For years, we’ve wanted to have something to offer our many friends and customers at Breadtopia who have someone they want to bake for who has a wheat or gluten sensitivity. We’ve really tried, but the results of baking with all the gluten free flour substitutes we tested were never even close to anything I’d want to offer here.
Then one evening the Breadtopia clan and I were having dinner at a friend’s house and for dessert she served us the best brownies I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not kidding; they were rich, moist, and gooey with deep, dark chocolate goodness. I believe I plowed embarrassingly through seconds into thirds. And then in conversation about how good they were, she casually mentioned that they were gluten free. Wait, what!?!? Yes, she assured me, they’re 100% gluten free. And thus was born, that very evening, the partnership that brought Breadtopia’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to market.
Here’s the story of how the flour was originally developed:
When one of my four kids was diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity, I found myself embarking on a whole new baking adventure. My son would eat a slice of pizza at a school picnic and end up suffering abdominal pains, skin rashes, muscle aches, headaches, and mood swings for a couple of days.
I was motivated to change his diet quickly. Some foods were easy to switch to for the whole family. I found some great rice pastas and almond lasagna noodles, I made my own granola so I could make sure no wheat sneaked in that way. I found all sorts of gluten-free products that helped make the transition relatively painless.
The stumbling block was what to use in my baking instead of white flour? I tried dozens of off-the-shelf gluten-free mixes and they all came up short. Nothing tasted as it should, cookies crumbled when I picked them up, cakes were dense, flavors were off. I didn’t want to tell my kiddo he couldn’t eat the treats I made, nor did I want to stop baking for him and the rest of my kids (and their gang of friends stopping by after school).
I had a mission: to find a way to bake everyone’s favorite treats without sacrificing anything to taste or texture. I did some very extensive experimentation: fiddling with proportions, trying different ingredients, learning about gums and thickeners… back and forth I went. If the taste was right, it fell apart. If the texture was right, it tasted like cardboard. After much trial and error and countless oven cycles, I finally came up with a flour that I could use in all my baking recipes, cup for cup, with no compromise.
How did I know when I got there? The kids had no idea they were eating gluten-free chocolate-chip cookies, lemon bars, pecan pie, or chocolate cake. I’d tell them it was gluten-free and their response was, “are you kidding me?”
When my friend Eric asked me to make my gluten-free flour mix into a product for Breadtopia and share what I’d learned with everyone on the website, I jumped at the chance to help other families facing the same challenge.
I hope you enjoy this flour as much as our family has.
Happy baking,
Malak
Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
There are no reviews yet.