Gluten-Free flours can be hard to work with. It is difficult to make them replace wheat, especially in breads, because of the lack of gluten. Wheat, rye, and barley all contained gluten and therefore cannot be used. Most of these flours can be ‘exchanged’ with another if you don’t have that flour available. Oats are sometimes contaminated with gluten, but if they can be found gluten-free, they can be useful in gluten-free cooking. Below is a chart of all the flours I commonly use and what they do in a mixture:
| Flour: | About: | Texture: | Substitutes: |
| Rice Flour | Rice flour, next to oat flour, are the two flours I use most in gluten-free cooking. It can sometimes have a rather gritty taste, however, so must be used with starches. It is useful in most gluten-free recipes and can be found fairly easily gluten-free. Brands we use are: Lundberg, Bob’s Red Mill. If you have a grinder of some sort, you can make your own flour by grinding gluten-free rice. | gritty | Can be exchanged with corn flour, sorghum flour, and oat flour. |
| Corn flour | I do not use this flour very often, yet it can sometimes substitute for rice flour if I don’t have any at the time. | gritty | Can be exchanged with any of the ‘gritty’ flours. |
| Cornmeal | This is not really a flour. I use it for cornbreads and for the surface of a pan (Cornmeal on the surface of the pan will cook into the dough and give it a nice crunchy crust). It can be ground to make corn flour as well. Gluten-Free cornmeal can usually be found at the local grocery store, just be sure to check the label. | very gritty. | Cannot be exchanged. |
| Oat flour | Oat flour is one of my favorite flours. It has a nice consistency and makes very good baked goods. I have lately been using oat flour quite a lot because it seems to work better than most other gluten-free flours. | gritty | Can be exchanged with millet flour, rice flour, or sorghum flour. |
| Buckwheat flour | I don’t use this flour very often because of its coloring, yet it has a good taste and could replace rice flour. Again, be careful about the gluten, and be sure to thoroughly check the label. | gritty | Cannot be exchanged |
| Cornstarch | I use cornstarch the most of all the starches, simply because it can be found easily at the local grocery store. Be sure to check the label for gluten-free. Though commonly used as a thickener, cornstarch surprisingly makes a fairly good gluten-free flour, and may even be used by itself in some recipes. It adds a nice, fluffy consistency. | starchy and fluffy. | Can be exchanged with tapioca or potato starch in gluten-free baking unless stated clearly otherwise in the recipe, but it cannot be replaced in sauces, and in some pies. Tapioca and potato starch will form gummy lumps, whereas cornstarch will only thicken a sauce. |
| Potato starch | Potato starch can create a rather gummy consistency if it is used alone in a recipe. However, mixed with rice flour or some grainy flour it adds pleasant fluff. | Starchy, (difficult to distinguish between cornstarch and tapioca.) | Can be exchanged with cornstarch or tapioca starch except in sauces and sometimes pies. |
| Tapioca starch | Tapioca starch is commonly used with potato starch in recipes. It, like potato starch, does not stand well on its own in a recipe. | starchy | Can be exchanged with potato starch or cornstarch except in sauces and sometimes pies. |
| Sorghum flour | Sorghum has a good flavor, and can replace several of the other gritty flours. It tastes good in breads. | gritty | Can be replaced with rice flour, oat flour, or millet flour. |
| Millet flour | Has good flavor, and a consistency rather like cornflour. It could replace several of the other gritty flours. | gritty | Can be replaced with sorghum flour, corn flour, or rice flour. |
| Teff flour | Teff flour should only be used in small quantity because of it’s color and that too much of it will give a rather bad taste to the baked good. It has a nice taste when used in moderation and gives a rather multigrain flavor to most breads. | gritty | This flour can be replaced by rice flour, meaning the rise and consistency will not be changed. The taste and color, however, will be slightly changed, though not usually in a bad way. |
