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Baking with gluten free multigrain flour

rb75453's picture
rb75453

Baking with gluten free multigrain flour

I was given some gluten free multi grain flour and I want to include some in my next bread.

I want to use it as one third of the total flour. As I see it I have the following choices: 1. Use two thirds bread floor and one third of the gluten free multigrain flour.  2. Use two thirds bread flour, one third multigrain flour and an appropriate amount of vital gluten, say approximately one tablespoon per loaf.  3. Two thirds bread flour, one third gluten free multigrain and xanthan gum, at the rate of .5% of the multigrain flour or psyllium at 1%. I have arrived at these amounts adapting from P.R.'s Bread Revolution.

I welcome any comments or suggestions.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

I would say from the way your question is phrased that you have never baked with GF flour and you are just trying to use it up in your regular baking. This is an opportunity! There is a whole different world of baking out there beyond wheat. By all means add some to existing loaves to learn how it affects your current recipes. Use a recipe that has non-wheat multigrain and it should work fine. GF flours, in small amounts, are great to increase the starchy gel that forms the matrix in the best bread crumb. But, like any flour, there are tricks/techniques that bring out the best in the final loaf.

Here are some questions you should be asking:

 Is there a nutrient profile you want to add to your bread? (more protein?). Is there a texture you are looking for? Chewy? Cakey? Do you want a loaf? Flat bread? Yeast raised or BS raised like scones or soda bread? How about Brazilian cheese buns made with tapioca flour (not starch)?

What are the ingredients? Just because it is GF does not mean that the ingredients behave identically. Knowing the ingredients may drive any recommendations.GF breads are usually easier to make. They fall into the "Batter Bread" category, usually. I made batter breads when I had hand surgery and couldn't knead for a while. Total deliciousness.

Are there any recipes recommended either by the miller/blender? Is it a particularly ethnic flour? Teff? Corn?

Be adventurous and try a totally GF bread or cake.  Get a feel for the ingredients. Do NOT try to emulate a wheat product or you will be disappointed. Each ingredient behaves well in its own way. What you call a weed, I call a flower.

As far as psyllium,xanthan gum and VWG, all will affect the texture to varying degrees toward denseness or gumminess. I have used psyllium to increase the fiber in some bread but that was the bread I was designing. I generally avoid VWG as I don't care for the chewiness. Personal preference.

SO what bread do you want to design?

 

 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Do you have an ingredient list for the GF blend? Often these blends contain high levels of starches rather than whole-milled flour (usually tapioca starch or maybe corn or arrowroot starch; could be some potato starch). The rest could be mostly rice flour (hopefully brown or 'whole' rice rather than white rice, if it is a GF whole grain blend) and anything from oat, sorghum or amaranth, to something like teff. And they will all add something different and behave in different ways.

There might also be xanthan gum or psyllium husk in it already, if it is a baking mix rather than just GF flour.

Personally, I would add a bit less of the mix (say, no more than 25%) to the bread flour (wheat flour) and nothing else (i.e. no gum or psyllium husk), and see how it turns out before you experiment any further.

You could also try some GF recipes to see how you like the taste of the blend before you add it to your bread. Check out Cloud 9 for some ideas (though they make their own baking / flour mix that might be different from yours). Maybe make biscuits or something that will highlight the taste.

rb75453's picture
rb75453

Thank you both for your comments and advice. Regarding the mix, I was told that it was a mix of gluten free grain flour. I assume that if it was a gluten free substitute for wheat flour she would have told me so. But I do no know for sure and am getting in touch with my friend to ask. What I had in mind was using it to add flavor to white bread.

After concerding the advice from you and clazar123 I have decided to try a white bread with 25 percent of the multigrain flour and pancakes perhaps followed by scones.