Here are our top Gluten Free baking tips – we hope they’ll help you make the most of your G-Free recipes! Feel free to add your tips to the bottom of this list:
Keep Out the Grit! – Use finely ground flours (unless you’re baking with cornmeal or want a specific texture) and try baker’s sugar (a finely ground sugar for baking.) Don’t want to get baker’s sugar? Give regualr or brown sugar a spin through the food processor befor eusing it.
Use Gluten Free Flour Blends – G-Free baked goods generally come out better when you use a blend of flours. Blend your own or find a commercial blend you like. We recommend using bean, chickpea, or other flours with a strong flavor sparingly in baked goods.
Cream the Fat with the Sugar First – Unless your recipe prevents it, we recommend creaming your sugar or sweetener with your fats (butter, shortening, oil, etc.) This will produce lighter, fluffier baked goods.
Remember the Salt & Flavorings! – Salt enhances flavor, and it also provides structure to Gluten Free doughs. Flavoring agents, like extracts or herbs, are a key component in achieving a pleasant-tasting product. When converting traditional recipe to Gluten Free, we usually increase the amount of extract used. Tip: we also sometimes increase the baking powder or yeast by about 25%.
Blend Salt with Other Dry Ingredients – Salt is necessary, but it can have some tricky reactions with yeast & other ingredients. Mix your salt into the other dry ingredients thoroughly before adding to wet mixes for best results.
Take Care of Your Products – Check the shelf life of gums, flavorings, flours, yeast, baking powder and other baking supplies to be sure they’re at their best BEFORE you use them. Store your good at the proper temperature in tightly sealed containers.
Use Xanthan or Guar Gum When Baking Gluten Free – We get so many emails from people who attempt to make their favorite bread or dessert G-Free and don’t add binding agents! This is a necessary step in Gluten Free baking unless you are using a recipe that is specifically formulated without gums. You can follow the basic guide for using gums on our site for help. Note: Guar Gum can act like a laxative in certain people, so you may want to start with Xanthan if that’s an issue.
Taste for Flavor AND Texture – If you’ve made a baked good that you love, GREAT! Family Favorite! If not, taste your finished baked goods for texture and flavor, and decide what you don’t like about what you’ve made. Does it need a bit more time in the oven? Are the flavors off, or is it too crumbly or dense? It’s much easier to adjust a recipe when you know what the problem is!
Happy Gluten Free Baking Everyone!
Great list of baking tips! I especially liked the reminder about using salt. So much of the time I think it's bad for me and tend to cut back on what the recipe recommends but really, salt is an important flavor and structure component. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for the great tips!
Hi Nancy,Rumford, Clabbergirl, Davis and Hearth Club make gluten-free baikng soda. I use Rumford because most grocery stores carry it or I make my own.When baikng soda is made they use a starch to absorb moisture. The starch may be cornstarch (gluten-free), potato starch (gluten-free) or wheat starch (which contains gluten).