With holiday baking just around the corner, you may be wondering about the right gluten free flour to bake with. Fortunately for gluten free bakers, there are now a few good options to choose from.

First, there is the option is to make your own gluten free baking mix. This involves mixing specific ratios of 2 or more different gluten free flours together along with a starch to make the mix. Making your own mix may be the most economical option. However, not everyone has the time to weigh out and mix multiple flours together for this purpose.

Besides homemade mixes, there are commercial gluten free all purpose flour mixes to meet most baking needs. These are very satisfactory options for many recipes. All purpose flour mixes are good for recipes using yeast or baking powder/baking soda for the leavening. In most cases you will also need to use Xanthan gum. Xanthan gum helps  bind together  dough or batter for best texture.

Several years ago cup for cup flours were developed as another gluten free baking option. Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Baking Flour or King Arthur’s Measure for Measure, are examples of the newer flour mixes. You can substitute “cup for cup” flour in place of the regular flour in a traditional recipe. Now you can make Grandma’s favorite holiday cookie recipe using the cup for cup flour. The cup for cup flours already have the Xanthan gum added. This flour mix works best with recipes using baking powder or baking soda.

Gluten Free Muffins

I was a bit skeptical of the cup for cup flour, however I tried it with two of my favorite  traditional recipes: a fruit cobbler biscuit topping and pumpkin muffins. The results were very good! For yeast breads or homemade pizza doughs, I will stick to the all purpose mixes or homemade flour mixes.

Your choice of gluten free flour mix comes down to taste preference and what you plan to bake. Happy holiday baking!