Nut free, gum free, soy free, whole grain, gluten-free flour! Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend is made with only four ingredients, brown rice flour, potato starch, sweet rice flour and coconut flour! Nothing scary or unusual, just ingredients you are already using in your kitchen.
I began creating recipes for my family when it took longer to search for a recipe that fit our restrictions than it did to craft my own recipes.
There is a myriad of gluten-free flour blends available so what is different about Melanie’s Gluten Free Flour Blend?
My flour blend is crafted to be used without xanthan or any other gum! I would rather engineer a recipe to work with whole food flours than engineer my flour to work with an existing recipe.
Why not use gums?
Xanthan gum and guar gum are generally recognized as safe by the USDA (1) meaning they are safe to consume. But before you jump on that bandwagon and start baking with them here are a few things to consider.
Both xanthan (2) and guar gum (3) are said to cause digestive upset producing nausea, diarrhea, and gas. Isn’t that what we are trying to get away from by eating gluten free?
Xanthan gum is often derived from corn or other grains (4) which may be hard on sensitive tummies.
Guar gum shares the same protein as soy. Have you been careful to avoid soy or have a soy allergy? Guar gum can also be contaminated with enough soy to produce an allergic reaction (5).
At least one of these gums are found in the majority of commercial flour blends, packaged foods and baked gluten free treats and bread. It is tricky to find recipes that give you the look and mouth-feel of the foods you remember without a gum present.
Gums feel like a kick in the gut.
My experience with xanthan and guar gum is similar to swallowing razor blades. Even the small amount found in coconut ice cream or yogurt feels like I just ran my gut through a paper shredder.
I do not have an allergic response to corn or soy on my food allergy test, but I can feel intense pain after eating these additives. I also know many others that have had the same experience, which is why I won’t use it in my recipes.
We are working hard to heal our gut, and no bread is worth the pain that these gums cause. That is why it is so important to me to create recipes that heal, nourish and do not hurt out tummies. And guess what? It is possible to bake delicious bread, cookies and other treats without these gums!
Real food flours
Brown rice flour is the base of my flour blend. Made from whole rice kernels makes it a whole grain flour. I have experimented with both white and brown rice flour and love the soft texture I get from brown rice. It also imparts more flavor and added nutrition.
Potato starch is nothing more than the starch from potatoes. I prefer using foods as a whole whenever possible, but in gluten-free baking, we need some added starch to help hold everything together. Potato starch can be extracted in your kitchen meaning that it is one of the least processed starches available. For our family, it is by far the easiest to digest without upset.
Sweet rice flour helps bind the ingredients together thanks to its very sticky nature. When you eliminate gluten, you lose that part of the flour that helps hold everything together. This unique rice makes up a very small amount of Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend and sticks nicely.
Coconut flour is high in fiber making it very absorbent. Rice flours need heat for the cuticle to open and absorb moisture. Coconut flour helps keep your baked goodies moist which reduces the dreaded gluten-free crumbles.
What can you bake with Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend?
Everything! Bread, muffins, pies, cookies, brownies, and cake, yum! Many people have successfully used Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend as a 1:1 substitute for wheat flour. I usually start there and then modify the recipe until I have the perfect taste and texture.
Like I said earlier, I would rather change the recipe to be suitable for my flour blend then use modified food starches and gums to mimic wheat flour. When we removed gluten, we committed to a new way of living that nourishes our bodies and heals our gut.
That doesn’t mean that birthdays and dinner with friends is a free-for-all with a gluten hangover the next day. It means that whatever treat we indulge in needs to be kind to our body.
Here’s the amazing thing, we can protect our body without sacrificing the taste and texture we grew up loving. We simply have to approach the recipes with an open mind and stop trying to turn gluten-free flours into wheat flour.
Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend is budget friendly
Commercial gluten free flour blends cost $3-$7 a pound, my flour blend can be mixes up for only $1.50-$3 a pound. I average $1.50-$2 a pound by buying in bulk and mixing up a five gallon bucket of flour at a time. It keeps well in the bucket and is ready to go whenever I want to bake.
This week I was testing my yeast bread recipe. It is full of nutrient-rich and whole food ingredients. I expected it to cost $3-$4 a loaf for this nourishing treat. I broke down the cost for every teaspoon and cup I use. As I write this article (June 2018) I can bake a loaf of nut free, gum free, soy free, whole grain, gluten-free bread with store bought ingredients for $2.50!
Pause there for a minute…I baked a delicious, nutrient-rich loaf of gluten free bread without any strange ingredients using Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend for $2.50 a loaf!
The first loaf of gluten free bread that I ever baked was dense, eggy and strange. And it cost me $8 a loaf. The bread didn’t really rise, so we had tiny slabs of crumbly, eggy stuff. It gave us a small sense of normalcy, but at $8 a loaf, I can tell you it didn’t happen often.
Now I can bake bread, muffins, pies, cookies, brownies, and cake with ingredients I feel good about for a price I can afford.
I used to sell my flour blend recipe, and many people have said it is worth at least $30. It is the base of all of my baked goodies which means when you start using Melanie’s Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend you have an arsenal of recipes ready to use without keeping multiple blends in your pantry. And now you can download the recipe for FREE!
