This nightshade free gluten free flour mix has become my go-to flour for gluten free baking. It works wonderfully in cakes, muffins, and quick breads.
This nightshade free gluten free flour mix is a blend of flours that I have been working with for many months now. Over the summer, I discovered that potatoes and I are not really very good friends. In fact, they pretty much hate me. Since potato starch was one of the main flours I was using in my flour mixes, I had to make a switch.
However, potato starch is in almost every (if not all) ready-made gluten free flour mixes on store shelves. Bad news for me but luckily, I have a bit of experience with gluten free flours so I wasn’t too upset. I had to make my own blend, but whatevs. No biggie.
Also, in case you’re highly confused about why I’m posting a potato recipe (hello, homemade tater tots!) in a few days, I can eat a few tiny bites before all hell breaks loose. I just can saturate my life with potatoes, unfortunately. And when potato starch is in basically EVERYTHING, it was happening on an almost daily basis. Oops.
Anyways. I’ve also gotten a few emails from some of you lovely peeps who stick around and read my ramblings. Actually, I’ve gotten quite a few questions from people wanting to know what to use in place of the potato starch in my White Rice Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Mix.
My answer: Arrowroot (flour/starch). Basically, I took out the potato starch and subbed in Arrowroot 1:1. Cakes, cupcakes, muffins, and quick breads come out wonderfully with this nightshade free gluten free flour mix. It’s also great for coating meat before browning and for thickening gravies. However, when baking, just watch the amount of xanthan gum you’re using. My recipes take into account the amount of xanthan gum needed for my mix. The arrowroot has a gummier quality to it so you don’t need as much xanthan gum to bind the flours together.
I’m still experimenting with some foods like pancakes with this mix so if you do try this flour in pancakes, you’ll need to drastically reduce the amount of xanthan gum you use, if not eliminate it entirely. But, for you fine folks that need to avoid nightshades, this is a great flour blend.
Happy baking!
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Ingredients
- 1 C white rice flour
- 1 C brown rice flour
- 2/3 C arrowroot starch/flour
- 1/3 C tapioca starch/flour
Directions
- Add all flours to a bowl and whisk together until combined. Store the flour mix in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Recipe can be doubled or tripled.
I am so excited to now have a go-to recipe for gluten free flour at home! I have g-free friends and this will make hosting them much easier!
Thank you SO much for the recipe..I have been searching for a recipe that is gluten free/nightshade free for my son who has LYME disease…I knew about all the ingredients but didnt know how much to make a mixture…So thank you so much…Im headed to the kitchen now to create my first batch…cant wait to try making biscuits for him!!
I’m so glad you can use this flour for your son 🙂
Funny though, I also made biscuits with it the same night you did! Except I didn’t have enough baking powder and subbed in baking soda and added some vinegar to the milk in a pinch. It worked! Hope your biscuits came out great 🙂
I definitely need to share this with all my gluten free friends!
Such a great recipe to have on hand. Thanks for sharing with us!
Delicious! You put my favorite gluten free flours in this! I can’t wait to try it!
This is fantastic! I have a friend with a gluten sensitivity and I’m totally sharing this with her!
I’ll have to pass this along to my gluten free friends– so smart!
Thank you so much for this! I’m so excited to use this for my recipes! 😀
Can’t wait to try this! Just our of curiosity what recipe did you use before learning about your reaction to potatoes?
This was my go to flour: http://www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2015/01/05/white-rice-purpose-gluten-free-flour-blend/
That’s a really great blend too, just not for those who can’t have nightshades.
Tapioca starch is nightshade free? The Krusteaz brand gluten free flour states “modified food starch”
How do I find out what type of starch it is?
Hi Jackie,
From what I’ve read, nightshades are part of the Solanaceae plant family. Tapioca is comes from the cassava root which is in the Euphorbiaceae plant family. I’m not familiar with the Krusteaz flour blend so any questions about their flour should be directed to them 🙂
Hi, I am from Australia and am also nightshade intolerant. Thank you for this recipe. I was under the impression that Arrowroot flour and tapioca flour were the same thing?
