipe can be found at http://www.mrbreakfast.com/
I've found that I like muffins and banana bread with 1/3 part Dog's GF baking Mix(consists mostly of garbanzo bean flour), 1/3 part rice four, and 1/3 part oat flour to replace the wheat four called for. In experimenting with blueberry muffins from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, I found that muffins made only with the soul dog GF baking mix garbanzo mixture had great flavor and moist texture, but were a little compact, not as fluffy or airy as most muffins(Note: I did use applesauce in place of oil or egg (I don't remember which), and I do wonder if that contributed to the density). The muffins made only with rice and oat flour rose pretty well, but were pretty flavorless. I figure I could add salt and flax meal or fruit juice or spices, but the combination of garbanzo mixture with the oat and rice had good flavor and good texture.
I then used 1/2 garbanzo mixture and 1/4 of each rice and oat flours. It tasted a lot like a part whole-wheat muffin! I tried this combination of flours in an oatmeal scone recipe, a banana bread recipe, and a banana muffin recipe, and have been really impressed. I'll post the recipes I've developed so far. they are in progress; what ever I post will likely be tweeked in some way or another in future trials. As a warning, it takes our bodies awhile to get used to eating large amounts of legumes. If you're not used to eating many beans, you may want to start with smaller proportions of bean flour to other flours in the recipe.
The last round of goods that I made with garbanzo flour had an off-taste, and I used recipes that I had used earlier and really enjoyed. I think the flour was not fresh, and it seems to matter that it is kept fresh. I had kept the flour in the freezer, but maybe it was on the shelf in the store too long.
I've looked into home grinding garbanzos into flour, but Jones doesn't recommend it because unsoaked, uncooked beans ground for flour can be rough on the digestion system(Jones, Allergy Self-Help Cookbook, p 12). I've also read that the beans can dull the blades of a blender. My mom has suggested that I might cook the beans, then dry them out with my food dryer, then grind them in the VitaMix. My VitaMix might be okay with them, but I hesitate to try it out. My Magic Mill grain grinder says that dried garbanzos are okay to mill in it, but chickpeas are "questionable". Most sources use the terms garbanzo and chickpea interchangeably as if they're the same thing, but the Magic Mill company says it depends which region you're in. Anyone succesfully made their own garbanzo bean flour? Do you understand how to figure which type of legume you have, whether it's a safe-to-grind garbanzo bean(as Magic Mill says) or a chickpea?
Marjorie Jones relates that yellow split peas and lentils, especially red lentils, don't need soaked before cooking. So they should be okay to home grind raw. They grind easily and into fine flour in my VitaMix, and they also grind in a blender(how fine of flour you can get would depend on how good of a blender you have). I use lentil flour a lot in gluten-free baking.
As far as grinding the beans other than lentils or split peas, I've seen various sources that don't mention a problem about digestion. I'm thinking that as long as you thoroughly cook baked goods containing raw bean flour, you should be just fine. What have you heard?
Emergency Essentials has an article online about using bean flour:
http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=70&name=Bean%20Cuisine&bhcd2=1212185515
This source suggests replacing up to 1/4 the amount of flour in a recipe with the bean flour. Besides adding a texture and mild flavor that I like, using bean flour, whether garbanzo or other, really adds some nice nutrition. Eating beans with grains is a good combination for getting complete proteins. I do hear that if you're not used to eating beans, it's good to start in small amounts and gradually increase(otherwise you may have gas). The body adapts.
Another source discusses grinding beans into flour:
http://waltonfeed.com/grain/passport/beans.html
I highly recommend checking out from the library Jones' The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook(2001) for learning about alternate flours. She has an easy to read, informative discussion on flavor and color, breading, thickening, and baking performance, as well as tips and recipes for utilizing roughly 20 different types of flours, including high-protein and nutrition-packed quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat flours, as well as flours made from nuts or seeds. I'm excited to experiment with these flours.
Another book to utilize is The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, by Marilyn Gioannini, 1997. She steps the reader through the process of adapting recipes to be free of common allergies. She has overviews on non-wheat flours as Jones does. As far as learning about adapting recipes goes, her book was more overwhelming, at first, then Jones, because things aren't organized in tables as well as Jones. But she has a wealth of valuable help if you're interested in learning to adapt recipes on your own. If you'd like to just try specific recipes already developed by an experienced cook, Gioannini has several for several different types of flours.
If you're more interested in having recipes that can be followed exactly, it might help to know that Gioannini and Jones have a good variety of recipes utilizing a wide variety of alternate flours. Jones does seem to gravitate towards combinations of amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa. She's not afraid of more pricey flours, it appears, but these flours are highly nutritious(and they give more flavor than rice does). : ) If you want to cook with very basic and less expensive ingredients, I recommend checking out from the library The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Rominger. It is the point of these authors to have recipes which you can make without needing to go to specialty health food stores. They use rice flour in their baked goods. In skimming their recipes, I don't even see tapioca starch or xantham gum being used. Ener-G egg replacer or tofu are the only specialty foods I see in the baked goods recipes.
