Fourths Flour

I'm working on a post about the new gluten-free rice sourdough I've been working with, but I keep wanting to try one more thing with it before I hit "publish". So, I figure I will write about something I feel like I have already perfected - at least enough for me to be happy with it. "Fourths Flour" is my alternative for expensive, icky tasting AP gluten-free flour mixes. It works 1=1 as a replacement for wheat flour with everything I have tried. I do usually add an extra egg when cooking gluten-free recipes since I don't use Xanthan gum.

There are a few things things I love about this mix. One, it is the tastiest flour mix ever. I like to taste batter as I play with it or make new things and one thing I cannot stand is beany batter. The taste of bean flour in my batter makes me want to throw it out the window rather than cook it and if I am trying to adjust for the sweetness of a muffin I might have to taste that crap 2-3 times and it does not make me a happy cooker.

The second thing I love is the texture. Nothing I have cooked using this mix has turned out dry or grainy or pasty. My husband is full-on texture sensitive and he said the banana bread I made with this flour was the best he had ever had. It raises nicely in breads and creates that crispy crust we all like on the outside. In bare naked biscuits it still holds together and works like wheat flour.

Thirdly - price. I save a lot of money by adding in the inexpensive oat flour that I make myself by processing conventional oats into powder in my food processor. If you are celiac of course you will need to buy gluten-free oats which are more expensive, but you should still end up paying less than $4 per "bag" for this superior flour mix with no bean fillers in it.

Fourths Flour
4 equal parts:
oat flour
almond flour
white rice flour
tapioca flour

I make mine in big batches that use a whole bag of almond flour and almost a whole bag of the rice and tapioca plus 4 cups of oat flour. I mix it all up in a big bowl and then store it in a big tupperware container in the fridge. Frontier sells a nice 5 lb flour keeper that would work well for this, or you could probably find one at any kitchen goodies store.

If you don't cook much, just use this ratio when you are baking something. If a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, just use 1/2 cup of each of these flours.

I hope you give this a try and let me know how well it works for you!