“More Tips for Gluten-free Baking” Disclaimer: None of the information provided in these posts should be taken as medical advice. Please consult with your doctor before trying recommendations or if you have concern
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In my last post, I shared some of the tips I discovered while baking with gluten-free (GF) flour blends. We covered some of the extras you can add to help with your baked good’s end result. Here I’m going to continue with more tips. Let’s dive in.
Go back to middle school science class
Remember back in middle or high school when we were taught about chemical reactions by mixing baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice? What did we get? A “volcano” effect of lots of bubbles flowing up and out of the container.
Wanna guess where this works in the gluten-free world? Yup, in baking. I quickly discovered this little trick replaces gluten’s ability to trap those air bubbles and hold onto them, creating that rise in the baked product. My cakes and breads started getting fluffier after trying this childhood experiment. I add about a tablespoon per cup of liquid of lemon juice (or other citrus juice, depending on the recipe) to the batter during the “add the liquids” phase. Yes, you can use vinegar instead; I just don’t like the taste.
Give it an extra stir
Actually, you can give it more than one stir. Not only will your GF baked good tolerate it, it might even benefit from it. With glutenous flours, overmixing in some baked goods can cause the batter to create too much gluten, which makes the product tough. That doesn’t happen in GF baking…unless you stir too vigorously. Take it easy on cake and pancake recipes but feel free to mix a little longer.
Boxed cake mixes recommend beating the mixture on medium high speed for 2 minutes. I discovered that lowering the speed to medium and mixing for 3-4 minutes creates a better GF cake.
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There’s no knead; just let it be
Good news! While the batter will still need to rise, you usually don’t need to knead (no pun intended here) gluten-free bread, because the kneading step in glutenous baking is what develops the gluten (which we don’t have to worry about). However, your GF bread “dough” will look more like a sticky batter and less like a traditional bread dough.
Huh. I’m suddenly realizing why I have zero luck in working with yeast breads. I might have to do some experimenting.
When it comes to looser batters (we’re back to cakes and pancakes/waffles), let the batter sit and rest for at least 10-15 minutes (up to 30 minutes is good, too). This is important! You want that batter to sit and absorb some of the liquid. Why?
Think about rice for a minute. If you bite on a raw piece of rice, it’s hard and (more importantly) gritty. However, when you add boiling water to rice and let it sit for a while, what happens? The grains absorb the water and become fluffier, softer, chewier, and not gritty. This same concept applies to gluten-free batters. I discovered this one by accident, and I’m glad I did.
Lower and slower
I can’t tell you how many brownies and banana and pumpkin breads have come out of my oven not completely cooked in the middle but almost burnt on the edges. It’s frustrating! And eating the partially cooked middle parts is not safe or healthy. How did I fix that?
The same way I work with Scottish shortbread. When making this style of shortbread (whose mixture is crumbly before pressing it in the pan and baking it), you have to bake it at 375° F for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 325° F and bake it for another 45-50 minutes. The lower temperature and longer baking time ensures that the whole product bakes through completely.
Knowing this (because I’ve been making shortbread for over 40 years), I decided to try it with banana bread, which you usually bake at 350° F for about 50-60 minutes. I used the same instructions for shortbread, instead, and my banana bread finally cooked all the way through!
That’s all for today. I’m now really tempted to go bake a cake. Chocolate sounds good right now. Try some of these methods and let me know what you think.
Be safe. Eat safe. And savor life!
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