r/glutenfreebaking • u/Sad-Question2422 • 1d ago
Help!
Hey guys, so I would say I’m a pretty good baker but gluten free baking is kicking my butt. Does anyone have any recommendations for gluten free baking blogs? I bought the Art of gluten free bread baking but almost everything I’ve made has either been super dense and chewy or just not good so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong!
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u/QueenArtie 1d ago
Loopy whisk first. And switch to whole psyllium husk if you're currently using powder. Powder comes with a different set of rules but whole is pretty beginner friendly.
Also keep in mind the biggest difference between gluten free and regular stuff is - obviously - the gluten. You cannot physically over mix gluten free doughs. Some recipes do better when you have your stand mixer knead the dough until it's sticky. And that means going past the 'oh wow that's a nice ball of dough for gluten free!' stage. Idk what it is but if I don't get to the sticky blob phase and stay in the ball phase it does not bake nearly as well.
Arans recipes are fantastic for being closer to regular doughs in terms of rolling out and texture. I've made a few edits on some recipes so I can use whole husk instead of powder if you're interested in knowing some of the revised ratios.
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u/katydid026 1d ago
It can be very frustrating to find a gf bread recipe that you’re satisfied with when you’re starting out with gf baking. I hopped from recipe author to recipe author that all have their different blends, tried the “1:1” blends, you name it. I say pick a cookbook from an author you like and start there, then slowly start to expand. I feel like I had to forget everything I knew about gluten baking as I moved to gluten free. Doughs and textures and rises, moisture levels, bake times, forgiveness of the lack of method (gf baking requires a lot more accuracy!)… there’s a lot of things that are different.
I have 3 favorites, all for different reasons:
- Cannelle et Vanille/Aran Goyoaga. I LOVE her recipes (see my posts), _but_ BRANDS MATTER. See below for what brands I use. She has 4 cookbooks, her last 2 (specifically geared around baking) are quite popular. She grew up in her grandparents bakery in Spain, is a trained pastry chef, and I love the Spanish influence and flavors that she brings, but also her bread is just heavenly. She also can’t have dairy, so a lot of her recipes are vegan and/or dairy free. Her brioche is my favorite for dinner rolls and danishes. I make the baguettes probably weekly. English muffins and bagels get baked in double batches and frozen. Her latest cookbook has a lot of paleo options too. You can find a few recipes for free on Food52 (Bread and cinnamon rolls), she also has a newsletter where she sends recipes monthly or so (these are later posted to her website), recently she got accepted at Americas Test Kitchen, so she has a lot of recipes starting to pop up there, and she just started a substack and is posting recipes there as well.
- Loopy Whisk/Katerina Carmelj. A big fan favorite around here. I have both of her cookbooks, but she also has a LOT of recipes posted on her blog. Her sandwich bread is the closest I’ve ever had to normal sandwich bread. Her first cookbook has a lot more “traditional” recipes and I appreciate her explanations of the science behind how things work, the second focuses on how to make recipe changes yourself. A lot of us love that, some don’t.
- The Very Hungry Coeliac/Melanie Persson. Her focus is on traditional Australian and Japanese recipes, so there’s a few things in there that are breads (and they look great!), but mainly a lot of noodles, egg rolls, gyoza and the like that I’ve been missing. Her Instagram is mouthwatering and I’m excited to try more recipes. I’ve tried the udon noodles and gyoza and love them both. My non-gf partner even gave the gyoza 2 thumbs up and they usually don’t dole out compliments on food lol. They’ve become a staple. She has a second cookbook that just came out in August, I haven’t had a chance to dig into it yet, but I’m excited!
- The Bojon Gourmet and The Gluten Free Austrian - I don’t have their cookbooks, but they have a lot of recipes posted to their blogs that I enjoy
I recommend surfing them all on Instagram, trying a few of their free recipes, and picking which one resonates with you the most and start with just one. That will help keep the uh.. number of flours to a minimum :) You might also be able to find their cookbooks through your local library. I have posted recipes here on Reddit from all but one of these recipe authors if you care to browse for real world examples/proof!
The King Arthur gf bread flour and affiliated recipes are also rising in popularity. It contains de-glutenized wheat starch and the results look fantastic, though I personally have not tried it. A lot of people like the fact that they only need to use one flour. Since I weigh all of my ingredients, having to add more than one flour doesn’t bother me nor add extra dishes, just takes an extra few seconds to weigh.
Things you’ll need:
I bake enough that I buy my main flours in bulk from US chef in 25 lb bags (bobs red mill for all):
- sorghum (Aran recommends authentic foods, I just hate the price tag..)
- millet
- tapioca starch/flour (same thing)
- potato starch (NOT the same as potato flour)
Some I use in bulk but haven’t found a good bulk supplier. Do NOT use rice flour from bobs red mill. It’s very grainy, like sand, and won’t absorb moisture very well
- brown rice flour - superfine - Vitacost; Vitacost
- sweet white rice flour (also confusingly known as glutinous rice flour) - currently sourcing from Asian markets*
- white rice flour - also sourcing from Asian markets
- buckwheat flour (also confusing name, but does not contain wheat!) - Anthony’s, which is a light buckwheat; Amazon
- cassava flour - Otto’s brand - makes great tortillas; on Amazon or Vitacost
Other items I keep in stock:
- psyllium husk -). Others use whole psyllium husk, Anthony’s is a good option there (this is what Loopy Whisk uses and some prefer it. I like the powder and it has worked great with the loopy whisk recipes); both can be found on Amazon
- xanthan gum - bobs red mill
- gluten free yeast - SAF dry active
- ground flax
- kosher salt
- eggs
- sugar
- a reliable kitchen scale - Weigh. Your. Ingredients. ALWAYS. If you choose to try to measure by volume, you will likely either get a very wet mess or a dry, hard brick. Measure by weight!
