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I think of all gluten-free baked goods,
quick breads are my favorite. It is not that difficult, given
the right combination of ingredients, to end up with a perfect
quick bread — nice and moist, no grittiness, full of
delicious flavor and truly authentic in taste.
There are some general tricks to quick breads
that will ensure a great tasting result. If you keep these
tricks in mind as you prepare or modify your favorite quick
bread recipes you end up with many more successes than failures.
Choosing the Right GF Flour
Many years ago, our pantry and freezer were
full of assorted gf flours and binders – rice (brown
& white) flour, rice bran, potato flour, tapioca flour/starch,
xanthan gum and guar gum, just to name a few! We spent a lot
of time trying to achieve the right combination of flours
to create a great substitution for regular "all-purpose" flour.
I must confess, our results were less than desirable. One
day we had an epiphany and decided to try the flour used in
The
Gluten Free Pantry’s Country French Bread mix. The
results were perfect! Immediately we abandoned our efforts
to play food chemist and filled our canisters with the Gluten-Free
Pantry’s Country French Bread mix flour. Many people
have said that they would prefer to mix their own because
it is too expensive to buy a mix. I believe the opposite to
be true. Instead of buying 4 bags of various flours and binders,
I only have to buy one and it even comes in a 5 lb. bag. (I
must also mention, that Glutenfreeda.com has no financial
ties to The Gluten-Free Pantry – so this is purely an
unbiased opinion.) This flour works great for nearly all baked
goods as well as for general cooking use (thickening gravies,
sauces, breading and more). *
Understanding the Properties of
GF Flour
Now that we have shared our secret for our
choice of flour, it is important to understand that even though
this flour works great – there is still some characteristics
inherent in the flour that need to be compensated for when
using it in baked goods. The flour mix consists of rice flour,
potato starch, cornstarch, crystallized honey, guar gum and
salt. You’ll find that when baking with this flour without
making some modifications to your recipe the rice flour will
still carry its properties through to your end product. I’m
sure you are all aware of the distinct taste and texture of
most gluten-free products – this is mostly due to the
rice flour. Often you will find that besides the distinct
taste, the texture is usually dry and crumbly. Once you understand
that this is the natural characteristic of the flour you can
begin to overcome its inherent qualities by adjusting the
recipe to "disguise" or hide those properties.
One more word on flour – avoid recipes
that contain more than 2-1/2 cups of flour. If the recipe
is relying purely on the properties of gluten for the desired
end result, you will usually find this to be a losing battle.
Remember, it’s impossible to turn an orange into an apple!
Adjusting Butter & Oils
One step towards removing the crumbly texture
of your baked goods is to reduce the butter and add or increase
the oil. It sounds strange but this simple modification will
dramatically improve the consistency of your quick breads.
A good rule of thumb is to decrease the butter by half, (or
eliminate it all together), and replace the missing butter
with vegetable or canola oil. For example, if your recipe
calls for 1 cup butter, I would first try to cut the butter
down to 1/2 cup and substitute with 1/2 cup oil. (If possible
you don’t want to completely eliminate the butter because
it does add flavor to your final product.) If you still feel
that it is not the proper consistency try eliminating the
butter all together and replacing the full cup with 1 cup
of oil.
Adjusting Leaveners: Baking Soda
& Baking Powder
A leavener is any ingredient or process
that produces air bubbles and causes the rising of baked goods.
Part of the leavening process naturally occurs when baking
with "gluten". When we remove the gluten it also removes not
only the elasticity but also some of the natural tendency
for the baked good to rise. One of the ways to compensate
for this deficiency is to increase the amount of baking soda
and baking powder called for in the recipe. Usually a good
rule of thumb is to increase both by about 1/2 teaspoon.
 Eggs,
Eggs & More Eggs
Eggs, either whole or yolks, are used as
a thickener. When the egg proteins begin to coagulate, the
liquid or batter becomes trapped in the network of set proteins.
We have found that in most quick breads, muffins, and coffeecakes
the results are dramatically improved with the addition of
at least one egg. A word of caution – don’t get
too egg or oil "happy" – you don’t want the batter
to be too runny. But what you will find is if you just make
a direct substitution of gf flour and hold every thing else
constant the batter will usually be extremely thick (especially
if it sits for a few minutes). The rice flour absorbs the
liquid – which is really something you want to watch.
If it becomes too thick your end result will most undoubtedly
be very dry and crumbly. If it becomes too wet and runny the
end result will be mushy. Once you start to experiment with
these modifications you will get a feel for the right consistency.
 Adding
Moisture to Baked Goods
So now we have addressed the leavening and
how to overcome some of the texture issues. There is one more
element to achieving the right taste and assuring the proper
consistency. Make sure that the recipe you are using has something
in it (about a cup) that will add to the moisture of the final
baked good. Some great additions are sour cream, crème
fraîche, applesauce, fruit purees and yogurt to name
a few. This really helps "mask" the distinct rice flavor and
adds just the right amount of moisture to create the perfect
desired result.
Now that you have the secrets to success
for your next quick bread recipe, we’d like to share
some of our favorite quick breads….these will truly be
enjoyed by all — those with and without gluten-intolerance!
Strawberry
Bread
Chocolate
Cherry Glazed Muffins
Blueberry
Muffins
Banana
Bread
Banana
Pecan Muffins
Carrot
Cake
Chocolate
Lemon Bread
Pecan
Pear Bread
Chocolate
Zucchini Bread
Sour
Cream Peach Muffins
Zucchini
Bread
Enjoy
-Glutenfreeda
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