Sweet Rice Flour Blend
Editor's note: Use this Sweet Rice Flour Blend to make Carol Kiciski's Red Velvet Whoopie Pies .
No single flour can replace wheat flour in gluten-free baking. Gluten is a sticky protein found in wheat, rye, barley and other grains. It is what makes pizza dough stretchy, cakes rise, and baked goods hold together. Gluten-free flours need to be combined with starches and gums in order to react the same way that wheat flour does. Most gluten-free cooking and baking failures occur when the flour blend they are using does not contain enough starch and gum additives to make up for the lack of sticking power found in gluten. When I first went gluten-free I shied away from traditional baking because it seemed like too much trouble to combine various flours. I soon found that in reality it takes only a few short minutes to mix up a batch of gluten-free flour blend.
After much trial and error I finally came up with a flour blend that works perfectly in gluten-free baking. This is my preferred flour mix and can be substituted for wheat flour cup for cup. You are going to love this flour mixture. Believe me when I say no one can tell the final product is gluten-free. I taste tested this flour blend on many, many people who customarily eat wheat and quite a few who shy away from alternative foods. The comments were unanimously very positive; people either could not tell the desserts were gluten-free or in fact preferred the dishes to those prepared with wheat flour.
I make up a batch of this flour blend and store it in a canister so it is always on hand when the mood to bake strikes me. You can also store it in a large plastic storage bag in the freezer.
This sweet rice flour blend is so fine it does not need to be sifted before use.
