13 Great Gluten-Free Baking Tips

Gluten-free baking can be a challenge, but these helpful gluten-free baking tips will make your more confident in your gluten-free kitchen.

Whether you have celiac disease or are off gluten for other health reasons (like sensitivity, an autoimmune disease, or other reasons), you know that baking with gluten-free flours can be a bit of a challenge.

From figuring out what flours to use, to wondering about gums, leavening, and starches, gluten-free baking does require some know-how.

Why We Went Gluten-Free

My family went gluten-free years ago when our son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is a form of autism and there's a lot of evidence that a gluten and casein-free diet can help those with that condition. (source)

We definitely noticed improvement upon removing gluten from his diet (he already was dairy-free since infancy due to a life-threatening allergy to dairy.)

I'm not going to lie; going gluten-free was tough. I'd been a whole grain baking “maven”, with a whole wheat bread in my repertoire that a baker's daughter told me I could easily make a lot of money with. However, with these gluten-free tips, baking has continued to be a pleasure.

I hope you'll feel the same way.

Gluten-Free Baking Tips 

1.  Increase Leavening Agents

When adapting a recipe to make it gluten-free, increase the amount of baking powder and baking soda by 25%. The quick way to calculate this is to take the amount called for and multiply it by 1.25.

2.  Bake Smaller Sizes

Since gluten-free baked goods tend to crumble easily, making all baked goods smaller tends to improve their quality and keep them “sticking together” more. Think mini cookies, mini muffins, and mini loaves of bread.

3.  Blend Different Flours Together

Just as with alternative sweeteners, it is best to use more than one flour when making gluten-free baked goods.  It helps prevent just one flavor or texture from dominating the final product and also helps with texture.

I tend to use about 1/2 sweet brown rice and then make up the rest with whatever flours I have on hand (typically that's buckwheat, brown rice, amaranth, and millet.) I really do love using homemade oat flour in almost all of my gluten-free baking, however, due to the lovely flavor and texture it adds.

4.  Add Starch

This is one tip I share with hesitancy.  I personally almost never use starches in my baking since we deal with digestive issues (including gut dysbiosis, which is just too much bad bacteria and not enough good.)

Anyway, most gluten-free baking “connoisseurs” recommend using a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of starch to whole grain when baking to give the baked goods a fluffy texture reminiscent of baking with all-purpose flour.

For me, our intestinal health is more important than having the perfect baked good around so I prefer to bake only using whole grains.

The only exception is when I am baking cupcakes or cakes, particularly when making them for others and the “sagging in the middle” thing is a concern.  Then I will go “light” on the starch and maybe use a 1:3 ratio of whole grain to starch.

5.  Add Sticky Ingredients

Gluten is the part of wheat that gives it its “stickiness”.  So when you bake gluten-free, by definition, you are going to have a “less sticky” final result.

There are some things you can add to make up for some of that “stickiness.”

Sweet Rice

I use brown sweet rice flour for about half of my gluten-free baking mix, with the rest being a mix of whatever I have on hand.  Sweet rice is called glutinous rice (it's the kind used in Japan) and it doesn't have gluten but is a little “sticky.”

Side note – there's been information in the news about arsenic in brown rice. If this is of concern to you, you can buy California rice, which is apparently less of a concern than rice from the southern part of the U.S.  I plan to write more about this in the future, but for now, you can check out this link.

Gums, Gelatin, or Agar

I tend not to use the gums as they can cause digestive upset.  There's even a new study apparently linking infant deaths to xanthan gum.  I haven't looked into this enough yet to know what I think.

However, I really like using gelatin for its health qualities, and I recommend Great Lakes Brand.

• Breads and pizza doughs: Add 1 teaspoon of gum, gelatin, or agar-agar per cup of gluten-free flour used.
• Cakes, muffins, quick breads, cookies and bars: Add 1/2 teaspoon gum, gelatin, or agar-agar per cup of gluten-free flour used (source).

