Gluten Free
Have you ever noticed that a lot of “health food” is prepared with all the emphasis on healthy ingredients and no care at all given to making the food actually pleasurable to eat? This seems to us like an error bordering on some form of sin.
In our experience most gluten free baked goods and ingredients out there fall into that category, so we searched and experimented long and hard before we brought our Gluten Free Bread Flour and Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to market.
If you are wheat or gluten sensitive, or you bake for someone who is, rejoice! We’re happy to tell you that it is possible to make truly delicious and satisfying gluten free baked goods if you start with the right ingredients and use the right methods.
Breadtopia Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
2 lbs.
by Malak Nour of Marmalade Sky Bakery
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