Whether you are a seasoned gluten free baking pro or a complete newbie to gluten free, these gluten free baking tips will help you become a better baker! Baking with gluten free flour can be a challenge, and I help make it easier. I discuss flour blends, measuring tips, and what works for making delicious gluten-free bread and yeast recipes, cookies, and cake.
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Gluten Free Flour Blends For Baking:
Determining what gluten free flour blend to use will vary depending on what you can easily find. Each flour blend has a different ratio of gluten free grains and starches. It really makes gluten free baking more like a chemistry experiment!!
To make gluten free baking easier for you, I wrote up all the gluten-free flour blends and individual gluten-free flour/starches I have used. Read to find out the best gluten free flour to use and when.
Gluten-free flour blends come in many price points, so I tend to use the less expensive blends for cake, cookies, and muffins. I use the more expensive one, Authentic Foods Steve’s Bread Blend for bread, pizza, biscuits, and pie crust.
- Bread and Buns – For bread, especially if you want to shape it, I recommend using Authentic Foods Steve’s GF Bread Blend. It is hands down the best gluten free blend I have ever found for bread. Note that it is NOT good for bread machine recipes. Just check out my Gluten Free Challah recipe to see how easily you can braid the dough! I also love it for all of my Gluten-Free Cinnamon Roll recipes.
- Bread Machine Bread – I use a custom blend of gluten free flour and starch for my popular Gluten Free Bread Machine Bread recipe. I find this blend is far superior to anything else I have tried. Most gluten free blends on the market I have tried do not work well in the bread machine because they are not made for use in yeast recipes. I tested Cup4Cup Gluten Free Flour Blend, and it was one of the few that worked well in my bread machine.
- Pies, Quiche, and Tarts – My favorite gluten free flour blend for pies, quiche, and tarts is Cup4Cup. King Arthur Measure For Measure, Bob’s Red Mill 1:1, Namaste, and Better Batter GF Blend are also good brands for flaky crusts. Note: Better Batter is expensive, but you can often find it for sale on their website. Check out how flaky my homemade Gluten Free Pie Crust recipe turns out with the Cup4Cup blend.
- Biscuits – My favorite gluten free flour blend for making biscuits is Cup4Cup. Indeed, I tested 12 different gluten free flour blends in my recipe to know how each works. I shared all of the results in my popular Gluten Free Biscuits recipe so you can see how each blend performed.
- Cakes and Cookies – I tend to use the less expensive flour blends for cakes and cookies. I find that King Arthur Measure for Measure and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Flour Blend work just fine. There is no huge difference in using these brands compared to the more expensive blends.
I encourage you to try my DIY Gluten Free All Purpose Blend, too. It works well in both regular and yeast recipes. You may also enjoy learning how each flour blend can vary.
Gluten Free Flour Measuring Tips:
Measuring your gluten free flour accurately will make a huge difference in how your baked goods turn out.
In a perfect world, we would all use a digital scale to measure flour, but I have found that every gluten free flour blend has a slightly different weight. As I remake recipes using gram measurements, but with 100s of recipes, it will take some time to do this for every recipe. Read Why Gluten Free Flour Blends Vary in Weight to learn more.
Other measuring methods include:
Spoon Method: You can also use a spoon to fill the measuring cup. Use a knife to level the top and remove excess flour.
Leveling Method: Put the measuring scoop into the flour and fill. Do not pack the flour. Use a knife to scrape along the top to remove the extra flour.
Why use Room Temperature Ingredients?
Using room-temperature baking ingredients for your gluten free baking can be important because it helps to ensure that the ingredients mix evenly and create a smooth texture in the finished baked goods. Here are a few reasons why room-temperature ingredients are important in baking:
- Room-temperature ingredients, such as eggs and butter, are easier to mix than ingredients from the refrigerator.
- Yeast and other leavening agents work best when the ingredients they interact with are at room temperature. Cold ingredients slow the rising process, resulting in a denser, heavier baked good.
- Using room-temperature ingredients can help ensure your baked goods turn out consistently from batch to batch. This is because the temperature of your ingredients can affect the outcome of your recipe.
- Room-temperature ingredients can help your baked goods cook faster and more evenly. Cold ingredients can take longer to heat up in the oven, resulting in uneven baking.
If you are egg-free, here are some Egg Replacer Ideas For Gluten Free Baking.
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Gluten Free Yeast Baking Tips:
- Yeast – First, be sure your yeast is gluten free. Red Star Platinum is NOT gluten free. Also, check the expiration date before you use it!
- Water – Use purified water in recipes with yeast. Chlorine and other things in tap water will inhibit the yeast, which means your baked goods will not rise as well.
- Rising – To get your gluten free dough to rise, it needs to be kept warm. Rise your dough in a warm oven. It truly is the best way to rise gluten free dough. Heat your oven to 175º F, then turn it off. Cover your dough loosely with plastic wrap and place it in the warm oven to rise with the oven door cracked open.
- When To Rise The Dough – One of the biggest mistakes I see is when people rise their gluten free dough, then shape it. Then, they notice their dough did not rise. Gluten free baking is very different. With gluten free, you only get one good rise. It is important to shape your dough before the rise! This goes for bread, yeast donuts, rolls, breadsticks, bagels, etc.
If you are making yeast bread, be sure to read my article on Gluten Free Bread Troubleshooting to avoid problems when baking. I also share my favorite pans and tools for making gluten free bread.
