Are you an avid baker who loves trying out new baking recipes? But do you also want to keep your baking completely gluten-free? We want to help guide you so that you know all about gluten-free baking.
Baked products are a favorite amongst most people. Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity means the consumption of baked goods you had been craving wasn't a reality until now.
But with the evolution of the food market to adhere to the ever-rising demand for gluten-free food. The popularity of gluten-free bakery products has recently risen.
The big food manufacturing companies, small businesses, and local shops have started keeping their place in line with all about the gluten-free baking products.
Most stores now have a wide range of gluten-free baking ingredients available right from gluten-free baking powder to gluten-free baking flour and even gluten-free baking soda.
If you prefer baking your baked goods, you can easily access gluten-free baking products and get started on a baking spree.
To add to your knowledge about gluten-free baking, we have some benefits of gluten-free baking products, which will tell you why gluten-free is beneficial not only for celiac disease or gluten sensitivity but for everyone in general.
Benefits Of Gluten-Free Baking Products
Gluten-containing food causes the villi that line the intestines to inflame with those who have celiac disease and have gluten sensitivities if they when consumed.
That is why it is best to avoid food with gluten altogether for such people. And baked products contain a high level of gluten due to wheat flour and other ingredients. Given the rising and continuous demand for gluten-free baking products, getting gluten-free products or baking on your own with a wide range of gluten-free baking ingredients has now become much more straightforward than before.
However, there are numerous benefits of consuming gluten-free baking products, which help everyone, whether they suffer from gluten sensitivity or not.
Develop A Healthy Digestive Tract
Suppose you are someone with gluten intolerance or sensitivity. In that case, you probably know how consuming products with gluten can cause the development of scar tissue and delayed gastric emptying when your digestive track tries to digest the food with gluten.
But for people who do not suffer from gluten sensitivity, it can still be a pressuring situation on their digestive track as gluten may cause bloating, constipation, gas, cramps, and many other discomforts.
With gluten-free baked products, your digestive tract has a much easier task to digest the ingested food, leading to a healthier digestive tract.
Rich In Fiber
Most loaves of bread use wheat in their manufacturing, which is rich in gluten. For commercial benefits, many food manufacturing companies may use low quality grain, which is commercially bleached and poses a massive threat to your health. When baked products are gluten-free, there is no chance of them containing wheat, let alone a low quality.
Gluten-free baked products use other ingredients like whole rice flour, xanthan gum, flaxseed meal, and the likes. These ingredients are rich in fiber, and if you cannot consume your daily dose of fiber in your diet, consuming gluten-free baked products is a great way to do so.
Fresh Food
You must always keep Gluten-free food fresh until consumption. Therefore, unlike the regular food rich in gluten and left to stay fresh, the baked products that contain gluten-free ingredients are kept fresh by either freezing or refrigeration to keep them fresh for longer.
You see gluten-free baked products in markets and neighborhood pastry kitchens; аѕ more individuals are becoming conscious of their health. Many are curious to know about gluten-free baking and experiencing the advantages of gluten-free products.
Here are some gluten-free baking tips for making the best-baked products out of all the ingredients at hand.
Gluten-Free Baking Tips
Working with gluten-free ingredients can indeed be a challenge, mostly when you do not cook or bake. It may cause discouragements or procrastination in the process of even getting started with gluten-free baking. But when you gather a little knowledge about the art of gluten-free baking and practice with a few recipes, you will surely gain all the confidence and find yourself baking like a pro!
Here are some gluten-free baking tips that will help you get through and curate amazingly scrumptious gluten-free baked dishes.
Reduced Size
If you are used to regular baking, you probably have made huge batches of baked products before. But when you are working with gluten-free ingredients, they tend to crumble more and faster. The best way to avoid this is to make the recipe smaller in size to help the ingredients stick together.
Use More Than One Flour
Since you cannot use all-purpose flour or wheat flour in gluten-free products, it is better to blend and use 2 to 3 different flours. This way, your finished product will have a good flavor instead of one dominant flavor if you use just one specific flour. You will also get a wonderful texture in your recipe.
Increase The Use Of Leavening Agents
Regular baking requires ingredients like baking powder and baking soda that used in relatively small quantities. However, with gluten-free baking, you need to increase this quantity of the leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda up to 25% of the regularly required amount. If it is tough for you to gauge what a 25% increase in the quantity would mean, it will be much simpler to calculate it as the requisite quantity multiplied by 1.25, and you are good to go.
