Alternative flours

[Jenise]

In December I had to create gluten-free food for one of the guests at our big Christmas dinner. So I now own a bag of Bob's Red Mill GF flour. I actually bought GF bread to make the stuffing for the individual pork roast also required, and then used the flour to thicken the entire batch of marsala-apple gravy. I'd earlier done two gravies, one conventional and one GF, and determined that there wasn't enough taste difference that anyone would detect especially without a conventional reference on the same plate.

And then separately, I picked up a bag of coconut flour. Not sure why--I'm not a baker. But if you don't bring it home you can't learn anything, right?

So just now, I was looking at a recipe from Dave Leite's Culinaria for Rava Dosas--essentially crepes made with semolina, rice and AP flours. As he puts it in the intro, "we never would've thunk that made-from-scratch rava dosas would be doable for weeknight dinners. Guess who was wrong." I don't have any rice flour, but am thinking of subbing some of that coconut flour.

Have any of you ventured out into the world of 'other' flours? Until two months ago my entire existence was pretty much unbleached white and whole wheat flours. I have semolina because I occasionally make pastas and I have a rice or tapioca flour that's exclusively for Chinese turnip cakes, which isn't sweet, it's a dim sum item. But that's it. I was surprised, when shopping for GF flour, at how many options there are.

The only variant flour I ever used was a pecan flour to make tartlette shells.

I like to play with all kinds of flours for baking. Off the top of my head I have bread flour, bleached and unbleached AP flour, different types of whole wheat flour, rye flour, quinoa flour, sorghum flour, coconut flour, buckwheat flour, teff flour, oat flour, soy flour, white pastry flour, whole wheat pastry flour, Indian rice grass flour, mesquite flour, rice flour, corn flour, hazelnut flour, tapioca flour, paleo flour, but no GF flours (only about 7% of people have gluten problems, we don't, and it's expensive).

I find rice flour, particularly the coarser variety, especially good for using on peels. It doesn't absorb water readily and acts like little ball bearings.

And another tip: a little addition of rye flour makes baked products taste and look a little earthier. I put a spoon of rye in scones, pancakes, waffles, etc.

Mesquite flour? What do you do with that... bake tequila cookies?

LOL. Mesquite flour is made from dried and ground seed pods of the mesquite tree. It's high protein, low glycemic, and GF. The color is brownish and it has a slightly sweet and nutty taste. Unfortunately, it's rather expensive so I have only a few ounces for use as an additive to baked goods.

I think I'll have a shot of tequila now; I have a couple of reposados, a blanco, and maybe an anejo somewhere of different brands. Here's to you. Salud!

And paleo flour? Little bits of ground-up caveman?

[Robin Garr]

And paleo flour? Little bits of ground-up caveman?

I have made some Chinese dim sum fried dumplings that use a glutinous rice flour dough for the wrappers.

I have a bag of Bob's Red Mill teff flour and once the weather warms up I'm going to try to make injeera out of it. Bob's GF flour is rice-based.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Bob's GF flour is rice-based.

Plus chick pea and at least one other, I think.