6. Add Protein

Because gluten is a protein (and it's no longer in your gluten-free recipe), adding protein in some form (think egg, protein powder, beans, tofu, yogurt) can help provide needed structure to your gluten-free baked goods.

7.  Don't Waste Mistakes

There is a use for botched kitchen experiments.

You can use savory baked good mistakes for breadcrumbs (just put them in a food processor, run it for a bit, and store the crumbs in the freezer), and sweet baked mistakes can be crumbled toppings.  Both can be used for cereals.  Just top with regular milk, Homemade Coconut Milk, or Homemade Almond Milk and enjoy!

8.  Lower Baking Temperature

Gluten-free baked goods tend to brown more easily so lowering the oven temperature by 25 degrees and baking a little bit longer, if needed, is recommended.

9. Mix Well

When baking with gluten-free flour, try beating the batter longer as this should add structure to the dough. Gluten flour can be over-mixed due to the gluten content, but gluten-free flours tend to perform better when mixed really well.

10. Let the Dough Sit

After mixing the batter/dough, let it sit covered for 10-30 or even 60 min before baking. 30 minutes is the happy medium.No Content

In fact, one reader stated that she let her batter (that contained bean flour) sit for 3 hours and that it made all the difference in her results.

This is called “blooming” by some, but this technique gives the flours and starches time to absorb the liquid as well as soften before baking. Batters also become thicker and doughs firm up using this technique.

Of course, you would have to add leavening agents after this step as otherwise most will not work in the recipe and your resulting product will end up being flat.

11. Add Acid

Acids help with leavening as well as breaking down starches. Try adding 1/2 -1 teaspoon of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, buttermilk, yogurt, or cream of tartar to help your gluten-free baked goods rise and turn out lighter in texture.

12.  Forget Perfection

It's important to remember that you are eating gluten-free for health reasons rather than to be the perfect gluten-free baker. And if you're trying to use whole grains, it's all the more important that you allow yourself some baking slack.

Your recipes might not turn out perfectly well, especially when testing them out, but they will likely still taste OK, so stop tossing things in the trashcan and make them work somehow.

For example, you can often repurpose crumbly baked goods to be part of a homemade pie crust, topping on chocolatea pudding, chia pudding, or ice cream.

13. Use Tested Gluten-free Recipes

I've had a lot of success converting much loved regular recipes to gluten-free recipes, but it doesn't always turn out well. It's easier and best to stick with recipes that you already know should work.

Gluten-Free Flour List

Safe whole grains for gluten-free baking include:

• rice flour
• sorghum flour
• millet flour
• amaranth flour
• oat flour, (note that the one linked to is certified to be gluten-free as many oat products are not) and
• teff flour (a fairly high-protein grain).
• buckwheat
• quinoa

Buckwheat and quinoa are really seeds, but they are grain like and work great for gluten-free baking.

Bean Flours can be used, but I highly recommend using de-gassed beans and then dehydrating and grinding your own–or you might not be (ahem) happy with the results.

Please note, there are a lot of cautions regarding oats. Some gluten-free folks can't tolerate oats.  Others are fine with gluten-free varieties like Bob's Red Mill.  The oats we buy were tested at “gluten-free” levels for years despite not being certified.

For an extensive list of gluten-free flours and their characteristics, check out this post at Beyond Celiac.

Great Gluten-Free Recipes

Ready to use your new Gluten-Free Baking Techniques to make some Gluten-Free Goodies?  How about these.

– Buckwheat Crepes – a super simple flat pancake recipe
–  Baked Oatmeal– a great easy and delicious make-ahead treat
– Baked Cinnamon Doughnuts – a healthy whole-grain treat
– Focaccia Flax Bread – another easy, delicious, and sure-to-please recipe that tastes great with sweet or savory fillings/toppings
– Healthy Drop Biscuits – great for meals or snacks
– Chocolate Chip “Cheesecake”-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes – a healthy filled cupcake recipe
– Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – these are the cookies my boys used to ask for all the time whenever I was in the mood for baking
– Soft Pumpkin Cookies – great taste without all the sugar (and gluten)

Do you have any gluten-free baking tips to share?