DIY Gum Free Low FODMAP Gluten-Free Flour Blend
In our Test Kitchen we rely on a commercially available low FODMAP gluten-free flour blend as we appreciate the convenience and know that if you use our recommended choices, that you will get reliable results.
That said, we know that many of you want to DIY and prefer a blend without any gums. This is our Gum Free Low FODMAP Gluten-Free Flour Blend, which is easy to make and that we know you will enjoy.
A Simple Blend
We have deliberately kept this flour blend very simple, with few ingredients, but your choice of ingredients makes a huge difference. Especially when it comes to rice flour.
Label Reading
If you have been eating gluten-free for a while and/or if you are a label reader you have probably noticed that rice flour, both white and brown, figure heavily into many GF blends and GF foods.
But one rice flour is not necessarily like every other. If you read what GF bloggers and bakers are saying, many praise the quality of Authentic Foods Superfine Brown Rice Flour in particular.
Many companies say their brown rice flour is “super” fine or “extra” fine” but Authentic Foods version is actually finer than the rest. You can even tell by feel. This very fine raw texture translates to a very fine crumb in finished baked products.
The gritty texture that some rice flours leave behind is absent.
Choose Your Ingredients Wisely
So, I do call for rice flours in our house blends and depending on your choice of your rice flour, the results are going to be varied. I like the Authentic Foods Superfine Brown Rice Flour very much.
Unfortunately it is not as easy to find in brick and mortar stores where I live, so I have to plan ahead and purchase it online. I recommend that you try this recipe with the products suggested for best results.
According to Authentic Foods
I spoke with Aaron Rice, Vice President of the company – but as he said, he “does a little bit of everything”. And yes, Rice is his last name! He was very helpful and answered many questions, including offering a description of what their “AF Fiber Blend” consists of, so that we could determine whether it was low FODMAP.
This fiber blend is used in two of their newer blends.
Special Rice, Special Process – Premium Results
Aaron explained that the rice used in their packaged rice flour and their flour blends is a special variety (their source is in northern California) that they have been using since 1992. His company has studied the properties of rice flour in GF baking and have a proprietary approach for processing the rice, which creates desirable properties in the resulting flour – particularly in how it absorbs and interacts with moisture.
If you have Authentic Foods Superfine Rice Flour on hand and another brand, from Arrowhead Mills for instance, you will see that there is a tangible difference in texture and grittiness.
More DIY Flour & Info
If you are looking for a DIY blend that does contain gums, try our FODMAP Everyday® All-Purpose Low FODMAP Gluten-Free Flour, which mimics Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour and does contain xanthan gum.
If you are interesting in reading about gums, check out our Are Xanthan Gum & Guar Gum Low FODMAP?
Want to read more about choosing low FODMAP Flours? We have an article.
This recipe is meant to be similar to Authentic Foods GF Classical Blend.
If you enjoy reading about flour comparisons in detail, check out Annalise Roberts’ blog, My Gluten Free Table.
Gum Free Low FODMAP Gluten-Free Flour Blend
This is our DIY Gum Free Low FODMAP Gluten-Free Flour Blend. Use it as an all-purpose flour in your low FODMAP baking and cooking.
Low FODMAP Serving Size Info: Makes about 3 cups (488 g); servings size is ½ cup (81 g)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (320 g) Authentic Foods Superfine Brown Rice Flour
- 2/3 cup (128 g) potato starch (not potato flour)
- 1/3 cup (40 g) tapioca flour or tapioca starch
Preparation:
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Simply whisk the ingredients together very well. Store at cool room temperature in an airtight jar.
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Whisk again before measuring to use in recipes. Use within 3 months.
Notes:
Tips
- Brands of rice flour vary considerably in taste and texture and even color. I highly recommend using the brands listed for the best results.
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more. For a more detailed explanation, please read our article Understanding The Nutrition Panel Within Our Recipes.