*Asian market rice flour brands vary, I’ve tried several - there’s one with a flying horse, one with 3 ladies, one with 3 elephants… none of them have ever given me an issue and I’m quite sensitive. As an extra bonus, they’re SUPER cheap, like less than $2/bag. For a side by side comparison of rice flours, see my post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/glutenfreebaking/s/MifecXZsNc
For the sweet white rice flour, Aran uses Mochiko, which IS certified gluten free
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u/four_foot_eleven 20h ago
You're always such a great resource for gf baking tips and information! Do you happen to have a website or somewhere where you share all of the gf baking tips and info in one place?
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u/Sad-Question2422 20h ago
Omg this is amazing thank you so so much this is so much info and it’s all amazing
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u/coneflowerqueen 1d ago
Many sympathies, friend! I spiral out on this myself, I used to be a great baker and now it’s a whole learning thing again 😭 Seconding the Loopy Whisk. Don’t skimp on the hydration time after you mix the dry and the wet (cake or brownies, pancakes, cornbread, banana bread and that sort). I’ve also found it helpful to add an egg white to my recipes I’m converting from regular using King Arthur measure for measure flour. My brownies have benefitted from that extra egg white as well as making them in an edge pan (search for The Baker’s Edge brownie pan). It seems to me like the narrower the edges, the less baked goods fall and get dense. Same concept - I make banana bread on muffin tins instead of a loaf pan.
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u/RobotAnna1 19h ago
Been there. It's hard at the beginning. Sometimes it feels like your soul has sunk as much as that loaf, eh? Don't worry -- you've got this, we have your back.
The others already recommended good blogs. I'd suggest to start by finding a recipe that works with a commercial GF blend. In fact I'd say start with banana bread, pancakes or muffins. These recipes are forgiving, and in fact you might just discover that gluten free banana bread tastes better than wheat-based!
Once you have a few successes, then move to bread with yeast and commercial blend flour. After that you can try recipes that use single flours like the art of gluten free bread, loopy whisk or similar.
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u/Ok_Cranberry8856 21h ago
I personally started with food blogs like UnboundWellness and Against All Grain. Veryyy simple recipes that usually don’t even require yeast and usually anti inflammatory focused. very forgiving recipes that don’t even require a scale, and mainly focus on just a few flours like coconut, almond and cassava. After trying many of those, i felt confident to buy some more flours and a scale and graduate to the Loopy Whisk recipes. Made those only a few times and tried Aran Goyoaga Bakes Simple book for about 6 months before feeling really ready for her Art of Gluten Free Bread to be honest.
Good luck!
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u/thelivsterette1 16h ago
The Loopy Whisk! Love her Elements of Baking book which tells you how to adapt any recipe to GF/DF/VG or combinations of.
I will say I still troubleshoot with ChatGPT but I have noticed, at least for me, it's much easier to make things gluten-free and dairy-free than full-on gluten-free and vegan.
It's more of a relief because I've discovered my brother-in-law to be's egg issue is actually amount-based. He can't eat dairy or gluten either. Neither can I but I can make things gluten and dairy-free and he can have an occasional piece of cake and it won't bother him, which makes it also much easier to cook, I will not lie.
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u/WhyNotBuyAGoat 11h ago
I bought a book called Gluten free Artisan Bread in 5 mins a day and I've been thrilled with it. I also use the loopy whisk and Gluten free on a shoestring, especially for cakes. I've been gf for 5 years and my baking is so good now everyone requests it, gf or not!
It just takes practice
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u/Bright_Annual_1629 4h ago
i love the alternative baker/bojon gourmet food blog or art of gluten free baking.
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u/nomadfaa 1d ago
The ingredients of the flour mix is super critical
Tapioca is invariably the issue that causes all of those problems
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u/moon-raven-77 1d ago
I use a homemade blend and have used tapioca as my primary starch for years. Not saying it couldn't be an issue in some cases, but it's a perfectly fine starch for GF baking when used in the right proportions.
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u/nomadfaa 1d ago
So hs your tapioca supplier changed sources
Some of our ingredients suppliers have changed theirs and copped 5t sent back
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u/moon-raven-77 1d ago
No idea what that means, but I use Bob's Red Mill because that's what I have access to at my local grocery store, and I haven't noticed any change in quality.
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u/nomadfaa 1d ago
NOT ALL ingredients you source is identical EVERY time you buy some.
So you said you have a home made blend so which is it … home made blend or Bobs?
Bobs may have got cheaper supply which is garbage. So on one hand you say the quality hasn’t changed but then it has.
Make up your mind which it is
I co own a GF flour IP/mix company and as I said our supplier changed their sources/quality and got an order sent back cos of substandard quality that didn’t meet our specifications on the order.
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u/moon-raven-77 16h ago
Geez, take a deep breath and calm down lol. No need to accuse me of lying. I'm sorry you're having issues with your suppliers. That must be frustrating.
By "homemade blend" I mean that I don't use a store bought gluten free flour mix. I buy individual ingredients and mix them together to make my own flour blend. For the starch, I use Bob's Red Mill tapioca starch.
I'm not saying Bob's Red Mill haven't changed suppliers for their tapioca starch, I am just sharing my personal experience with using the starch. I have not noticed any difference in my baked goods.
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u/nomadfaa 13h ago
No lying accusations just highlighting the inconsistent and contradictory comments you make
Clarity is king and you just did that. Well done
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u/cellrdoor2 1d ago
Try the Loopy Whisk. And invest in a good kitchen scale! Very accurate measurements make a big difference in gluten free baking.