Can We Lose the Starch?!

I like my flour combination. I really do! So much so, that I think I gained a few pounds last year while making the different recipes for the Gluten Free in a Gluten World cookbook. Amazon link here I was fairly loath to change it, as changes in the flour combination almost always triggers changes in the general recipes for whatever I am trying to make; and I like the way my recipes come out. So, I have been resisting, even after my husband came home from the doctor and announced he needed to cut back on his starches as well as fats. However, after running into my friend Kathleen, who is gluten free, but who also needs to avoid starches, and with the latest research coming out that refined foods (flours) seem to be the culprit in creating the smaller "sticky" molecules of LDL (see the new Time Magazine: "Ending The War On Fat"), I decided it was time to try.

various starches

Kathleen mentioned that she has been gf for awhile now, but is frustrated in that many of the prepared gf foods or pre-mixed gf flour combinations all contain a majority percentage of starches. Tapioca, Potato and White Rice flour (like Sweet Rice flour), in particular. These are the most common added starches or flours to gf flour mixes or are used in prepared foods. I myself use a combination of tapioca, potato, and cornstarch or arrowroot. When I first was changing my kitchen over and researched dozens of gf flours, I realized that in general most recipes were a  2 : 1 ratio of grain flour to starches.

Gf grain flours alone don't behave the same as wheat flour. Starches help improve that problem tremendously . Gf grain flours are often "grainy" in texture, and of course, don't "stick" together well. So, without some thickeners in them the final product will typically not hold together and fall apart. In Kathleen's case, thankfully she can tolerated some arrowroot starch. If you haven't read many of other blogs, specifially the one on "Grain Free Diets" and "In Remembrance of Me," I talk about how I have come to be impressed by arrowroot starch. I won't go into all the reasons again, but I have mostly now switched over using arrowroot for cornstarch, except in my thickener.

So what to do?

I mentioned to her that she should be able to come up with a flour combination using arrowroot as the only starch. She seemed to want to try that. In addition, she should be able to reduce the ratio of grain flour to starch depending on the grain flours used.

various gf grain flours

In my case, I just want to reduce the starch content in general, while increasing the percentage of the starch to arrowroot. Now, I have to be honest and say if I hadn't switched brands of sorghum flour, I would still be resisting trying this, but I really like the Authentic Floods Brand link here of of Brown Rice and Sorghum Flours.  In particular, the sorghum flour is ground very fine and has a very neutral taste.

I have already found that I don't have to add the extra starch that is in some of my recipes in the book, as my all purpose and cake flour mixes don't seem to need it using this brand.

So, my beginning attempt (for my normal all purpose flour recipe) was to add 1 extra cup of sorghum flour and reduce the starch content by 1/2 cup. I still used a three starch combination, but made the arrowroot the highest percentage (1 cup arrowroot, 1/2 cup tapioca, 1/2 cup potato). How did it work? So far, so good, I'm happy to say! I have only had to make some minor adjustments to the recipes  that I have made so far. I haven't tried changing the cake flour yet, but I hope to have similar results when I do.

If you are seriously thinking of reducing or eliminating the starch content in your flour mixes, here are a few suggestions:

1. Make your own all purpose flour combination or use individual flours in your recipes; that way you can control the amounts. Store bought pre-mixes tend to have high starch content.

2. Know which starches you can use. For example, can you use arrowroot, or are you just looking to reduce the total amount of a combination of starches? If you can't use any, then try a grain flour combination of choice, but double, triple or maybe even in some cases quadruple the amount of binder (xanthan or guar gum) used.

3. Use very finely ground grain flours, in a combination that suits your taste and recipes.

4. As always... BRAND MATTERS! Try different brands till you get the results you want!

I hope that was a least a little bit helpful. Thanks to Kathleen for the extra incentive to give it a try!