The First Trial of Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour

Hello!  Sorry I've been absent the past week.  After Easter I hurt my hand and it made it difficult to type.  On top of all the regular craziness of life, we started to potty train our 2 year old.  EEK!  My least favorite part of parenthood.  At least she is our last one and I'll never have to do this again!  With that said, my cooking this week has been pretty basic and not exciting at all.  But the week before I did some good stuff. 
I played around with making an All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix to use.  I found one that I think is going to work great!  I really wanted to find a mix that I could use as a cup for cup substitute for regular All-Purpose Wheat Flour without having to pull out 10 different flours and things to do so.  I wanted one that I could use in my favorite baking recipes and not have to change anything else.   I did a trial run on chocolate chip cookies.  They turned out great, my kids loved them, I loved them and best of all, my husband loved them.  Now that is winner that works! 
I was looking at a GF recipe that I had pinned on Pinterest and it had a link for a GF AP Flour that this brilliant lady made.  The Art of Gluten Free Baking is her blog and when I read her story of how she came up with her mixture I knew I had to try it.  Her goal was the same as mine is now.  To be able to adapt my favorite regular recipes to be GF without changing the taste and texture much, if at all. You have to read her whole story, especially if you love to bake like I do.  I'm so thankful I found it!  One thing that sets her flour mixture apart from the others in the store is that she adds the xanthan gum right in instead of having to add it to each recipe.  Try it with some of your favorite recipes and let me know what you think!

Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
 
1 1/4 C (170 g) brown rice flour
1 1/4 C (205 g) white rice flour
1 C (120 g) tapioca flour
1 C (165 g) sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour or under the brand name, Mochiko) (I found it in the Asian food section)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum
Mix together and store in a cool, dark place, or in fridge for long-term storage.  1 C of this mix equals 140g. Use this mix cup-for-cup or gram-for-gram in all of your recipes.

Now after reading most of the comments and questions people left and asked I tried this 2 ways.  This exact way and then again but with Sorghum flour instead of brown rice flour.  I liked how her original worked much better.  My cookies turned out softer, a little bit fluffier and they seemed to keep longer before going stale.  The taste was generally the same though both ways.  The Sorghum flour made crisper cookies, they spread more while baking and went stale much faster.  I'm still going to play around with this mix with other recipes, but for good old chocolate chip cookies, it worked great.  I was so excited!


Not too shabby, huh?

Chocolate Chips Cookies

-Heat oven to 375

-Cream together:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

-Add and mix until fluffy:

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

-Add slowly and mix until combined:

2 1/2 cups flour

-Stir in:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

-Scoop onto baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown, let cool 2-3 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. OR Put into a foil lined bar pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely, remove from pan and cut into squares.