Top 8 Gluten Free Flours
I have listed the top 8 gluten free flours. Some are used in baking, and some for making sauces. All should be easy to in the shops especially health food shops. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Rice Flour: Rice flour may be made from either white or brown rice. To make the flour, the husk of rice is removed and raw rice is obtained. The raw rice is then ground to form rice flour. Rice flour is a particularly good substitute for wheat flour and can be used as the main substitute for many bakery/sweet products. Rice flour can also be used to coat chopped dried fruit to stop it from sticking together.
Cornmeal: Cornmeal is flour ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food in many regions of the world. In the United States, the finely ground cornmeal is also referred to as cornflour. However, the word cornflour denotes cornstarch in recipes from the United Kingdom. Cornmeal is known by other names around the world, one of the best known ones is polenta. Cornmeal is used more for savoury dishes and comes in yellow and white.
Buckwheat: Buckwheat flour is not, despite its name a form of wheat, buckwheat is actually related to rhubarb and is a plant rather than a grass. The small seeds of the plant are ground to make flour, which has a speckled appearance. Be careful when purchasing to make sure it says gluten free on the packet as some manufacturers blend it with wheat flour to make the buckwheat flour cheaper. Buckwheat is traditionally used to make pancakes.
Soya Flour: Soya flour is made from roasted soybeans that have been ground into a powder. It has a strong nutty taste. It can be used as a thickening agent in gravies and sauces, or it can be added to baked goods. In baked products, soya adds tenderness and moisture and helps to keep products from becoming stale. Mix with rice flour and Buckwheat for best results. Products containing soya flour brown more quickly, so it is sometimes necessary to either shorten the baking time or decrease the temperature slightly.
Gram flour: Gram flour is made from ground chick peas and is used a lot in Indian cooking. It is used to make onion bhaja and flat breads such as naan and parotas. If you want a fix of bread this is probably the best flour to use. Try making naan bread yourself. Very easy to make similar to normal wheat bread.
Potato flour: Potato flour is a flour which is produced from potatoes which have been cooked, dried, and then ground. One use of potato flour is as a thickener. Potato flour can be added to soups, stews, gravies, and other dishes to encourage these dishes to thicken without adding a strong flavour or intense starchy texture. It makes a lighter sauce. However, care should be used when using potato flour as a thickener. If it is used in a dish which is allowed to boil, it can acquire a strange and unpleasant texture. Potato flour can be added to cake mixes to make the mixture lighter.
Arrowroot: The arrowroot plant is native to the tropics of South America. It is an easily digested starch. The starch is used as a thickener in many foods such as puddings and sauces, and is also used in cookies and other baked goods. Arrowroot is extremely bland, making it suitable for neutral diets. In cooking arrowroot is particulaly good for Making gels for glazing fruit flans. Arrowroot sets clear so the fruit can be seen. Be careful not to overcook as it will lose its setting qualities. Mix with a cold liquid before adding to a recipe, use some of the liquid from the recipe
Cornflour: Cornflour, also known as cornstarch in America, is the starch which has been extracted from maize (Indian corn). Used primarily as a thickening agent, among its qualities are that its easy to use tasteless and easy to mix (unlike most other flours). When using it in cooking, mix with a cold liquid first and add some of the hot liquid into that before adding to the recipe(this should make sure the sauce/liquid is lump free. Add about 10 minutes before the end of cooking, bring back to the boil and simmer. If the cornflour is not cooked out long enough you will end up with a floury tasting sauce. Taste to make sure it is ok.
