Gluten-free baking often result in poor texture because the absence of gluten change the physics of the batter. In traditional wheat baking, gluten act as a biological glue that provide structural scaffolding for bread and cakes. Because gluten provides structure, gluten allow bread to rise and allows cakes to stay lightly.
When you remove gluten, you are not simply swapping one powder for another, and when you remove gluten, you are changing how the batter behave. Therefore, you cant treat an gluten-free flour as a simple one for one substitute for wheat flour. A common mistake that many beginner make is relying on volume measurement instead of weight measurements.
Simple Tips for Gluten-Free Baking
If you use a measuring cup to scoop almond flour, you may pack the almond flour down, and if you pack the almond flour down, you will add more mass than the recipe require. Adding too much mass lead to dense and oily results. You should use a kitchen scale instead of a measuring cup because weight are a constant and volume isnt a constant.
Different flours has different densities, so a cup of oat flour will weigh less than a cup of white rice flour. Different type of gluten-free flour have different properties, and these properties affects the final product. Almond flour is high in fat, and because almond flour is high in fat, almond flour can make a cake feel grease.
Coconut flour absorbs moisture very aggressive, so coconut flour act like a sponge. Because coconut flour act like a sponge, you may need to increase the amount of liquid in your recipe so that the batter does not turn into a paste. Many bakers achieve better texture by using a combination of flours rather than using a single type of flour.
For example, you can mix rice flour with tapioca starch to mimic the mouthfeel of wheat. Because gluten-free baking lack gluten, you must use a binder to provide structure. Xanthan gum is a common binder that people use to hold gluten-free baked goods together.
Xanthan gum act as a thread that prevent bread from crumbling, but you must use the correct amount of xanthan gum because using too much xanthan gum can ruin the texture. You will need more binder for a sandwich loaf than you will need for cupcakes, because a sandwich loaf require more structure than cupcakes require. The flavor of the flour is also an important factor in gluten-free baking.
Some flour are neutral, such as cassava flour or white rice flour, and neutral flours are good when you want the flavor of chocolate or vanilla to be prominent. Other flours has strong flavors, such as buckwheat flour or chickpea flour. If you use buckwheat flour in a delicate sponge cake, the buckwheat flour will make the cake taste like a hearty bread.
You must match the flavor of the flour to the intended flavor of the recipe. After you mix the batter, you should allow the gluten-free batter to rest before you put the batter in an oven. A resting period allow the starches to hydrate, and starch hydration help to prevent a gritty or sandy texture.
Additionally, you may need to lower the oven temperature because many gluten-free flours brown more quick than wheat flour. Lowering the oven temperature allow the center of the food to cook before the outside of the food become too dark. Finally, you must wait for the gluten-free food to cool completely before you slice the food.
A hot loaf of gluten-free bread is often gummy and unstable because the structure have not yet set. If you slice the bread while it is still hot, the texture will be poor. If you allow the bread to cool for one hour, the structure will firm up and the texture will be more stable.
Success in gluten-free baking require that you understand the relationship between moisture, fat, and structure.