Hi Lisa,
From what I’ve read, Tapioca/Arrowroot come from a different plant family then nightshades so they’re not considered nightshades. If you have information that contradicts that, I’d love to see it (and I’m not trying to be snarky/condescending, I’m genuinely interested in making sure I’m not giving false information).
Thanks! I have the same issue with potatoes, unfortunately. Any ideas on substituting the tapioca starch? I’m allergic to potatoes, tapioca, and sorghum, which makes gluten-free even more challenging. Any tips you have would be much appreciated! 🙂
You could try cornstarch, though I haven’t actually tried that. But I use arrowroot in the mix too which comes from the same plant as tapioca so you might want to check and see if arrowroot is ok or not for you.
Hi, almost everything that I read says the cassava root in tapioca is a nightshade. Is this true?
I am wondering how I would use this to make pancakes? Do you have a recipe somewhere I could use? I just found out that I’m gluten intolerant and have a nightshade allergy so I’m struggling to find recipes I can use for the whole family which I can also enjoy. Thank you!
Hi Stephanie, I use this in pancakes frequently! This is the recipe I use most of the time: http://www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2014/07/28/kelseys-chocolate-chip-pancakes/
Just be sure to decrease the amount of xanthan gum to 1/4 tsp for the pancakes when using this flour. I find that the arrowroot really helps to bind when there is a high liquid:flour ratio and less xanthan gum is needed for recipes like that. I use this flour blend in just about all of the recipes that I have posted on my blog since July of 2015 and will work with any of the baked goods (bars, cakes, muffins, quick breads) that I posted using my other flour blends. If the recipe uses a different flour (like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1) the recipe will state that. If you have any questions let me know 🙂
Ok, Gluten Free Savior! My neighbor has to eat gluten free, nightshade free…and here’s the clincher, no rice flours either.
WTF. Do you have a suggestion on what combo would work best for her? I bake scones. And she has had a lot going on, and if I could make her some…that could help!
Thanks!
Hi Jennifer – sorry to hear about your neighbor, that’s so sweet of you to bake for her. So after doing a bit of thinking and searching on the internet, I think your best bet would be to find a good scone recipe that is made with oat flour. You could make the oat flour yourself using gluten free oats or you could buy it already made. This one from Love & Lemons looks really good: https://www.loveandlemons.com/vegan-raspberry-coconut-scones/ and if you don’t need vegan she said you can sub in butter and you could most likely use cream/milk instead of almond milk. If that recipe doesn’t appeal to you, you could try googling “scones made with oat flour” and bunch of great suggestions show up. Hope that helps!
OH my gosh! I so needed this information.. I have a crazy amount of allergies which include: gluten, corn, rice, and night shades. It is impossible to have baked goods. I keep looking for a way to make something that works for me. I would love to be able to make some bagels and donuts.
Hi Addie, so sorry to hear that you’ve been having a difficult time finding a flour replacement that meets your needs. Here is a blueberry muffin recipe that I think you might be able to try: https://www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2016/02/25/grain-free-blueberry-muffins/
Unfortunately, I don’t have a bagel or donut recipe that is safe for you to eat.
Thanks so much for you reply. I checked out the blueberry muffins recipe and it calls for almond flour and coconut flour. I have had to eliminate coconut and almonds from my diet because of allergies
Would your flour blend work if I just use white rice flour instead of white and brown? I need to be careful of the oxalate content in foods and brown rice is higher than white. Thanks so much!
Hi Sara – honestyly I don’t think it would yield the same results. If you use all white rice flour, I think it would make the final product a bit gritty. You could try it and let me know how it works for you 🙂
This recipe looks great. I also can’t have potatoes (unfortunately!) so this should be perfect for me.
I use a lot of recipes that don’t call for xanthan gum to be added… So I’m wondering how much if at all would be good to add directly into the blend? Or do recipes turn out okay without the xanthan gum?
