Gluten Free Food Reviews

I used to avoid gluten free baking, and if I did, I always used a premade mix. It just seemed safer and more predictable because I felt frustrated when a recipe flopped. I felt like I wasted my time and high priced gluten free baking ingredients. As I branch out an become more brave, I now rely on premade flour blends in my cooking and baking, because allows me to experiment with a recipe without having to also experiment with my own flour blends (yet).

This Authentic Foods Multi-Blend All Purpose Flour costs $10.63 for a three pound bag, and is based from a flour blend in the book Cooking Gluten Free by Karen Robertson. The packaging says:

” This flour mix is called Wendy Wark’s Gluten Free Flour Mix. Multi-Rice Blend Gluten Free Flour is an all purpose flour mix that substitutes cup for cup. There is no need to add additional xanthan gum when making pancakes waffles, pie crust, or cookies. For cake and sweet bread recipes, add 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of flour mix.”

I tried this flour blend in cookies and fruit crisp desserts. I was actually impressed with how well this flour blend fared in my recipes. I substituted wheat flour with this gluten free flour blend cup for cup and make the recipes as originally created. Thanks to the xanthan gum, my baked goods had minimal crumbling and breakage. The texture of my cookies was almost indistinguishable from the original gluten containing recipe. The flavor was also wonderful and didn’t have a gluten free taste. Nice!

However I did discover that I had to reduce the baking time when using this gluten free flour blend, or my baked goods were dry, overdone, and not very tasty. Specifically, with my chocolate chip cookies ( as pictured above) I had to reduce baking time by 3 minutes, remove them from the oven appearing undercooked, and let them cool on the pan for best results. Ands as with most fresh baked gluten free goodies, baked goods used with this flour are best when eaten within 24-48 hours.

PROS: large 3 pound size, already contains xanthan gum, makes great cookies and desserts with, decent price

CONS: be careful to reduce baking time to prevent dry baked goods.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Want to try using this gluten free flour bend? Click the link below:

Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Gluten-Free Flour Mix- glutenfreemall.com

Ingredients: Rice flour, tapioca flour, cornstarch, potato flour

I just love Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder. Sometimes I will just open the bottle to catch a whiff- it is that good! So, when I saw an Authentic Foods Vanilla Cake Mix, I knew I just had to try it. One 11 ounce pouch sells for $5.89 and makes one eight inch cake.

I found the mixing instructions clear and easy to follow, and the cake batter mixes easily and spreads nicely in the pan. I baked my cake for the suggested 30 minutes, but it turned out way too brown and had some crispy edges. I feel 28 minutes maybe more appropriate.

The cake should be cooled completely before frosting or eating. I found this out the hard way- I tried a bit off the edge of this cake as it cooled on my wire wrack. Yuck! I was treated to a warm, bitter taste that did not tempt me to sneak another sample. This cake definitely needs a few hours to mellow out and let the flavors blend. In fact, I found that this cake tasted best about four hours after baking, and it started to dry out after 36 hours.

The flavor of this cake is simply wonderful- I was treated to a perfectly sweet vanilla treat with a hint of almond. The flavor tasted like a “real” vanilla or yellow cake. Yum!

Unfortunately, the texture of this cake wasn’t as great as the flavor. The texture seemed quite course, heavier with a large crumb, and I just couldn’t get past the texture to consider this a really good cake mix. It reminded me more of a coffee cake than a traditional cake one would expect for a birthday or special occasion. In fact, I feel if you added some cinnamon sugar and pecans, it would make a great coffee cake for brunch, afternoon tea or a snack. On the pouch, it has a recipe for blueberry muffins using this mix. I bet that would be a great combination!

I also found that this cake tastes yummy warmed up and drizzled with chocolate sauce, and would pair well with most anything chocolate.

PROS: great vanilla flavor with a touch of almond; easy to prepare

CONS: course texture

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Where Can I Buy This Mix?

Ingredients: Granulated Cane Juice, Rice flour, Corn flour, Garfava flour (Garbanzo Beans, Broad Beans), Potato Starch, Baking Powder (Sodium acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cornstarch, mono calcium phosphate), Natural Vanilla Flavor, Natural Butter Flavor, Natural Cream Flavor, Natural Almond Flavor, Baking Soda, Salt, Citric Acid, Xanthan Gum.