Baking wheat-free: grind your own grains

The web is full of gluten-free posts, but for many of us it isn’t the gluten but some other aspect of wheat (and I’m researching this to post later) that cause our problems. For me it isn’t celiac or digestive discomforts that result from eating flour products but a facial rash. I’ll see the reaction within 24 hours, and it takes days to clear up. But it’s hard to live without wheat when one travels, or dines in restaurants or in people’s homes. The one place I can control it is in my own kitchen. In recent years there are many ready-made products, grains and recipes to help support my desire for baked goods without wheat. But my goal is to convert as many favorites treats as possible to wheat free options.

Varco Inc grinder

Varco Inc grinder

The number one tool I’ve found to improve my flour options is a small appliance: a hand-held coffee grinder, dedicated to flours only. I bought my Varco grinder 25 years ago (for under $10; a little Krups grinder retails today for $20) for spices and it’s still running fine. Now I use it mostly for grinding grains. But you do need to have a dedicated grinder – don’t use the same one for grains and coffee.

Still, there are many acceptable commercial flour blends available, and far more recipes for blending your own GF-AP flour combinations. While you can’t hope to fully replace wheat flours with their predictable gluten levels (consider how difficult it is to find decent GF bread), you can make many wonderful baked goods with a wheat free blend of your own.

Some commercial blends

  • Bob’s Red Mill GF flour: potatoes, sorghum, tapioca, garbanzo and fava beans.
  • Namaste GF AP flour: Sweet brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, sorghum flour and xanthan gum.
  • King Arthur GF blend: white rice and whole-grain (brown) rice flours, tapioca starch, and potato starch.

As you can see from their ingredient lists, the nutritional content in these flours is pretty low. You can make your own blends, or just supplement the purchased AP blend by adding your own freshly ground grains. But it’s important to use a blend – each grain/starch provides an important element to creating structure in your baked goods.