Gluten Free Quick Bread Tips:
- In all of my years testing gluten free recipes, I have found mixing the ingredients in mixing bowls, by hand, is the best way to make quick bread, muffins, and cakes. Do not use a standing mixer. It will overmix your batter every time.
- Mix your wet and dry ingredients until just barely combined. It helps keep the pockets of air bubbles, which help ensure you get the fluffiest quick bread.
- If you are using a wet vegetable like shredded zucchini, be sure to squeeze out the extra liquid and then dry it all with a paper towel. This double drying will help you avoid quick bread that is too moist. Try this technique with my Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins and Gluten Free Lemon Zucchini Loaf.
- I always recommend using aluminum-free baking powder for biscuits and all of my baked recipes. It will prevent any metallic aftertaste.
- If you use an inexpensive gluten free flour blend, let the batter sit for 10-15 minutes before baking. This will eliminate the grittiness some gluten free flour blends have because it allows the rice in the flour to soften.
- I will state in my recipe which gluten free flour blends I have tested in that recipe. You will need to add one teaspoon if you use a flour blend that doesn’t contain xanthan gum or guar gum. This is the magic that holds your gluten free baked goods together.
Read more about How to Store Gluten Free Bread. Gluten-free products spoil more quickly because they do not have preservatives, making it important to store them properly.
Gluten Free Cookie Baking Tips:
I am a huge cookie lover. If you love to bake cookies, use these tips so that your gluten free cookies turn out perfectly every time. I also have more tips in my Gluten-Free Cookie Troubleshooting Guide.
- Use room-temperature butter and eggs. I know that it sounds crazy to use butter and eggs at room temperature, but it dramatically affects how your cookies will turn out. You’ll thank yourself later if you try it.
- Chill the dough when possible. I know you are probably ready to eat your cookies right now, but taking a few minutes to chill the batter makes them less likely to spread.
- Use a cooled
cookie sheet when baking. Please don’t take a hotcookie sheet and put the batter on it, or I promise the cookies won’t turn out. They start baking immediately, and it messes with their shape. Use a couple of sheets and rotate them out when making large batches of cookies. - Don’t let the cookies sit on the pan too long. After baking, only let them sit on the baking sheet for up to 5 minutes. The pan will still be hot and continue baking them otherwise.
If you are new to gluten-free cookie baking, here are some favorite cookie tools that I find helpful.
Gluten Free Cake Baking Tips:
There are a lot of fun ways to ensure your cake turns out well. I have a great Gluten Free Cake Troubleshooting Guide if you run into problems.
- Avoid a gritty texture in your cake. Let your cake batter sit in the pan for 15-20 minutes to soften the rice flour.
- Do not open the oven door while your cake is baking. This can cause your cake to fall in the middle!
- Use the right flour blend for what you are making. I talk a lot about flour blends because each is so different. Try to use the flour blend the recipe creator used for the best results. See my section above about flour blends for more details on which flour blends I trust for cakes.
If you are using a cake mix, try some of these awesome gluten free cake mix hacks to enhance the flavor and texture of your cake.
Sandi says: Do you have any gluten free baking tips that have helped you? Please leave a comment and share so we can all learn to be better gluten free bakers.
I truly hope you enjoy this recipe. I have been testing and creating gluten-free recipes for over 15 years. Creating gluten-free recipes that do not taste gluten-free is my goal for every recipe. Sometimes I only have to test a new recipe a couple of times, and others it takes multiple times. I do this so you get reliable, delicious results every time!
Hi, Making Greek butter cookies gluten free Koulouria with King Arthur Measure for Measure. Baked at both 350 and 375 degrees. Used all butter, then half butter and half coconut oil. Trying to prevent so much spread and also achieve a crunchier cookie. They are cake like and tasty, but what could you suggest to obtain a harder cruchier cookie with less spread? Oh, and I also used half regular flour to ensure rollability of the dough. Thank you!
Hi Pattie, thank you so much for this wonderful cookie idea. As for getting crunchier, adding a tiny bit more flour, chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes, and baking them a little longer could all help.
I can not use rice flour because it has metals in it, and I had heavy metal poisoning before.
Can you recommend a blend that I could make at home?
Thank you for your time,
Barb
Hi Barb, Rice is definitely problematic with the arsenic as well. I have been working on a sorghum/cassava flour blend, but it isn’t quite perfect yet. I will keep testing it this week and see if I can finish it up so you have it to use.
Hi Barb, I wanted to let you know my Gluten-Free Rice-Free Flour Blend is working out well in my recipes. Here is the link to the flour blend recipe: https://www.fearlessdining.com/homemade-gluten-free-flour-blend-recipe-without-rice-flour/
Am I just being blind, or do you not have a Print option for your page?
Hi Annette, I believe the print option for blogs runs through the recipe cards. This post doesn’t have a recipe so there is no print option built on the tech side for this.
Annette, If you are on a computer, simply hit control P and it will pop up a page to print.
Great tip!
I can’t seem to get the Steve’s GF Bread blend in Canada. Can you make a substitute recommendation? As I would like to use it to make the bunny rolls and perhaps some Chabiatta buns.
So far I have had readers tell me Namaste works well, though I do not know if they needed more flour or less. You will want to compare my dough photos to yours. My DIY gluten free flour blend also works well. Cup4Cup works, but you need a lot more flour.
You can purchase Steve’s GF Bread Blend online in Canada from Laura’s.ca. I have purchased from them a couple of times and service/support is great.
I look forward to learning more ways to bake GF. 😊
I can’t wait to hear what you make :-).