This month I’m joining the SITS Girls as they work through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog eBook. The book includes a task for each day, but we are working through the book on weekdays only. You might see a few posts that are out of the ordinary for me, but many of the tasks will not be obvious to you.
Yesterday’s task was to write a list post, so I thought I would share with you my five favorite gluten-free flours as well as a couple of my least favorite flours, and a few I want to use more often.
5 Favorite Gluten-Free Flours
- Sorghum Flour
Sorghum flour has long been one of my favorites. While too much of it can make foods dry, using it as part of the flour in a recipe ads a soft texture. Did you know sorghum has as much protein as quinoa? - Millet Flour
I was so please when I first started using sorghum flour, and I felt the same way when I tried millet flour. It too benefits the texture of baked goods. After trying it, I began substituting it for part of the sorghum flour in recipes. The two combined work wonders. - Brown Rice Flour
I know some people are not rice flour fans, however, I like using some brown rice flour in many of my recipes. You want to buy one that if finely milled or it will feel gritty. I mill my own flour, so I don’t have a particular brand to recommend. Combining sorghum, millet, and brown rice can result in a well-balanced whole grain flour mix. - Sweet Rice Flour
Sweet rice flour is not used in large quantities in recipes, but a little helps to keep baked goods moist. It’s also terrific for gravies. - Starches
As much as I love the flours mentioned above, they fall short on their own. Starches are necessary in many recipes to lighten the flour mix. Tapioca starch gives foods a definite chew which is why I like it in pizza crust. Many recipes, though, call for more potato starch than tapioca starch. Potato starch is very different from potato flour, but tapioca starch and flour can be used interchangeably.
2 Gluten-Free Flours I Don’t Like
- Bean Flours
When I first tried garfava flour years ago, I was so thrilled with the texture it gave to the bread I made. I also loved the idea of the protein it added. However, I didn’t care for the digestive effects nor the bean flavor. My husband is particularly sensitive to that bean flavor and he could taste the tiniest bit of bean flour I would put in a recipe. Eventually, I gave up on it and don’t use it any more. - Quinoa Flour
Quinoa is healthy, there’s not doubt about it. I like eating quinoa in it’s whole form, but I don’t like the flavor of the flour in baked goods. It’s simply a personal preference, but that’s why you don’t see it used in my recipes.
3 Gluten-Free Flours I Want to Use More
- Buckwheat Flour
I have used buckwheat flour some and want to use it more. I find that it has to be used in small amounts, but that makes it easier in some ways. I would like try substituting a little bit of buckwheat in some of my favorite recipes. - Almond Flour
I’ve never done much with almond flour. In fact, I’ve only used almond meal. I like the idea of using a non-grain flour and hope to experiment with it when I have time. - Teff Flour
I’ve seen teff flour more and more in recipes and baked products and would like to give it a try. Part of the problem with teff flour is that I never see it in the store (at least not a trusted brand) and I forget to order it online.
Note: The links in this post are Amazon affiliate links which take you to a page displaying that particular flour sold by different brands. I am not recommending all of those brands. If you have celiac disease or are highly sensitive to gluten, some brands have higher levels of cross contamination than others. Please check each company’s policy and/or certification.
If you do choose to order from Amazon, I greatly appreciate it when you go through my affiliate link. After you get to Amazon through my link, I will receive a small commission on anything you buy. Why not help out a blogger if you’re ordering anyway?
What are your favorite gluten-free flours?
I love sorghum, sweet rice, and the starches too. And I agree about the flavor of quinoa..I’m not looking forward to when Brittany and I spend a whole month testing quinoa flour recipes!
I’m looking forward to hearing what you and Brittany have to say about all the flours.
Great discussion to start! I love sorghum, millet, and brown rice, unfortunately I cannot find any of those where I live. Currently my most commonly used flours are chestnut flour, almond/hazelnut meal, buckwheat, and corn and white rice. I would love to use teff more as well. For starches I use a variety – potato, tapioca, glutinous rice, and cornstarch. Most of what I use is dictated by what I can find…
Jenn, almond meal/flour is common but I never thought about using other nuts. Chestnut and hazelnut sound interesting.
I use a lot of teff (have to get it at a health food store), coconut, brown rice and sorghum. Been using a lot more potato starch these days. I like the heft it gives things.
Brooke, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Glad to hear you like teff. My local health food stores only carry Shiloh Farms which I don’t trust because of cross contamination. I will try and remember to order some soon.
I haven’t been on the gluten free lifestyle for a long period of time, but I love Almond flour and Coconut flour. Combined they are fabulous together! Every time I have tried using sorghum my food has an after taste to it, any suggestions as to how to use it more effectively?
Stephanie, I wonder if it’s the particular type of sorghum flour you are using. Have you tried more than one brand? Maybe try using a smaller amount of sorghum. I always mix it with other flours.
I love buckwheat flour an cannot recommend it more! It’s very nutritious, and while it does have a strong flavor, it complements many savory flavors and fruits quite nicely.
An eggy crepe-like pancake is one easy way to use it. Wrap them around lentil salad, or top with a fruit compote.
Thanks Stephanie. My family does enjoy buckwheat pancakes.
