Gluten free bread isn’t easy to make. As a person who has been gluten free since before it was a thing, even I have to admit that gluten is basically the reason why bread exists! This is why it is VERY important to have a good gluten free bread flour mix.
To be honest, I never used to bother with bread at all. However, when both my kids also ended up being gluten free I felt obliged to come up with a decent gluten free bread recipe.
I spent a lot of time experimenting, and have created several different gluten free bread recipes. One of the secrets to a good gluten free loaf of bread is a good gluten free flour mix!
Types of Flour
Many people on a GF diet have other sensitivities that make it difficult to use a generic flour. For example, I just don’t do well with quinoa or rice.
This is one of the main reasons why I created a mix-your-own bread flour. So that everyone can use their favourite flours! It’s also perfect for experimenting. Play around with different flour combinations to create your own personal favourite.
If you have a particular combination that you want to share, leave me a note in the comments section, and I will be sure to try it out!
Here are the four types of flours that go into my bread flour mix. I’ve listed several examples of each, italicising my favourite flours.
- Wholegrain Flours: brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, millet flour, oat flour, quinoa flour, sorghum flour
or teff flour. If you want a white bread flour mix, then replace the wholegrain flour with white rice flour. - Starches: potato starch, sweet rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour or cornstarch
- Bean Flours: chickpea flour, urad flour, fava bean flour, soy flour
- White Flour: white rice flour, almond flour, hazelnut flour, masa harina
or 
. If you want a white bread flour mix, then replace the wholegrain flour with white rice flour.
, 
, 
or cornstarch
, 
, soy flour
, 
Gluten Free Bread Flour Mix
This basic gluten free bread flour mix is perfect for baking gluten free bread. See the section above for details on the different types of flours that can be used to make this well-balanced mix.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: Bread
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole grain flour
- 1 1/2 cup starch
- 1/2 cup white flour
- 1/2 cup bean flour
Instructions
- I’ve listed examples of each of the types of flours above so that you can use whatever flour works best for you.
- This recipe can be doubled or tripled if you want to make a large batch of flour. Just mix all the ingredients in a large container and use it for baking your favourite gluten free bread.
Notes
- This flour mix is the base for my gluten free sourdough sandwich bread.
- I have a different flour mix for gluten free cookies, muffins and other baked goods. It is softer and doesn’t use bean flour.
- Each gluten free flour has its own hydration ratio. For example, oat and rice flours absorb a lot more liquid than quinoa flour. So you may need to adjust your favourite bread recipe accordingly.
Keywords: buckwheat, rice, sorghum, teff, quinoa, millet, oat, tapioca starch, almond flour, bean flour, masa, chickpea, potato starch
I just found your site! Your site and recipes are fantastic! Can this recipe be used for a gluten free sourdough bread?
Thanks!
Sharon
Thanks! I’ve slowly worked on my GF bread recipe since posting this flour mix. Check out the GF Sourdough category link to see all my sourdough bread recipes. Or the GF link for other types of bread recipes.
Hi, is there a way I can make the gf flour mix without bean flour? What would be s good substitute?
You could either skip the bean flour altogether or replace it with one of the white flours. Masa and rice flour are both quite similar. Cheers!
I just found your site because we’re not really happy with the GF ready pizza crusts or quick pizza dough recipes… Used to make our own wheat-based sourdough pizza every week, but now two of us can no longer have it. Am excited to try your pizza recipe (already have my starter going), but I’m stuck at the 1c of bean flour for the bread flour mix. Beans (soaked as well as fermented and even sprouted) are making my family sick, so I’m wondering if I can substitute the bean flour with some other. Are the beans providing protein or fiber in this mix? Thank you, Dee
Beans provide both protein and thickening/stickiness. I would suggest replacing with rice or oat flour. Hope it works for you!
Thank you so much, Emillie! I will try one of those. 😉
Do you have a good source of potato starch or tapioca starch? They seem very expensive when I’ve seen them on store shelves around Victoria. Wondering if you’ve found any good deals… 🙂
I used to shop at Ingredients, and was so sad when they closed. Now I pretty much buy everything online at Organic Matters (out of Nelson, BC). However, starch is still expensive. I only use it for bread and cakes. Otherwise, I just use straight GF oat flour.
Try asian groceries! You can get a 500g bag of tapioca starch for a dollar or two!
