Baking Gluten-Free: The Basics on Converting Non-Gluten-Free Baked Goods to Delicious Gluten-Free Wonders

We’ve recently received several requests for an on-line cooking class on how bake "successfully" gluten-free. Many people struggle with converting their favorite baked goods to be completely gluten-free and still maintain the right taste and texture. Over the years, we have experimented with many recipes — and of course we have had our share of failures too. But through our efforts we have discovered some basic conversion tips that, more often than not, dramatically improve the results of our baked goods. This month we would like to share our discoveries and hopefully return some of your baked favorites to your recipe file!

Choosing the Right GF Flour

Several 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, xantham 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).

Since our discovery of The Gluten Free Pantry’s flour mix we have also discovered another great flour product from Dr. Schar. This product seems to work very nicely with yeast breads.

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 baked goodies. 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 reads, biscuits, muffins, coffeecakes and cakes 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.

Great Tips for French Bread, Baguettes & Hard Rolls

The best results we’ve found with French bread, baguettes and hard rolls have been using milk instead of water, honey instead of sugar and oil instead of butter. And again, the flour we use is The Gluten-Free Pantry’s Country French Bread mix or Dr. Schar’s Mix B. We also suggest purchasing French bread or baguette pans. These are curved baking pans which not only form the bread to the proper shape but also give the bread a nice crisp crust (on top and bottom!). The pans have small holes along the sides and bottom to allow the air to reach a large percentage of the loaf letting it to brown and crisp. Unfortunately, you still have to "spread" the dough onto the pan(s) but you’ll be amazed how it actually turns out. To assist the crust in browning and crisping, brush the dough with a mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of milk before baking.

We’ve also had great results and I believe better tasting French bread, baguettes and hard dinner rolls by adding a bulb of roasted garlic to the batter. This gives it a nice sweet aromatic flavor and again masks the taste of the rice flour. You can also add dried herbs, olives, or spices and dried fruits for wonderful variations. Try our Roasted Garlic & Basil French Bread for a great bread perfect for dipping in olive oil and balsamic vinegar or sliced and served to accompany your favorite Italian pasta.

Making Delicious Coffeecakes, Quick Breads & Muffins

Coffeecakes, quick breads and muffins we have found to be the easiest recipes to convert. With the modifications listed above you can easily produce results that are no different from the gluten variety. Once you’ve made a few you will begin to see the similarities and can either modify your own recipes or get creative and bake your own wonderful treat. Try these great recipes to get your feet wet: Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake, Cranberry Nut Coffee Cake, Strawberry Bread, Cranberry Nut Bread, Carrot Spice Muffins, Blueberry Muffins.

Baking Cookies

Recently we received several requests for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have to confess that I struggled with creating a great chocolate chip cookie for quite some time. We have managed to convert many cookie recipes that utilize a lot of chocolate or are meant to be crisp cookies with great success. The problem with chocolate chip cookies is that there isn’t anything really to mask the taste of the rice flour except for the chocolate chips and the nuts. We played around with the amount of butter, shortening, and oil and finally came upon a recipe that we believe is nearly indistinguishable from the "real" thing. What worked was to go back to my earlier substitutions — discussed above. Substitute half of the butter with oil and increase the leaveners. The taste is perfect and the consistency is much closer to the real thing than any store-bought gf chocolate chip cookie I’ve tasted yet. So another lesson learned — stick to the known substitutions and you will rarely be disappointed. Here are some great cookie recipes that will please the kid in all of you: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies (an all-time favorite), and Orange Pecan Biscotti (perfect for dipping in your favorite coffee drink.)

Baking Cakes

The most important tip for cakes is the treatment of the eggs and adding something to keep the cake moist. For a triple layer (9-inch round) cake you will need 5-6 eggs. Separate the eggs. The yolks are added to the batter first and right before pouring the batter into the baking pans you fold in stiff, but not dry, egg whites into the batter. This adds nice air bubbles to the cake to give it the right consistency and yet thickens it enough to hold it together. Our favorite addition to cakes is crème fraîche. Crème fraîche is mild in taste (a much lighter version of sour cream) and adds enough fat and moisture to create the perfect texture. Here are two wonderful examples of incorporating the above tips: German Chocolate Cake, Devil’s Food Cake.

Baking Pies

To make your life easier, try using the Chef's Pantry "Perfect Pie Crust" mix. Follow the directions for the mixing of the dough, up to the baking part, then follow directions for the pie you are attempting to make. If you are making a cream-filled pie, or custard pie, or any kind of pie that doesn’t require the filling to be baked (such as the Banana, Chocolate & Coconut Cream Pie) you will need to bake the crust on its own. If you prefer a thicker crust, try using 3/4 of the prepared dough (the package makes 2 balls of dough – intended for either two pies or double crust pies). If a more buttery flavored crust is desired substitute butter for the shortening (you will end up with twice the amount of butter than the package calls for).

In addition to using the appropriate flour and recipe, roll out the flour between 2 sheets of parchment paper. This will accomplish three things: 1) it eliminates the need to flour a surface – of course you can use gf flours, but this will make it easier, 2) it will keep the dough together, eliminating rips, crumbling, etc., and 3) it will facilitate the transfer from your pastry board to the pie dish. Make sure you roll out the dough so that it is about 2 inches larger than the rim of your pie dish. When you are ready to make the transfer to the pie dish, remove the top piece of parchment and invert the pastry over the dish. Slowly and carefully remove the top layer of parchment. Make sure the dough is firmly set in the bottom of dish. Fold under about a 1/2 inch of dough and crimp edges to make a nice decorative pattern. If you use this Pie mix and follow this procedure for rolling out dough – you will never feel left out from the old gluten-filled pies….this is truly wonderful.

A Word on Baking Times & Temperatures

Good news! We have found that no adjustments need to be made for baking times and temperatures. You should be able to achieve great results with the baking time and temperature called for in the recipe you are trying to convert.

Where to Buy Gluten-Free Fours

A lot of reference has been made to two gf flours throughout this cooking class. Again, we have no financial affiliation with these companies, we just believe they have a great product. To purchase these flours go to the following websites;

The Gluten Free Pantry: www.glutenfree.com

Dr. Schar Mix B: www.glutino.com

Quick Reference for Baking Tips:

To conclude, we thought it might be helpful to highlight the major modifications that will dramatically help you in your baking for your easy reference.

• Use The Gluten-Free Pantry’s Country French Bread Mix flour or a similar flour mix for the gf flour
• Decrease the butter by half, (or eliminate it all together), and replace the missing butter with vegetable or canola oil.
• Increase the baking soda and baking powder called for by about 1/2 teaspoon
• Add an extra egg
• Add about a cup of sour cream, crème fraîche, applesauce, fruit purees or yogurt

- Glutenfreeda