Gluten free alternatives [closed]

I don’t stay gluten free, so there are likely better experts out there, but I occasionally cook for people who are.

From what I’ve seen, most ‘alternative flours’ fall into one of three categories:

• bean flours
• nut flours
• alternative grains (oat, rice, etc)

There are others, like cassava or yam flour (aka fufu, available in African and some Asian stores), but they don’t seem to be as common when looking for gluten free baking recipes.

Some recipes will blend multiple flours and possible one or more gums to act as a binder for breads.

The ‘one to one’ pre-packaged replacement blends tend to be the most expensive. Nut flours also aren’t cheap, as you’ve found. Bean flours tend to have a bit of a weird flavor but they’re okay in chocolate things like brownies.

I would recommend looking into what’s available and inexpensive in your area, and then look for recipes that specifically use those ingredients. Sometimes you need to add gums for lift or enrich the dough for proper browning.

You may also want to try to find a copy of the book ‘How It Can Be Gluten Free’ from America’s Test Kitchen, which talks about some of the issues with adapting existing recipes to be gluten free.