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As someone who has spent the last 1.9 years converting all of his recipes from wheat flour to gluten-free for his wife, we’ve gotten a lot better.
That said, it’s almost impossible to make good yeasty bread GF AND have it come out even similar to wheat flour bread in terms of structure, texture, or even size.
One of the biggest problems is that GF flours don’t hold moisture or release it the same way wheat does. They just don’t cook anywhere near the same, which is why most GF breads are much, much smaller than their traditional counterparts. Google Ohmic bread. We’re getting closer.
We've mostly learned to just do recipes that are well-suited to GF cooking. Things where gluten formation is bad. Cake, brownies, muffins, scones*, pancakes, cornbread, etc. For savory type foods, we’ve mostly avoided it except for things like gnocchi, and a few others. My goal is to find a way to do a good puff pastry recipe or brand and do a Wellington at some point.
We did do pizza successfully once and it stood up really well to the wheat flour original recipe I made that night. It’s a different texture altogether and you will never (not without extreme experimentation with custom blends, which we’ve been working on; so let us know if you find something that works) get that same crust. The beauty of Detroit/St Louis/Minnesota/Midwest-style pizza is it tends to be less gluten-heavy to start with and requires by definition less rise. Find a good recipe from that style (many have cornmeal or milk in them) and start there.
I can recommend two books from a friend who gave up wheat. Marie Porter. You’d like her. Beyond Flour and Beyond Flour II. Great recipes, though be forewarned, almost all recipes have custom flour blends and it’s a PITA to keep all in stock at home.
That said, we have found some good in-store products. We've absolutely loved Domata 1:1 (blue and white bag, Hy-Vee). It works for all non-gluten-necessary recipes (better in some cases) than wheat flour. Most 1:1s will be good. DOmata is the best we’ve found. King Arthur has INCREDIBLE GF mixes that are in many cases better than the original wheat blends. Their brownies mix is killer if you sub in some Kahlua for the liquids. Their pancakes are a staple of our relationship. One of the first times I ever cooked for Mrs. dx was KAF pancakes because I panicked and didn’t have anything I could make. We have spiked them with apple cider whiskey for a treat.
*first time today. They turned out ok. I knew the recipe had issues from the start because of the flour:butter ratio and the choice of brown sugar instead of white. We wanted to use bananas and this was the first half decent recipe I could find in five minutes. Easy to build on though.
That said, it’s almost impossible to make good yeasty bread GF AND have it come out even similar to wheat flour bread in terms of structure, texture, or even size.
One of the biggest problems is that GF flours don’t hold moisture or release it the same way wheat does. They just don’t cook anywhere near the same, which is why most GF breads are much, much smaller than their traditional counterparts. Google Ohmic bread. We’re getting closer.
We've mostly learned to just do recipes that are well-suited to GF cooking. Things where gluten formation is bad. Cake, brownies, muffins, scones*, pancakes, cornbread, etc. For savory type foods, we’ve mostly avoided it except for things like gnocchi, and a few others. My goal is to find a way to do a good puff pastry recipe or brand and do a Wellington at some point.
We did do pizza successfully once and it stood up really well to the wheat flour original recipe I made that night. It’s a different texture altogether and you will never (not without extreme experimentation with custom blends, which we’ve been working on; so let us know if you find something that works) get that same crust. The beauty of Detroit/St Louis/Minnesota/Midwest-style pizza is it tends to be less gluten-heavy to start with and requires by definition less rise. Find a good recipe from that style (many have cornmeal or milk in them) and start there.
I can recommend two books from a friend who gave up wheat. Marie Porter. You’d like her. Beyond Flour and Beyond Flour II. Great recipes, though be forewarned, almost all recipes have custom flour blends and it’s a PITA to keep all in stock at home.
That said, we have found some good in-store products. We've absolutely loved Domata 1:1 (blue and white bag, Hy-Vee). It works for all non-gluten-necessary recipes (better in some cases) than wheat flour. Most 1:1s will be good. DOmata is the best we’ve found. King Arthur has INCREDIBLE GF mixes that are in many cases better than the original wheat blends. Their brownies mix is killer if you sub in some Kahlua for the liquids. Their pancakes are a staple of our relationship. One of the first times I ever cooked for Mrs. dx was KAF pancakes because I panicked and didn’t have anything I could make. We have spiked them with apple cider whiskey for a treat.
*first time today. They turned out ok. I knew the recipe had issues from the start because of the flour:butter ratio and the choice of brown sugar instead of white. We wanted to use bananas and this was the first half decent recipe I could find in five minutes. Easy to build on though.
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