It has been an interesting experiment figuring out the wheat-free side of our baking. I call it an experiment because we are constantly reevaluating and reworking our recipes and techniques. When we first began we used Bob’s Red Mill basic gluten free flour mix. I wasn’t particularly happy with the way it baked but it was a better option than, I don’t know, not having anything. Confident, as I was, I figured I could make a better mix. So I studied the individual flours that were gluten free, did a betadine test for starch comparisons and tasted each flour, raw and uncooked. That was all true by the way. I really did those things.

Our first mix contained several flours: quinoa, sweet white sorghum, oat, tapioca, arrowroot, and garbanzo/fava bean. We even used Bob’s Red Mill flour mix as a base. The only flour they used that we didn’t was potato. That technically gave us a seven flour mix. However, the sorghum flour and the potato flour/starch was grainy. And the garbanzo/fava bean flour had a uniquely floral aftertaste that meant we couldn’t make anything delicate such as butter/sugar cookies. So eventually we updated our mix, omitting those three.

A few of our customers explained how their condition included oats. Oats do not naturally have gluten but are often grown in fields adjacent to heavy gluten producing plants and they are also frequently milled on the same equipment as wheat or barley (famous gluten producers!) So most people diagnosed with gluten allergies tend to stay away from oats for those reasons. Thankfully we have Bob’s which mills oats in their gluten free factory. According to their website they purchase their oats from dedicated farms.

Yet some of our customers were noting that oats, at the molecular level, are structured in a very similar way to gluten. And it was this structuring that caused them problems. So we removed the oat flour all together. We opted instead for a much more simple, dare I say refined, mix of millet flour, tapioca and arrowroot. All the while people had been telling us about one mix or another that utilized rice flour. Be it white rice or brown rice flour I remained unwilling to use it. When initially researching gluten and celiac I learned that rice flour contains gluten. Most celiac sufferers are intolerant of gliadin, the form of glutenin found in wheat, barley and so on. Rice flour had a form of the protein called prolamine. Fewer people had reactions to this form of gluten but it’s not unheard of. However, since we opened just over a year ago, I have not run into a single person that has complained of a sensitivity to rice flour. And being as how our kitchen produces both wheat and wheat-free products, I’m guessing anyone that allergic won’t be able to have anything we make, regardless. Therefore, after much huffing and puffing, it looks like our wheat-free flour mix will be changing once again to incorporate rice flour. This should increase both the flavor and texture of our products! Which should be good news if you like better tasting and better eating foods!