I need to avoid the nightshades so is there any substitute for potato starch? Thanks in advance
Potato starch is very soft and somewhat more similar to cornstarch and tapioca flour. That said, any substitution will change the effects of the blend, for which I cannot vouch. We hope you are working with a registered dietitian, RD or RDN. Here is an article discussing science-based research on nightshades. Of course, if you have done elimination studies on yourself and know some or all nightshades are an issue, by all means take charge of your health and we hope we are there to aid you in your journey.
I originally came here looking for a Low FODMAP recipe, however… I add a little almond flour to this and anthem gum and you have THE BEST gluten free flour. Dense? NOOOO!!! My boyfriend can’t even tell its gluten free. Every muffin, cinnamon roll, or cookie is soft and fluffy. Its amazing.
Even without the almond and the xanthan gum. Its an amazing mixture.
Hi Miranda! Welcome to FODMAP Everyday and thank you for letting us know about your success! If you don’t mind, and possibly even prefer a mixture with xanthan, be sure to check out our blend. When tweaking our recipes please be aware that you might be altering the FODMAP load. Almond flour (called almond meal on the Monash app) is low FODMAP in 1/4 cup (24 g) amounts. Most likely as this is part of a blend, whatever you are eating in its finished form will still be low FODMAP if you are paying attention to serving sizes. Just keep this in mind and happy baking!
What IS in the AF fiber blend please?
Gayle, the company does not publicly disclose their proprietary blend. We discussed it in a phone conversation. I would suggest trying the product and seeing how you tolerate it, as that is the best test of all.
Is this recipe a 1 to 1 substitute for wheat flour in all kinds of recipes? and how do you prevent your baked goods from being crumbly or greasy because when baked goods are crumbly ? It makes me so mad when my baked goods are crumbly or greasy that I would throw my baked goods in a campfire and burn them because crumbly baked goods or greasy baked goods are shit. I can’t eat a lot of msgs because I get really really painful migraines from it and really strong brain fog and I hate chia seeds and flaxseeds because they leave my baked goods extremely greasy and I hate physlluim husk in my baking because it causes me diarhea. I have eaten jello lots of times and never had a migraine, headache or brain fog from it and I was wondering how can you use gelatin in your gluten free and corn free baking as a replacement that works really well in the place of xanthan gum or any other bean gum that a recipe calls for.
Hi Kaylyn, I am so sorry you are dealing with your medical issues and missing your baked goods. As you probably know, baking is very particular. Well-developed baking recipes combine very specific ingredients in very specific amounts to create a delicious final product with great texture. While this blend can be subbed 1 to 1, it will alter recipes, unless they were developed using it in the first place. But it is a great place to start. I would suggest that you check out our book, Low FODMAP Baking. It is not focused on your issues, but it is jam-packed with tips and techniques for any and all kinds of baking to help you make the very best baked goods possible. Your choices of tools and equipment, for instance, understanding your oven, how to buy ingredients etc. can all make a huge difference and are laid our in the book, which has over 275 pages of baking info! As far as using gelatin, you could certainly try, but this would be a big experiment. Xanthan and guar gum are widely used and work well with typical baking ingredients and heat. No idea how gelatin would work for you in these instances. Also, since you know gelatin works for you, I would look into gelatin-based recipes. There are so many! I happen to love jelled desserts. Did you know that we have one that features champagne? Amazing for New Year’s Eve!
How do you use this flour 1 to 1 in a recipe without baked goods getting burnt, crumbly or greasy?
Hi again Kaylyn, this is why I referred you to our baking book, which will help you with general baking guidelines. There is no one answer. It will vary recipe to recipe. In general, if things are burning for you I would check your oven temp with an independent thermometer and I would buy high quality bakeware. Thin flimsy bakeware can lead to burnt baked goods. In terms of crumbly, rice flour does often yield this kind of texture – gums are usually the answer. Greasy? Sounds like the recipes you are using are probably not well balanced and contain too much fat.
We chose to eat a lot of corn free whole grains in our house because I avoid corn, gluten, dairy, soy, milk, refined grains,msg and perservatives in our house because it was recommended by a pediatrican when I was quite young as a idea to help me and my identical twin sister named Amber with our Autism, ADD,ADHD, OCD, Anxiety and moderate Sensory Proccessing disorder. Can you use whole grain sweet rice flour as a replacement for gums in gluten free, whole grain baking.