Now, if you're going to try out alternate flours other than the basic rice flour, where do you start? I get overwhelmed pretty fast in wanting to try out several types of flours at once. The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, by Marilyn Gioannini, 1997, gives some basic recipes that use simply one or two alternate flours at a time, allowing the baker to try the flavor and texture of a new grain. I found making waffles helped me explore new grains. Gioannini has recipes for oat flour pancakes or waffles, quinoa pancakes/waffles, and buckwheat, rye, and spelt pancakes or waffles, each separate recipes, using one grain per recipe. This author also has simple yeast breads, with several recipes only using one alternate flour. If you want to explore bean flour, I suggest garbanzo-oat waffles(mr.breakfast.com). And you can interchange various legumes in place of the garbanzo. Try red or green lentils, they're mild and grind easily in a blender. Both Gioannini and Jones give descriptions of flavor and texture of several flours.
As a rule of thumb, a combination of a few alternative flours works best for replacing wheat flour in baked goods. Jones mentions how much of each flour, proportion-wise, she would use in a recipe. For example, she suggests 30- 50 percent brown rice flour in a recipe(she doesn't even use white rice flour, by the way, brown rice has more nutrition. I rarely use white rice flour anymore as well. I like the nutrition and flavor of brown rice flour-it's kind of nutty like wheat). 50 percent rice and 50 oats or 30 percent oats, rice, and barley each are combinations she mentions. With some experimenting, I've discovered I like either a basically 50/50 rice and oat combination(I add 1-2 T. tapioca and 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum into each cup of oats, so there is a little less oat than rice); or I follow a basic 1/3 oat, 1/3 brown rice, and 1/3 of a bean/cornstarch type mix, using home-ground lentils. Basically I just put some cornstarch with the lentil flour(maybe 2 T. cornstarch with enough lentil flour to make 2/3 cup), and put some tapioca with the oat flour, or I just use a little less than 1/3 ratio of lentil bean flour and use more rice flour in its stead. The tapioca starch/xanthan gum add-ins go into the oats measurement. The bean/cornstarch type mix idea I got from a garbanzo bean/cornstarch-based gluten free mix by souldog. http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html It would probably be helpful to try out that mix, then see if you want to use lentils instead(I do because it's so cheap and easy to grind them at home).
It might help to know which flours are related to wheat, and which are not. Scientifically, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, millet, rice, wild rice, sorghum, and teff are in the same food family(Gioannini, p. 16). Kamut and spelt are ancient types of wheat, but can sometimes be tolerated by those allergic to wheat. (Note: They should be avoided by people with celiac disease(Jones, p 5) I do read from "Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies, " by Scott H. Sicherer, M.D.(2006), that spelt is usually treated by the immune system the same as wheat is. So I would take caution if you try this variety of wheat. He also cautions that buckwheat has been associated with severe reactions. I've gotten the idea from several sources that buckwheat is tolerated by many that are allergic to wheat, it's not a member of the grain family. So, I guess try it out if you want, but be cautious. Maybe ask your doctor for his advice. Most often people allergic to wheat can enjoy grains from the same family, and then other non-related foods such as quinoa. Discovering which grains or alternate foods is the trick, I guess. Anyone have a list of the most often tolerated grains for those allergic to wheat? I do read that rice is the very least allergenic of the grains(Jones, p 9). Dr. Sicherer cites that oat and rice both are not immunologically strongly related to wheat(Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies, p. 64).
Oats, rice, wild rice, barley, rye, and millet are commonly in grocery stores. Gioannini says that experience has shown rye and barley to be most likely to cause reactions in this group of common grains. I have found most all the flours mentioned in this post in specialty stores including Whole Foods Market. Often grocery stores have most all the grains mentioned, in the Bob's Mill brand.
Amaranth, arrowroot, buckwheat, legumes(including soy), potato, quinoa, and tapioca are ground into flour and are not related to wheat. Nuts and seeds also can be ground into flour, and be used for up to 25 percent of grain flour, says Jones(12). Check out livingwithout.com for information about cabernet flour, which is from grapes! Look into coconut flour, ground teff, sweet potato flour- there's a whole new world of possibilities to explore!
Consider buying xanthan gum. It's pricey, but is used in very small amounts. It helps make up for lack of gluten. Several non-wheat flours don't contain gluten, or have it in very low amounts as compared to wheat. Gluten binds flour molecules together, helping reduce crumbliness and giving structure to enable leavenings(yeast, baking powder, etc) to work effectively(to make the baked goods rise). The xanthan gum, then, acts in the stead of gluten, reducing crumbliness, helping baked goods to retain moisture, and helping the product to keep a good texture longer on the shelf or in the freezer. Caution: too much xanthum gum can make your product gummy. A general rule of thumb:
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of flour for cakes, cookies, muffins, quick breads.
