Gluten Free Baking Tricks

- Use a combination of gluten-free flours that create a flour that will bind together, be as elastic as possible, be as moist as possible, and will hold in gas bubbles that form during the baking process.  The most commonly used combination for baked goods is rice flour (for bulk,) tapioca flour (for elasticity,) corn starch (for binding,) and potato starch (for retaining moisture.)

Source: Against the Grain Gourmet

- Not all gluten-free flours weigh the same for an equal volume of flour, and even among gluten-free flours (for example, tapioca flour,) the same flour can weigh different amounts depending upon the supplier, where the source was grown, and in the case of many flours, the season of the year in which it was grown.  To compensate for this, one should weigh all the ingredients used in a recipe rather than basing a recipe on volume amounts.  As shown in the following list, there is a lot of variability.

The weight for each dry cup (8 oz.) followed by grams: all purpose traditional wheat flour - 4.6 oz., 130 gr. amaranath - 3.9 oz., 110 gr. arrowroot starch - 4.1 oz., 118 gr. brown rice flour - 4.4 oz., 125 gr. buckwheat flour - 4.5 oz., 130 gr. chick pea flour - 4.0 oz., 110 gr. corn flour - 4.5 oz., 128 gr. cornmeal - 5.0 oz., 140 gr. cornstarch - 4.4 oz., 125 gr. millet flour - 4.8 oz., 135 gr. potato starch - 5.5 oz., 155 gr. quinoa flour - 4.4 oz., 125 gr. rice flour - 5.3 oz., 150 gr. sorghum flour - 4.6 oz., 132 gr. sweet rice flour - 5.0 oz., 140 gr.  tapioca starch - 4.4 oz., 125 gr. teff flour - 5.0 oz., 140 gr.

- Use ingredients that simulate the elasticity of gluten, including xantham gum, guar gum, gelatin, and even mozzarella cheese, as the folks do at Against the Grain Gourmet, one of the cheesiest bread makers in the world (aka my parents.)