Use Extra Natural Adhesives
It is much easier for ingredients to stick together in gluten-containing products since they contain gluten from the wheat or all-purpose flour. Gluten is a great agent to facilitate sticking. But now that you will be using gluten-free ingredients, it is tough to get the ingredients to stick together. So you will need to use extra natural adhesives in the form of components. Some examples of what you can use are sweet rice or sticky rice flour, guar gum, or gelatine, or agar-agar in your prepared dough mixture.
Reduce the Temperature
When you put in a gluten-free product to bake, it tends to cook much faster than regular recipes and turns even browner. To avoid this unwanted browning of the product, we recommend keeping the oven temperature comparatively lower, approximately around 25 degrees lower. This way, your products will bake at just the perfect pace and stay a perfect color.
Now that you know some of the baking tips, here are some gluten-free baking recipes for you to try and devour.
Gluten-Free Baking Recipes
It may be natural for you to crave some scrumptious sweet baked delicacies. But the problem arises when you do not get the perfect and healthy gluten-free options for them. You do not have to hunt for gluten-free products anymore because you can easily bake them yourself.
Fudgy Flourless Brownies
Ingredients –
- 10 oz. Melted dark chocolate
- 4 tbsp. Butter
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1/4 cup Cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. Maple Syrup
- Salt to taste
How to make –
- First, mix the sugar, eggs, and butter by beating them well.
- Continue whipping them well until it is a smooth flowing mixture like a meringue. It will give the brownies the required lift.
- Melt the chocolate slowly and ensure there are no clumps or chunks of chocolate in the batter.
- Next, add the sugar, egg, and butter mixture to the melted chocolate. Ensure that the ingredients added are at room temperature and neither too cold nor too warm. With the ingredients at room temperature, the melted chocolate will settle in and mix well.
- You may add a dash of salt per taste to balance the brownies' sweetness and enhance all other flavors.
- Bake at 350° for approximately 25 minutes.
- Enjoy our flourless and gluten-free fudgy brownies, all ready to devour.
Gluten-Free Cornbread
Ingredients-
- 1 Cup Fine ground cornmeal
- 1 1/4 Cups Buttermilk
- 1 – Finely chopped and deseeded red chili
- 1 tsp. Gluten-free baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 2/3 Cup Defrosted frozen sweet corn
- 2 Large Beaten eggs
How to make –
- Stir and dry fry the cornmeal for about 3 to 4 minutes. Please turn off the flame and remove half of it into another bowl.
- Add buttermilk to the bowl and stir well before covering, leaving the mixture to soak for 3 hours.
- Melt butter in a cast-iron frying pan and preheat the oven to 400°.
- Add the butter and all other remaining ingredients to the buttermilk mixture. Also, add the half leftover cornmeal from the pan.
- Put on the pan to heat on which butter had been melted and keep on medium flame. Slowly pour the combined mixture onto the pan and ensure that it sizzles.
- Take off the pan from the heat and put it into the oven to bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Check on it until it becomes golden brown and firm.
- Allow them to cool before serving.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients –
- 1 cup Peanut butter
- 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 Large Egg
How to make –
- Preheat your oven to 350°. Prepare two baking trays by placing parchment paper on the baking sheet.
- Put the peanut butter and sugar into a bowl. Add the ¼ spoon of salt and mix well. Ensure that you use a wooden spoon for the mixing.
- Add in the egg and mix again until the mixture turns into a good dough.
- Break off tiny chunks of the dough and place them on the baking tray at a reasonable distance from each other.
- Gently tap the pieces with the back of a fork as this will help the cookies crack a little and bake well.
- If you would prefer not to bake immediately, you can freeze this dough for up to 2 months.
- If you are baking directly, continue baking for up to 12 minutes on the average baking temperature and remove out to cool for 10 minutes. After standard cooling, place them onto a wire rack to facilitate complete cooling.
- If you are baking frozen cookie dough, you will have to bake for at least 2 minutes more.
- You can keep the baked cookie finished products for up to 3 days.
Final Words
It is undoubtedly not a difficult task to get your hands on a delicious gluten-free baked product. On occasion, it is okay to listen to your body and give in to cravings, but you also need to take adequate measures to keep your body healthy and away from all the gluten.
Going gluten-free has become much more accessible than ever before!
She is passionate about helping others understand their body.
The key to figuring out why you feel the way you feel is to take a more significant look at what is going on inside you & even around you, and then ask questions!
She is excited to help & support you on your journey of optimal health and wellness!