1 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour for yeast bread, pizza dough, other yeast products.
As an alternative, Marilyn Gioannini(The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook, 1997) doesn't use xantham gum in her recipes, she says it often creates problems(such as gumminess). She's experimented to get just the right combinations of leavenings for her recipes. She uses psyllium seed husk, flax seed, and arrowroot powder, sometimes together, sometimes not.
Here is a link that reviews several different all-purpose baking mixes you can make at home that are gluten-free. http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/rec/mixes.html I know there are several good all-purpose gluten-free baking mixes available in stores. But I want to know how to cook baked goods from scratch, and I think they could get quite a bit more expensive than if I find cheaper ways of getting non-gluten flours. (Buying non-gluten flours is pricey and may not be much less than buying the mixes is, I haven't compared enough to know, but in home grinding rice flour, oat flour, and bean flour, the cost is really reduced).
When adapting recipes, it will help to know which alternate flours contain gluten, and which are "essentially gluten free." Jones gives a list of each(p 5). I do not know if the "essentially gluten free" is safe for people with celiac disease. Contain gluten: spelt, wheat, kamut brand, rye, oat, barley. "Essentially gluten free," amaranth, arrowroot, brown rice, buckwheat, chickpea, legumes, nut and seed flours, potato, potato starch, quinoa, soy, tapioca starch, teff.
Some of my experience so far with baking with alternate flours:
After trying a couple rice flour recipes and finding them grainy and dry, I steered clear of rice flour recipes, at least where rice was the only or main flour. but I just recently decided to give a second chance to baking with rice flour as the main flour in my recipes. I tried out various cookie and cake recipes. I conclude that rice flour, even, as the only flour in a recipe, can make decent goods. I do still agree with Jones that rice flour recipes are best when combined with other flours or starches. I made a rice flour/applesauce drop cookie from The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook that was surprisingly pretty good. But it was a little grainy, and the cookies crumbled easily. They were, however, delicate and moist, and the flavor was okay. Adding raisins helped disguise the fine grainy texture, where chocolate chips did not. Substituting 1/4 c of arrowroot flour for rice flour(where 1 c rice flour was called for), resulted in a more bland cookie, which was still a little grainy, and was too "starchy."
I made some cookies calling for large proportions of potato starch with the rice flour, and these were delicate and rich. Only a little grainy, if at all. A little starchy, but still, quite impressive. Just not my preferred type of cookie. They were very rich(lots of butter-flavored shortening, in my case, rather than butter), and they were very sweet. Actually, one type, "Just like Nilla Wafers," (found in The kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Hammond), seemed to get better after sitting out two or three days. They are growing on me. They have a crunchy, yet not grainy, consistency like Vanilla Wafers do. My toddler really likes these cookies. I'm interested in trying the recipe with half the sugar and half the fat. But potato starch is quite expensive, and it doesn't have the nutrients that several other alternate flours boast.
I prefer cookies to be more wholesome, nutritious. I usually prefer them for a snack rather than for a dessert. I am not a butter cookie fan! I like cookies made with about 1/2 the fat called for. I love zucchini-oatmeal cookies made with part whole-wheat flour. I enjoy banana oat cookies. I do love chewy chocolate chip cookies, especially with coconut.
As for the rice cake recipes I recently tried(The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook, Hammond), I was impressed that the texture was moist and NOT GRAINY! I tried a chocolate cake which was quite good, and a carrot cake, which was not so good(lacked flavor). Though the chocolate cake had good chocolatey flavor and a good texture(if a little "wet," it was at least moist and not grainy), it's flavor was flat. I like the "nutty" flavor of wheat, and intend to find flours that provide flavor with depth. And I'm very interesting in exploring flours that good nutrients that mimic or surpass wheat. I'm also interested in recipes that utilize the "cheaper" grains. I can grind my own rice flour out of brown rice. I can grind my own oats and legumes. Even spelt and rye are cheaper than buying potato starch or quinoa or amaranth. I want to have some good basic recipes that are mostly rice flour or oats or beans, and then experiment with the more expensive alternate flours that provide extra good nutrition(the quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat specifically). Then, I can make some of my baked goods out of cheaper flours and some out of more expensive, more nutritious flours.
I've successfully made banana cookies and oatmeal scones with only oat flour(which I make simply by grinding oats in a blender), but the products are heavy. If I recall correctly, the cookies and banana bread I have baked only with oat flour or with large amounts of oat flour, had a texture that would "gum" to the top of my mouth a little as I chewed. Oat flour and rice flour combined with some starch(and flax seed for a little more flavor and better texture)is a good mixture, but I'm always looking to improve the taste and texture of what I'm making. It tends to make a better product to use several flours in combinations.
