Gluten Free Flour Mixes

[patriceinil]

Mary gives her recipes for making all purpose gluten free flour mix, a whole grain gluten free flour mix, a gluten free cookie flour mix and she goes over various whole grain gluten free flours to add to the all purpose mix.

[Farmfresh]

This will be handy! Thanks for posting.

[patriceinil]

I thought so too

[Farmfresh]

I got to thinking about what she said about taking advantage of larger sized packaging. Started looking up the shelf life of a lot of these things.

It looks to me like EVERYONE should be storing gluten free grains and starches for long term storage. It seems to keep far better than wheat flour.

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Rice flour also stores extremely well. "Shelf Life: when properly stored, in a tightly covered container in a cool dry location, white rice flour may last indefinitely." So that is one to buy in bulk.

Whole sorghum grain, cut/meal sorghum grain, sorghum flour, sorghum bran, & baking mix-store in a cool, dry place for up to 12 months

Millet is a good storing grain which will store without any special considerations for one to two years. If you want to put millet into long term storage, package it inside air-tight containers and use oxygen absorbers. Stored in this fashion and put in a cool place, millet should keep well for many years.

Amaranth contains fairly high levels of poly-unsaturated fats, it's a good idea to store them in your refrigerator after opening the container. For long term storage, package them with oxygen absorbers in an air-tight container which should extend their storage life for several years if stored in a cool place. Having a hard outer shell, Amaranth should store better than Quinoa or buckwheat which have similar nutritional qualities but have a softer, more permeable shell.

Buckwheat contains rather volatile essential fats inside the seed that aren't protected very well after the air-tight hull has been removed. It isn't a good storing grain unless precautions are taken to remove the oxygen. Like brown rice, oxygen makes the essential oils in the seed go rancid, giving it a bad taste and making it unfit to eat. So, when storing buckwheat for long term storage, be sure you place it in airtight containers and use oxygen absorber technology which should give it a long storage life.Whole grain buckwheat is an amazingly nutritious food. Even though it's protein is relatively low at approximately 11%, the protein buckwheat does have contains the eight essential amino acids and is one of the few "grains" (remember that buckwheat isn't a grain at all) high in lysine. If you use half buckwheat flour with your wheat flour, the buckwheat's amino acids will round out the limiting amino acids in your wheat nicely, giving you a nearly perfect balance of the 8 essential amino acids. This particular balance between half wheat and half buckwheat flour is much more closely aligned to your dietary needs even than lean beef!!! It's also rich in many of the B vitamins as well as the minerals; phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese. In addition to this, it's a good oil source of Linoleic acid, one of the two essential fatty acids we must have to be healthy. Nutritionally speaking, buckwheat is a truly impressive food.

Oats have a hard outer hull that must be removed before it's ready for human consumption. Hulled oats, called Oat Groats an oat groat kernel's outer bran layer is still intact after de-hulling. This somewhat protects the inner nutrients and also permits it to sprout. From this stage of processing, oats are most often rolled. Sometimes they are cut into two to four pieces before rolling and are called 'steel cut rolled oats,' Long ago, it was learned if oat groats were steamed first destroying the enzymes that permitted rancidity to happen, the rolled oats could be stored for long periods of time and stay fresh. We've heard more than one story of a family opening up a well stored 25 year old can of rolled oats thinking they'd only be good to feed the chickens. But to their surprise, their rolled oats were still fresh and wholesome after all that time.



Starches are also very shelf stable.

"Corn starch and potato starch should be preserved tightly closed in a cool, dry place for indefinite shelf life. Otherwise, they tend to absorb moisture and odors from nearby substances."

Arrowroot Powder/Starch lasts 2 to 3 years when opened. Refrigerate in an air-tight container for optimal freshness.

Tapioca Powder/Starch lasts for 1 year when opened. Refrigerate or freeze in an air-tight container for optimal freshness.

Xanthan gum "Opened or unopened, this product should be stored in a cool, dry area and has a 3-year shelf life from the production date."

[patriceinil]

I’ve got quite a bit of gluten free baking ingredients put up in various forms such as rolled oats that can be made into flour, I’ve got plain packages of rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch as well as home blended gluten free all purpose flour blend.

I also have sorghum flour, buckwheat flour and whole buckwheat, arrowroot and xantham gum. I also have some store bought boxed mixes for cakes, brownies, beer bread, biscuit and pancake mix.

I could probably go a good year or better with my gluten free baking supplies since I’m the only one eating gluten free.

[Farmfresh]

And THAT is the plan!

[patriceinil]

You also need dry milk powder and psyllium husk powder for baking gluten free bread products.

[Farmfresh]

Dry milk powder is no problem. Psyllium husk powder? Educate me. Why do I need it and what does it do?

[patriceinil]

It’s basically Metamucil but without any flavorings added to it. It adds structure to gluten free bread products. It gives breads more of a chew vs being so fine textured from the rice and starches.

I buy the store brand of Metamucil in a canister but make sure it isn’t orange or other flavors.

You don’t need a lot but it does help with the stability of the loaf as it is rising. Most of the ATK recipes for breads have both the milk powder and psyllium husk added to them.

The milk powder adds protein which also helps to bind the gluten free bread together better and it aids in coloring the loaf or other baked goods to a nicer golden color instead of the pale pathetic color some gluten free baked goods are.

[Farmfresh]

Interesting! So how much would you add to a typical recipe ... say per loaf?

My Grandma Nettie taught me to always use some milk in my bread recipes, so that one is not new to me.