Gluten Free Flours

GF Flour:

This comes from a recipe in Bette Hagman's Cook Book for GF Flour. I use this flour in combination with brown rice flour and/or cornstarch for most things.

I buy 25lb bags in bulk through the Good Earth and store the flours separately in 5 gal. food storage buckets. I mix the flour up in a large batch and keep a smaller tupperware bucket in my kitchen with all my other baking supplies for ease of use. I would avoid buying flours out of the bulk section since there is so much cross contamination. My brown rice flour I bought in the bulk section at the Good Earth always makes me sick so I need to give in and order a whole 25lb bag.

UnFlour:

This comes from a cook book I found at the GF Expo and love. Its called "Irresistibly Gluten Free".  The waffles are divine. The flour combines cornstarch with two other flours. I highly recommend buying this book.

All Purpose Flour by Authentic Foods:

My mom uses this one the most. I haven't really experimented with it much since the recipes I make the most call for GF flour but it is great for quick on the hand ready to go for any recipe. It may need more flour than what is called for in the recipe.

Thickening Soups and Gravies:

Before being diagnosed with celiac I didn't have to do to much to make gravy since there are gravy packets and cream of chicken soup, but now you'll have to make it from scratch so here are my recommendations.

- For making a bechamel sauce (buttter, flour, milk) I use rice flour, this makes a great soup base. If you need some tips on how to make this Alton Brown has a video of chicken curry pot pie and he makes his own cream sauce. I use the same technique and use different seasoning depending on what I am making.

- For thickening gravies or sauces I mix a Tablespoon or so with a Tablespoon or more of water to make a slurry and then add it in to the sauce. You have to boil it in order to activate the thickening process so if you are thickening something with milk in it be careful because boiling can cause your milk to curdle.