Thanks!
Hi Kelli, I like to add my own amount of xanthan gum based on the recipe I’m making. If I use this blend in pancakes, I don’t need very much xanthan gum at all but if I make it with a quick bread, I need more. Hope that helps.
Is this flour blend good for baking? I’ve been craving chocolate cake BUT since I am gluten and nightshade sensitive, it has been difficult to find a recipe.
Thank you!
Hi Katrina, this blend is great for baking! I use it in all my quick breads, muffins, and cakes unless I’m using a store-bought blend. I use this blend all the time in my favorite chocolate cake recipe, you can find it here:
I read above that you don’t recommend using all white rice flour. What would the results be if I used all brown rice flour. My husband has an immune system issue and white rice seems to affect him. thanks
Hi Cindy – this flour mix calls for brown rice flour and no white rice flour. It works really well! https://www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2014/04/08/all-purpose-gluten-free-flour/
Thanks!! will try it this weekend
I want to make sandwich bread. Will this work and do you have a recipe using this flour mix that does not use any gum for sandwich bread? Thank you for your help.
Hi Dana, I haven’t tried this flour in a bread recipe without using xanthan gum. Sorry!
Hi! I want to substitute this into a cake recipe that is not gluten free. Should I substitute on a 1:1 ratio? Also would I need to add any xanthan gum? I’m trying to bake for someone who doesn’t eat gluten, so I am not familiar with these ingredients. Thanks!
Yes, try subbing 1:1 (stir your flour first and then use the spoon and level method to measure). How much xanthan gum will depend on how much flour you’ll be using. Bob’s Red Mill suggests 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour.
Could this be used as an all purpose flour?
I use this in all my baked goods! I also use it for a base coating when doing an egg wash for meat.
Can this recipe be used to make bread in a bread machine with dry yeast?
Hi Sandra,
I haven’t tried making bread with this. When I make yeast based bread products, I’ve been using specific flour measurements and not a blend. The flour:starch ratio is a bit different.
Hello Sharon:
I was so happy to see that I can actually find a GF flour without Vava and Garbonzo beans which I used to make cookies. I got so much bloating from that flour so I threw it out. Also, once I started to eat the cookie, it was as tho they turned into mushy batter in my mouth, terrible, I will try your recipe and am glad to have found it. I am also nightshade free. Thank you!
Hi! Great recipe. Can I sub u.s. butter for oil. If so, how much and does it have to be melted or can I cream the butter and sugar?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Carla, which recipe are you referring to?
My young adult ‘kids’ show an intolerance
to rice products (iMg testing results). Do you
think I could substitute buckwheat flour and sorghum flour for the two rice constituents? Do you
Think I would have to reduce, or increase, the arrowroot and tapioca content?
Hi Sean – I honestly don’t know if you can sub them as I don’t bake with buckwheat so I don’t know it’s tendencies. I sometimes use a bit of sorghum flour in addition to the rice flours but I haven’t tried subbing it 1:1 for them.
HELP….I need an all purpose GF flour that does not contain potato or rice as my son can’t have either. Is there a receipe for a GF all purpose flour blend that would include…buckwheat, quinoa, coconut, tapioca or chickpea. I would love to make a bread of some sort but I’m really struggling because all the recipes call for potato or rice flour/starch.
Please help.
Hi Sylvia you might need to look into grain free baking. Bob’s Red Mill makes a paleo flour blend that contains almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot, and tapioca starch. You can find that here: https://www.bobsredmill.com/paleo-baking-flour.html
You could also try this blueberry muffin recipe that has almond flour, coconut flour, and arrowroot: https://www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2016/02/25/grain-free-blueberry-muffins/
Sylvia, I often use equal parts of sorghum, millet, and gf oat flours. Tapioca starch or arrowroot can replace potato starch.
I haven’t tried this combination in yeast breads though. I find that although I love buckwheat pancakes, I don’t enjoy its heavy flavor in other baked goods. Good luck in your baking trials.