You're here because you want to mix your own DIY gluten-free flour blend that will perform well in "batter" based baked goods, like cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins and scones. I'll happily share the blend I use in my cottage bakery. If you're interested in customizing it, I suggest reading my reasoning for the choices below, and also check out my ultimate flour guide, paired with my hydrocolloid guide for any substitutions.
The Blend
Gluten-Free All-Purpose Batter Blend
Equipment
- 1 digital scale
- 1 Stand Mixer or bowl and whisk
Ingredients
- 250 grams white rice flour
- 150 grams sorghum flour
- 150 grams brown rice flour
- 150 grams potato starch
- 150 grams tapioca starch
- 100 grams cassava flour
- 30 grams xanthan gum
- 20 grams pectin I use the brand Anthony's
Instructions
- Weigh each ingredient and place in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Mix with the whisk attachment for 5 minutes.
- Stored in a labeled Ziploc bag. Write down the earliest expiration date from the flours used for your "best by" date.
- Store in the pantry at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
All of these values have been optimized and calculated by mass. If you'd like to work in volume (cups), you would have to find the density of each flour you choose (found in the nutritional information; each flour component has a different density), and convert to volume. Please read more details as to why you need to weigh ingredients in gluten-free baking.
The Reasoning
Rice flours
Rice flours are great because they are one of the most affordable and easily available gluten-free flours out there. However, you may have heard arguments against rice, the main one being that it contains arsenic, found in the bran and germ. In white rice, those grain layers are removed, but it remains in brown rice. And so in my blend, I have reduced the amount of brown rice flour (using sorghum flour) compared to other commercial blends.
If you'd like to learn more about rice and arsenic, you can this peer reviewed paper: Arsenic in brown rice: do the benefits outweigh the risks?
Starches
Any good commercial mix is going to make use of starches in a gluten-free mix. Starches aren't very nutrient dense, but they do very much help the crumb structure and texture of baked goods. I use tapioca and potato here, but you can certainly use arrowroot starch and even corn starch in small amount, to make a well balanced gluten-free DIY flour blend.
Cassava Flour
I love cassava! I use it in all my blends! It has great water absorption capacity and is also fairly affordable. If you need to replace it due to availability or allergies, I would recommend first potato FLOUR (not starch!) or another high water absorption flour like oat flour or quinoa flour.
Hydrocolloids
Hydrocolloids are a class of molecules that are ESSENTIAL to gluten-free baking. In this blend, they are xanthan gum and pectin. Please read my hydrocolloid guide for substitution best practices.
The commercial blend Better Batter is the only blend I've seen out there that uses pectin, and it is by far my favorite blend. Pectin is a wonderful ingredient in gluten-free baked goods, because when combined with sugar and heat, it forms a gel that stabilizes the crumb. It also adds nutrition in the form of fiber and improves shelf life. You're looking for pure powdered fruit pectin, no sugar added (the brand Fit Lane Nutrition is an example) but know that in a pinch, I've also used brands that use sugar, like Anthony's fruit pectin.
Commercial Blends
Maybe you'd like to try some of my recipes, but do not want to commit to a DIY blend, or you want to bake for a gluten-free friend just once. Here are my recommendations, in order (these are not (yet) affiliate links).
- Better Batter
- King Arthur Measure for Measure with 2% pectin by weight added to your recipe
- Bob Red Mill 1:1 with 2% pectin by weight added to your recipe
- King Arthur Measure for Measure, as is
- Bob Red Mill 1:1, as is
Recipes
Here you will find my most popular recipes that call for this DIY gluten-free flour batter blend.
- Easy Gluten-Free Carrot Muffins With Apples
- Amazing Gluten-Free Cookies and Cream Cupcakes with Oreos
- Gluten-Free Raspberry Cake With Cute Colorful Hearts
- Gluten-Free Blackberry Muffins, Easy and Flavorful
- Easy Gluten-Free Matcha Cookies, an Earthy Treat
- Baked Gluten-Free Apple Cider Donuts, With an Apple Filling
Olen Soifer
I appreciate your logic & your scientific approach to things. But I think your blend is over-complicated, with more ingredients than necessary...and expensive: almost $5.50/lb. It is also...sorry...ridiculously carb-heavy (80+%) & protein-fiber low (5.0+% & 5.8+% respectively). On top of that, though I haven't done the math, I would bet that the protein "complementary"...amino acid ratios between rice & cassava...is not the best, meaning the protein content actually usable is even lower than you show.
I think there is no reason to have 2 rices & 4 high-starch components, when you can replace them with things you can create at home for cheap, resulting in a product with good baking characteristics & much better nutrition: Replace most of those 6 ingredients with sun-flour (from sunflower seeds, ground at home), some protein powder, flax seed meal for omega-3's as well as "vegan egg" characteristics & oat fiber for, obviously, increased non-caloric fiber content. If your blend must contain high starch components, you don't need more that tapioca starch. And, if you insist on rice content, just use home-ground flour starting with medium grain white rice (ie: "sticky" rice such as used for sushi or rissoto, a/k/a "glutinous" rice...does not contain "gluten"). This can be home-ground for $1/lb &, by itself, this rice flour would already have a high level of the sort of sticky/stretchy starches found in potato &, especially, tapioca starch.
As for the hydrocolloids...pectin does not dissolve in cold liquids, so the synergy with the xanthan gum, forming a stretchy gel, isn't occurring until significantly along in the baking process, as opposed to during the kneading & rising period when it is most useful. But, xanthan gum & guar gum (or glucomannan/konjac) do interact & dissolve in cold water. So these are better options for the stretchy gel that is need in bread dough.
As I suggested in another comment, I think that the proper combination of the ingredients I suggest would not only give the proper dough properties...it could even yield a baked product that is a complete meal, nutritionally!
I can't give proper proportions, as I am still experimenting with this...but my gut tells me that I'm "on the right track". If I am right, my blend recipe will cost little more than $1.50/pound.
Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers
Absolutely this blend is starch heavy! Starches are necessary for crumb stabilization. Most commercial mixes you see will have the same amount or more starches. You can definitely experiment making your own DIY mix, I encourage that since we all have different needs. That's the beauty of GF baking in my opinion. But this is the mix I use in my bakery, and I sell mostly cakes. Most people don't eat cake everyday :) My bread blend is 25% starch, but I don't think I can go much lower than that. Prices on all those flours will vary based on location and where you buy them. I found that my local Asian/Indian stores are a treasure trove of starches and flours, but they're not certified GF so I don't use them in my bakery. If you figure out a good blend, report back!
Carmen
Hello!
I would love to try the recipe but I have a couple of questions. You mentioned cassava flour but Bob's Red Mills sells one that says on the label also know as cassava scratch and I'm aware they are different should I stick with the cassava flour or could I use cassava scratch?
Also I found citrus pectin becasuse where I live there aren't many options available there's Certo and it's fruit base. I did some research and I found I need to add an activator if I plan to use the citrus pectin it has to be either calcium while other say lemon juice. Would you have an idea what the ratio will be for calcium? If I use something like lemon would that alter the flavour of my bread?
I saw your articles about hydrocolloids could I replace the pectine for pea protein or can I use xantan gum, pectine and pea protein together?
Thanks!
Naelle @ GlutenFreeDIYers
Hi! I think cassava starch is tapioca starch, which is different than cassava flour yes. You could replace cassava flour with sorghum flour, or oat flour. Citrus pectin should work! Is it powder? I wouldn't activate it, because there'll be acids in the recipes you use it with. I've never worked with pea protein powder, so I'm not sure, but you can definitely try.