Sylvan Border Farms Gluten Free Grains

Baking Tips

Xanthan Gum

Xanthan gum is a binder that improves the quality of a gluten-free product. It prevents the cookies from spreading, helps with the crumbling problem, and improves elasticity.

Suggested Ratios

No xanthan gum is needed for pancakes or waffles, or when dusting meats.
Use ¾ teaspoon per cup of flour for muffins, biscuits, or scones.
Use 1 teaspoon per cup of flour for cookies, cakes, pie crust, and pizza dough.

Cookies

Chill the dough at least two hours before baking. Dough that has been frozen spreads less than dough that has been chilled.
After baking, cool the cookies completely before removing them from the pan.
Use smaller cookie cutters when making rolled cookies.

Extracts and Spices

Some companies use starch fillers to improve the flow of dry spices. Check with the companies that market spices in your area to determine the gluten-free status of the spices and extracts you buy.

General Purpose Flour

Our General Purpose Flour has baking properties similar to flour made from wheat. The addition of xanthan gum is the only change necessary when substituting for flour made from wheat. Our flour works best with the heartier types of baking such as cookies, cakes, bars, quick breads, and muffins. Recipes are enclosed in each bag of General Purpose Flour.

Substitutions

Most of the requests that we receive for substitutes are for non-dairy substitutes.

Not all margarine is dairy-free. If whey is listed as an ingredient it contains dairy. Most health food stores carry soy or safflower margarine that is usually made without whey.
For 1 cup of buttermilk substitute ¾ cup non-dairy milk, ¼ cup soy yogurt, and 1-teaspoon lemon juice. This mixture closely matches the consistency and tartness of buttermilk. The lemon juice is added because most recipes that have buttermilk as an ingredient also have soda as an ingredient. Baking soda works best with foods that contain acid.
Research on sugar and egg substitutes is not complete at this time.