You have the started sourdough recipe for gluten-free bread And than the flour mix you use but you don’t say how much of the started you use the flour mix. Do you use it all or part like most wheat starters?
I use what is needed for my recipe. I usually start everything I need all at once. So 2-4 cups of flour depending on how much baking I’m doing. I find that I don’t need the process of feeding or building extra starter as long as I use some buckwheat in my GF blend.
My dad has just gone GF. He has been making his own sour dough starter bread for years and it is always fluffy and light. Which flour combo do you recommend to replace his white bread with 7 grain added. Thank you in advance
★★★★★
White rice is the usual white flour replacement. However, I find it makes baked good dry and tasteless. Buckwheat flour is amazing for catching sourdough starter (takes 2-3 days). I usually start it with buckwheat flour, then move to oat flour. I like oat flour for my baking because it is flavourful and oats have that natural stickiness. Oats are GF, they just are often processed in the same mills and wheat flour. So if he’s celiac, then you should look for GF oats.
Im new to the GF world, what would coconut flour be considered? And what it be used best in?
★★★★★
Welcome to the GF world! Coconut flour isn’t like other GF flours at all. It absorbs a LOT of liquid. It won’t catch a sourdough ferment. It also has a unique flavour. I recommend it for sweet baking.
My wife just got diagnosed as cilia. Tried buckwheat, almond, chickpea and potato starch, with my bread maker (GF setting) and a oatmeal loaf recipe. I added the same amount of water, as I would usually add for wheat, seemed like way too much. The final loaf was a brick. Experimented much with GF flour and bread makers?
I was diagnosed with a gluten allergy 11 years ago… 🙂 You can’t just use a gf bread flour in a regular bread mix. I have several bread recipes on this blog and love them all. Just look in the GF section and pick what works for you! https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/category/special-diets/gluten-free/
Hello Emilia can I’m not gluten free but I love the idea of using bean flour and nut flour as vegetarian can I use wheat flour mixed with rice flour for the first ingredient thank you
Great! It’s an easy way to increase the protein content of food!
Thank you Emillie I’ll try it next week
What alternative would you suggest for bean flour?
As I can’t digest most all beans, especially chickpea and fava.
You could either skip the bean flour altogether or replace it with almond or masa flour. Cheers!
Hello! A lot of very useful information on your website! Thank you for sharing! As white flour, I don’t have rice flour at home (nowadays it’s difficult to find ingredients at supermarkets), I live in Italy so here we have polenta instead of masa. Can I use polenta as white flour? It is quite grainy so I was a bit skeptical.
Polenta is not the same as masa. Masa is an extremely fine flour. I would just replace it with more wholegrain flour. The key is having a balance between the starch and the grain. The white flour adds texture, but it’s not integral. Good luck and take care.
Thanks a lot for your reply Emillie! I followed your instruction for the flour blend (instead of white flour which I couldn’t find, I used more whole grain flour) and prepared a pizza dough with dry brewer’s yeast. As flour mix I used millet, buckwheat, chickpea flours, corn and potato starches. Then for my “trial” pizza dough, I used 140 gr of this blend together with 100 gr of water, 1/8 teaspoon of dry brewer’s yeast (dissolved and activated in water with 1/8 teaspoon of sugar), and 1/8 teaspoon of vinegar (I read somewhere that it could help rise the dough). Then I kneaded it for 3 times at different time intervals and left in the fridge for 24 hours for a long fermentation. The pizza was very tasty but the dough was not sticky and not risen a lot. In the end the pizza came out thin and crispy at the borders. I am very new to this world and I try to learn. It was my first trial to adapt my classical wheat pizza dough for a gluten free version. But I see that it is not so straightforward. I saw that you have many recipes with sour dough. Do you have any suggestions for the use of brewer’s yeast in GF bread/pizza doughs? Thank you again for your availability and all the useful tips and tricks that you’re providing us.
Hi! GF recipes are a bit tricky, as they always use odd ingredients (starches, gum, etc) to simulate the texture of wheat. I usually always use a sourdough starter for my baking, as fermenting GF flour really improves the texture and flavour. I have also made this quick yeast pizza crust in the past: https://minimalistbaker.com/the-best-gluten-free-pizza-crust-sauce/ Enjoy!
Thank you Emillie! I’ll check the pizza recipe and the option of sourdough starter, too!