Alternative flours help

Doing some christmas baking, can't have wheat, trying to expand my flour use. Finding sifted spelt still has a strong flavour not so ideal for things like sugar cookies.

Does anyone have any links to a great website that tells you all about using alternative flours? (like oat, rice, gram, kamut, amaranth and any others, but those are what I have on hand now). I'm looking for something that will point out good combinations of flours, or things like how you might need to cut back or add more fluid for certain flours, or add a better binder, etc.

I know much about what substitutes exist, but google hasn't yet helped me find a site that gives me a tutorial on how to use them all....

Wed. Nov 14, 5:15pm

Maybe try using kamut flour. I've only used it to make bread but I remember thinking that it would be good for sweets since it make the bread tender and almost "cakey" I don't remember the flavor being very strong but it's been a while since I made it.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 6:13 PM

I've had great experiences with brown rice flour in non-dessert recipes. It's got a mild flavor and it works very well in gravies and sauces. At my local grocery store you can buy just a bit of it in bulk. I'm surprised there are no gluten free sites with recommendations for various foods.

Please update us if you do some more experimentation - I'm always up for trying new things.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 6:21 PM

OP here- as an FYI, white rice flour works as well as brown rice flour for gravies. Arrowroot or tapioca works better for doing fruit like glazes and sauces. There are gluten free sites with recipes, but I have a corn allergy and can't do half the recipes. What I was more looking for is somewhere with the baking characteristics of alternative flours....

Kamut has a pretty strong flavour, and while I like using it to make short bread, I don't like it much for things like chocolate chip cookies. I use oat flour in oatmeal cookie recipes, and for about 95% of my baking, I just use spelt in place of wheat. (also for pizzas, pancakes, bread, and muffins)

What I'm really looking for is some kind of 2 parts rice flour to 1 part gram flour to 1 part arrowroot flour kinda thing for making a good light tasting cookie. ESPECIALLY a sugar cookie. I have cookie cutters but can't find a recipe to make light tasting vanilla-y cookies to cut out and decorate a la true christmas fashion.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 8:16 PM

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