Whole grain sweet rice flour will not have the same effect cohesive as either guar gum or xanthan gum.
Hi DeDe and thanks for this forum!
I have been on a Low FODMAP eating plan for about 5 months. In that time, just about every problem I was having digestion-wise has disappeared and ALL my lab numbers are completely back to normal. I was amazed how my cholesterol could go from 205 to 156 is less than three months but I’m convinced now. I will be eating Low FODMAP forever!
But Low FODMAP recipes seem to be all gluten free, too, and I understand why. But fortunately, I don’t have Celiac disease or any other autoimmune disorder that makes me allergic to the protein in gluten . So while I need to be wheat/barley/rye, etc. free because of the high fructans, I don’t need to be gluten free at all.
I’m looking for baking recipes, especially for breads, that I can add gluten back into instead of using gums or psyllium husk.
Any ideas?
Dana this is a great question. I am a lifelong baker and in fact have developed more baking recipes over the years than anything else. I would suggest trying the recipes from our site and substituting all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur’s). When you make the recipe, start with the volume as stated and then be aware that you might need a tad more of the regular all-purpose, in some instances. Use your instinct but assessing the texture of the batter/dough. Just don’t do this with the All Butter Pie Crust, as that recipe is very specifically developed to work with the LOFO GF dough and also all the biscuits/scones are quite specific. (Leave those as is). Let me know how you do! Also, you might be interested in our book on Low FODMAP Baking, which has a lot of techniques and recipes that are not on the site.
Thanks so much for the reply DeDe! But I’m not sure I understand what you mean by ‘regular all-purpose flour.’ If you mean white (wheat) flour then I can’t use it because of the high fructan content. If you mean an all purpose gluten free flour blend then my question is, do you know how much gluten (instead of xantham gum) I should add to the bread dough recipe?
Right now my flour blend is brown and white rice flour, tapioca starch, cornstarch, small amount of potato starch and I use 2 tsp. of xantham gum per 3 cups of the blend. Do you think a 1 for 1 would work; that is, 2 tsp gluten to substitute for the gum? Or should it be more like two tablespoon of gluten? A half a cup?? I have no clue…
And I’d like to try to get some idea of where to start experimenting with amounts because unfortunately, I have no instinct at all for this! 🙂
My apologies. I see the message now! I have no experience working gluten back into a dish, on its own, working with non-wheat based flour blends. Also, now that I think about it, have you experimented with sourdough? Fructans are consumed during slow fermentation periods. This could be an interesting thing for you to try. I would contact the folks at King Arthur Flour and have a conversation. They will chat with you!
hi, is tapioca flour you mentioned here the same as cassava flour?
GREAT question. While both are derived from the Cassava plant, they are processed differently have contain different FODMAP content. Basicially cassava flour is the dried and ground whole root, while tapioca flour/starch (same thing) is highly processed, although derived from cassava and has a different nutritional profile.
I can’t eat rice at all because I got arsenic poisoning from all the rice I ate. I am gluten free and have been for years. I cannot eat any of the blends that contain rice flour now. I have some rice free blends that all behave very differently. They are all fodmap safe except the ones with garbanzo bean flour. Would you have any suggestions? Thank you.
Hi Alene, I unfortunately do not have any ideas for you as we have not baked with any non-rice flours. Perhaps there are some blogs that cater to that? You could play around with this one, but you would have to calculate FODMAP loads in finished dishes and of course, not sure how it will work, taste and texture-wise.
Thank you so much for that link! I will work with it. I am testing foods now and found out this morning that I cannot tolerate any more than 3/4 tsp of honey. That was discouraging. This whole thing started a few months ago. I’m 70 yrs old. I had IBS in my early 40’s for a few months, and it just went away. I’m crossing my fingers that this will happen now too. My attacks are definitive. One day after I eat something, I have violent diarrhea and I vomit anything in my system. Not fun. She has a few recipes that I can try it with. Thank you again.
Baby steps Alene…and certainly work with a dietitian if you can. I know we have spoken before and it really is the best thing for your situation.