One of the biggest problems with gluten free flour brands from the healthfood store is that they are loaded with refined starch – nearly half the weight in fact! Such mixes cannot be considered healthy.

This starch is usually not resistant starch either – the kind that benefits gut health by nourishing beneficial gut microbes and a balanced intestinal microbiota.

Instead, it is heavily processed starch and empty calories, lacking in nutrients and flavor that benefits neither you nor your baking! Starchy flour also means that you are more likely to overeat anything made with it, as a low nutrient food takes longer to satisfy and means we get hungry again faster. It can encourage sugar cravings and candida problems to flare in susceptible individuals.

To overcome this problem, I started to make my own gluten free flour mix sometime ago. Although our family is not gluten free, I like to bake with a number of traditional grains. This approach adds variety and avoids overexposure to wheat in our diet.

The trouble is, mixing gluten free flour without added starch is very tricky and can be frustrating. This is because different proportions of gluten free whole grains are required depending on whether you are making cookies and muffins or bread and pizza crust.

In addition, we’ve been conditioned to believe that without added starch, gluten free cakes, cookies, and pastries will cook up heavy. This is actually not the case, as the forward thinking company Jovial Foods has disproved once and for all.

Healthy Gluten Free Flour Mix

My friend Carla Bartolucci, the owner of Jovial Foods, came up with a line of healthy gluten free flours with zero added starch. This process required many months of painstaking trial and error to perfect and finally bring to market.

The organic, whole grain gluten free flours included in these mixes include:

• Sorghum flour
• Teff flour
• Brown rice flour
• Millet flour
• Corn flour (organic and nonGMO)

The four different types of gluten free flour available from Jovial include:

1. Whole grain gluten free bread flour (no organic corn flour)
2. Gluten free bread flour
3. Whole grain gluten free pastry flour (no organic corn flour)
4. Gluten free pastry flour

Concerned about the rice flour and the risk of arsenic? Jovial Foods sources the rice for its products from farms tested to have arsenic-free soil!

Here’s what Carla has to say about the various gluten free flour mixes she created:

Years ago, I began to question standard gluten free flour ratios after realizing they can contain nearly half their weight in added starch, even though gluten free grains have as much starch as wheat. Added starch creates a strange texture in bread that you’ve probably been frustrated with for years. Now, it’s possible to bake real bread without gluten, while benefiting from the inherent flavor, protein, and fiber of ancient grains.

I was thrilled when Carla sent me a sample of each of her gluten free flour mixes to try! I immediately baked a pizza crust with the gluten free bread flour mix. It worked so well that the next day, I whipped up a batch of Belgian waffles for my family using the gluten free pastry flour mix.  I used this waffle recipe substituting the wheat flour with the gluten free flour mix 1:1

So simple!

Everyone loved the taste, texture, and flavor. The biggest surprise was that no one seemed to notice that the waffles and pizza were gluten free. When I revealed this later, they were all shocked and delighted! This has never happened before. No doubt the reason is from the lack of added starch. This changes the texture and clues them in that they are eating a wheat free and gluten free food.

I encourage you to give these healthy gluten free flour mixes from Jovial Foods a try. If you’ve been frustrated with what is available at the store and attempting to make it yourself resulted in sub-par results, this is a great alternative!

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

*No fee was requested or received for this post. I wrote it simply because I am thrilled with this new line of healthy gluten free flour mixes, and I wanted to let others know too! Enjoy 🙂