Steps to Convert a Recipe to Gluten-Free
Gluten is a protein composite of wheat related food products. It is also found in rye and barley. It may cause celiac diseases and allergy problems for some people, make it inevitable for them to avoid gluten in their food. Making a recipe gluten-free will not sacrifice much of the taste but it may become difficult to prepare the recipe.
You are not going to experience a lot of problem while you are making a recipe gluten-free. It’s always difficult in the start, but once you know the key steps for this particular process, you will not even need this particular page for further guidance.
Scroll down and learn how to make a recipe gluten-free. It is only a four-step process which you need to understand.
Instructions
-
1
In many baking recipes, flour is an inevitable ingredient. If that is the case, use all-purpose gluten-free flour instead of regular flour. In the recipe, quantity of gluten-free flour should be same as the substituted regular flour. Numerous brands of gluten-free flour are readily available in the market.
Since the flour you are using is gluten-free, you may face difficulty in recipes that involve baking because the ingredients may not stick to each other. Use 1 table xanthan gum to overcome this problem. Xanthan gum provides ‘stickness’ for other ingredients that otherwise would have been provided by gluten. -
2
It may be possible for you to eliminate flour as an ingredient from certain recipes. For instance, you can eliminate flour as an ingredient while making peanut butter cookies by trying this recipe instead of the regular recipe; thoroughly blend together 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar and 1 to 2 eggs in a bowl. Bake the contents of the bowl at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
Image courtesy: 5dollardinners.com
-
3
Prepare a mixture of 3 parts white or brown rice flour, 2 parts potato starch and 1 part tapioca flour. This mixture has no gluten content and can be used as a replacement for flour in most recipes. To make the ingredients stick to each other, use xanthan gum. In case you are facing difficulty finding xanthan gum in the market, you can use arrowroot powder instead.
Here a question arises. How much xanthan gum or arrowroot powder, whatever you are using, should be added to a recipe? For every 1 ½ cup of flour substitute mixture used in a recipe, you need to add 1 tablespoon xanthan gum. As for arrowroot powder, for 1 cup of flour substitute mixture used in a recipe, add ½ teaspoon of arrowroot powder.
Image courtesy: diabeticlivingonline.com
-
4
When switching to a gluten-free diet, you will need to experiment with ingredients at the start. You may have to add baking powder to certain recipes if you are not using flour. Similarly, you may have to vary the level of liquid ingredients if you are making a recipe gluten-free. You may ruin a few servings but eventually you will be able to come up with the right combination.
