This Week's Featured Substitution:
Custom Gluten-Free Blends For Your Baking
When we first started baking gluten-free, we quickly discovered that store-bought flour blends weren’t always giving us the results we wanted. Some were gritty, others produced dense baked goods, and many were surprisingly expensive.
That’s when we decided to take control and create our own custom blends—and it changed everything.
Why You Should Make Your Own Blend
With the wrong gluten free flour mix, your baked goods will be just “good, for gluten free”, regardless of the recipe. We wanted amazing, plus making a homemade flour blend helps with the cost since buying multiple commercial blends can quickly empty our wallets.
Understanding the Building Blocks
Unlike wheat flour, we can’t rely on just one ingredient. Gluten-free flour blends combine gluten-free flours with starches (such as cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca starch or flour, and arrowroot) that act as gluten-like binders. Think of it as assembling a team where each player has a specific role.
Our Base Flours (the foundation): We use rice flours as our backbone. It’s very important that the rice flour is finely ground (or finely milled) – it should have the fine texture of flour, not the coarse texture of polenta.
Our Starches (the magic makers): These are what give our baked goods structure and moisture. Potato starch creates that light, fluffy texture we’re after, while tapioca starch adds the chewiness that makes cookies and bread feel “normal” again.
Our Go-To Blend Formula
After a few experiments (and some spectacular failures), we’ve settled on this reliable ratio that works for almost everything:
Our All-Purpose Blend: 2 cups rice flour (either brown or white) to 1/3 cup EACH of the tapioca flour, potato starch, and arrowroot flour.
We love this formula because it’s simple to remember and scales up easily. When making a large batch, we use the ratios of 6 cups rice flour, 1 cup EACH of the tapioca, potato, and arrowroot.
The Tips We Wish We’d Known Earlier
Weighing vs. Measuring: I developed my blends in grams because it’s so much more precise AND unbelievably easy to weigh ingredients than to measure by volume. If you don’t have a scale yet, we highly recommend getting one.
But if you’re measuring by cups, take a large spoon and gently dump the flour into the measuring cup. Then, once it’s overflowing, take a knife and scrape off the excess. Don’t pack it down.
The Truth Behind Xanthum Gum: We don’t add it directly into our gluten free flour mix. Instead, we always add it separately when making a recipe. That’s because different gluten-free bakes require different amounts of elasticity. Cookies need less binding than bread, so we add it recipe by recipe for better control.
Making It Work in Our Kitchen
We mix our blends in large batches and store the flour blend in an airtight container or a glass jar. Shake the container before using in case any gluten-free flours have settled. Label your containers with the blend recipe—trust us, you’ll forget the ratios otherwise!
The best part? We can use it in place of all-purpose or whole wheat flour in a 1:1 ratio in most of our favorite recipes. No complicated conversions or guesswork.
Creating our own gluten-free flour blend was one of the best decisions we made. It gave us control, saved money, and most importantly, produced results that made everyone at our table happy—whether they needed gluten-free options or not.
Start with our basic blend, experiment with small batches, and don’t be afraid to adjust ratios based on what you’re baking. Soon, you’ll have your own signature blend that works perfectly for your family’s favorite recipes.