A couple months ago, my mother sent me a newspaper article from her local paper. It highlighted a Gluten-free restaurant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y, called Soul Dog. The restaurant shared it's recipe for Gluten-Free Baking Mix. See http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html
It used mostly chickpea, or garbanzo flour(also gram or ceci). I had never heard of baking with bean flour! Garbanzo flour actually is a staple in India, I've learned. Awareness of this use of garbanzos has opened up an exciting door for enjoying baked goods. I first tried cookies which were featured in the newspaper article. Also online at http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/35588/soul-dog-gluten-free-chocolate.html
Besides being sweeter and more salty than I personally prefer, they were as good as wheat -based cookies! I altered the recipe to be less sweet and less salty and a little less fattening, and they were almost just like the cookies I grew up on! Dough made from garbanzo flour has a disturbing flavor, I think(and it's not good for digestion to eat raw legumes anyway), but once cooked, the flavor is mild. I search for garbanzo flour recipes on the internet from time to time. Garbanzo-oat waffes are moist and seem to have egg in them, when they do not! This is an amazing recipe, I think. The recipe can be found at http://www.mrbreakfast.com/
I've found that I like muffins and banana bread with 1/3 part Dog's GF baking Mix(consists mostly of garbanzo bean flour), 1/3 part rice four, and 1/3 part oat flour to replace the wheat four called for. In experimenting with blueberry muffins from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, I found that muffins made only with the soul dog GF baking mix garbanzo mixture had great flavor and moist texture, but were a little compact, not as fluffy or airy as most muffins(Note: I did use applesauce in place of oil or egg (I don't remember which), and I do wonder if that contributed to the density). The muffins made only with rice and oat flour rose pretty well, but were pretty flavorless. I figure I could add salt and flax meal or fruit juice or spices, but the combination of garbanzo mixture with the oat and rice had good flavor and good texture.
I then used 1/2 garbanzo mixture and 1/4 of each rice and oat flours. It tasted a lot like a part whole-wheat muffin! I tried this combination of flours in an oatmeal scone recipe, a banana bread recipe, and a banana muffin recipe, and have been really impressed. I'll post the recipes I've developed so far. they are in progress; what ever I post will likely be tweeked in some way or another in future trials. As a warning, it takes our bodies awhile to get used to eating large amounts of legumes. If you're not used to eating many beans, you may want to start with smaller proportions of bean flour to other flours in the recipe.
The last round of goods that I made with garbanzo flour had an off-taste, and I used recipes that I had used earlier and really enjoyed. I think the flour was not fresh, and it seems to matter that it is kept fresh. I had kept the flour in the freezer, but maybe it was on the shelf in the store too long.
I've looked into home grinding garbanzos into flour, but Jones doesn't recommend it because unsoaked, uncooked beans ground for flour can be rough on the digestion system(Jones, Allergy Self-Help Cookbook, p 12). I've also read that the beans can dull the blades of a blender. My mom has suggested that I might cook the beans, then dry them out with my food dryer, then grind them in the VitaMix. My VitaMix might be okay with them, but I hesitate to try it out. My Magic Mill grain grinder says that dried garbanzos are okay to mill in it, but chickpeas are "questionable". Most sources use the terms garbanzo and chickpea interchangeably as if they're the same thing, but the Magic Mill company says it depends which region you're in. Anyone succesfully made their own garbanzo bean flour? Do you understand how to figure which type of legume you have, whether it's a safe-to-grind garbanzo bean(as Magic Mill says) or a chickpea?
Marjorie Jones relates that yellow split peas and lentils, especially red lentils, don't need soaked before cooking. So they should be okay to home grind raw. They grind easily and into fine flour in my VitaMix, and they also grind in a blender(how fine of flour you can get would depend on how good of a blender you have). I use lentil flour a lot in gluten-free baking.
As far as grinding the beans other than lentils or split peas, I've seen various sources that don't mention a problem about digestion. I'm thinking that as long as you thoroughly cook baked goods containing raw bean flour, you should be just fine. What have you heard?
Emergency Essentials has an article online about using bean flour:
http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=70&name=Bean%20Cuisine&bhcd2=1212185515
This source suggests replacing up to 1/4 the amount of flour in a recipe with the bean flour. Besides adding a texture and mild flavor that I like, using bean flour, whether garbanzo or other, really adds some nice nutrition. Eating beans with grains is a good combination for getting complete proteins. I do hear that if you're not used to eating beans, it's good to start in small amounts and gradually increase(otherwise you may have gas). The body adapts.
Another source discusses grinding beans into flour:
http://waltonfeed.com/grain/passport/beans.html
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