I’ve still not bought and used sorghum – it scares me a bit I must admit! Plus, I seem to get stomachaches when I eat products made with sorghum, and I’m not gluten-free! No idea why, just an aversion to that one
I couldn’t agree more on the bean and quinoa issues, but I do like buckwheat and almond flours. I actually like buckwheat when used in higher percentage, but I’m kind of nutso for whole grain taste and find a lot of the gf flours to be lacking in that hearty taste. buckwheat fills in nicely.
Teff is one of my favorite flours. I get Bob’s Red Mill at Wegmans. Brown rice and almond flours are other staples in my kitchen. Tapioca and arrowroot are my starches since I’m allergic to corn and have to minimize nightshade consumption (I react strongly to tomatoes) so I don’t use potato starch. We do use chickpea flour – though primarily for a flatbread that we use as a pizza crust. I also use coconut flour on a regular basis, though only for recipes that call for it since it requires a different amount of liquid than most other flours so I can’t sub it easily (yet – haven’t had time to experiment.) Quinoa is the one grain I cannot eat in any form just because I cannot get past the taste, though my husband enjoys it.
Have you tried sprouting the beans and then milling them into flour? The sprouting process is supposed to use up the phytic acid and other compounds our bodies don’t easily digest (which is what causes digestive issues) and actually increases the vitamins and protein quality of the beans. Most beans/grains/seeds can be sprouted, and the process usually gives a better end product when used for flours and baked goods. I’ve just started learning about this, so I’m no expert, but it might be worth a try if you have the time.
I’ve been using almond and coconut flours in baking cupcakes (recipes from both Elana Amsterdam and some paleo bloggers). Coconut flour does make a pretty good cupcake but be careful about the finished product. It does not do well sitting out and needs to be refrigerated. Elana explains this in her book, Gluten-Free Cupcakes.
I also like sorghum, millet and brown rice flour for breads. I’m with you on the flavor of bean flours, particularly in breads. However, for some recipes, like cookies or anything that already has a pretty substantial flavor on its own, I don’t mind it.
I have also experimented with teff and quinoa but not enough to be able to draw any conclusions on whether I like them or not (mostly I was trying out various bread recipes, most of which I wasn’t impressed with — I have since started using Silvana Nardone’s bread recipe–http://bit.ly/fnjxi0–which, so far, has been my favorite). I would eventually like to try substituting some of the flour in Silvana’s bread recipe with some flax seed to give it more of a whole grain texture and nutritional value.
I have used buckwheat to make pancakes with. It has a much stronger flavor than the pancakes I was use to making which I wasn’t expecting.
I use such a variety. Almond, and corn flours, coconut sometimes too for baked goods. I do like quinoa and the very best pasta we have found (hubby thought it was wheat when i first served it) is a quinoa pasta by Andean Dream. I also like the starches and sorghum and buckwheat and teff. However, i have moved away from using grains much. Baked goods are more of an occasional treat now rather than an everyday part of our diet.
What i don’t like is finding recipes that use rice flour much. I use a combination of brown, white, and sweet rice flours in the baking i do. But i try to use only a small amount of rice flour in baking as i find the result of too much rice very gritty or sandy. I recently found a wonderful recipe for pie crust, but it called for 1 full cup of rice flour. I cut that by half and made the other half cup a mix of my other flours, but the result was still very very gritty. The next time i would only do 1/8 to 1/4 C of rice flour.
My understanding is that Quinoa has to be really well rinsed before use to get rid of the bitter outer coating. Perhaps that is what you taste as it is still present when you grind it.I for one will NOT be rinsing, drying and then grinding this flour. Life is too short for that.!
I’ve not actually milled quinoa myself. I bought the flour. I do rinse it before I cook it though.
Another buckwheat lover here. I use it as a 1:1 flour replacement or sometimes 50/50 with sorghum. The flavor to me is caramel/butterscotch, but doesn’t work in everything. I think it works best in some cookies, cakes, etc. My multipurpose blend is sorghum, br. rice and a starch. I does make a cake that looks very nicely browned — sometimes they turn out white depending on the flours used. Then my multigrain blend has all the “exotic” stuff in it including amaranth, quinoa, teff, millet… I also like to substitute fkax seed meal for about 1/4 c. flour for a little Inutritional boost. I use the “protein flours” as much as possible, but have not tried the nut flours/meals mostly due to cost.
I bet you wouldn’t guess that I’m gluten intolerant as well
I’m visiting from the SITS 31 day blogger challenge.
Thank you for this list – your opinion is greatly helpful. I haven’t ventured into baking my own gluten free goods as yet and am actually quite nervous about trying the new flours.
Also I have a friend who tried to make gluten free cupcakes for me – the first set blew up in the oven, the second was rock hard and the third just didn’t solidify. She was using a gluten free flour mix. That scares me …. if a mix couldn’t do it – how can I figure it out?!
I think I’m similar to your hubby in that I can taste bean flour in everything that it’s in. NOT GOOD…ewww….
I need to look for uncontaminated sources of millet and buckwheat. The times I have tried them, I got a small reaction from it, so I figured it was a cross-contamination issue.
Great post! I’m a huge fan of sorghum flour as well. I have found that a mix of sorghum, millet and buckwheat flours work great in muffins (w/ starches of course). Karina (GF Goddess) uses the combo in some of her recipes.
It definitely took me a while to get warmed up to buckwheat, but I love it now.
I also can’t get enough almond flour!!