Travelling to Canada has been an eye-opener for me in terms of gluten-free cooking.  I guess I got a little complacent with a really good gluten-free all purpose flour blend that I could get from Aldi Food Stores in Australia.  I bought a big bag of GF flour the first day I was here, and then proceeded to make very crumbly muffins and cookies for the next few days, even with added xanthan gum.  So I went back to the good ol’ internet and looked up potential other gluten free blends.  I had my standard blend of rice flour / tapioca starch /potato starch / xanthan gum that I used extensively in Chile (conversion here), but wondered if there were any other potential ones.

We often found the above blend to produce rather ‘grainy’ textures, and found a link to a flour blend that used brown rice flour, rather than white rice flour.  In Australia, it’s a little more difficult to get brown rice flour, so I haven’t bothered (and because the Aldi flour blend is so good!).  But here in Canada, we were able to get brown and white rice flour as well as a lot of other starches and other types of flours.  And here begins the experiment.

I made a batch of double chocolate chip cookies (loosely adapted from this recipe), half with brown rice flour and half with white rice flour.  Exactly the same proportions and other ingredients.  And then asked the extended family to tell me which one tasted either better or more grainy.  Out of the 8 people that tested the recipe, none of them could taste any difference.  But then again, this recipe may not have tasted grainy previously either … so I’ll just have to try this again with a different recipe.

On the left is the cookie made with brown rice flour, on the right with white rice flour.  No difference in appearance, texture or taste!

I’d love to hear any suggestions you guys may have with regards to making your own gluten-free flour blends.  Just comment in the section below!  And any other experiments you’d like me to try while I’m on vacation, have full access to the kitchen (with an awesome Kitchen-Aid mixer and food processor) and a bit more time on my hands!

I’m looking forward to hearing from you all …

Until next time – enjoy cooking at home,

Sarah