Servings: 10 Prep: 15 mins Cook: 0 mins Total: 15 mins
In early December, 2012, I asked my readers if there was anything I should focus on, or if there was any specific direction that they’d like to see me go. I received many thoughts and comments, but one that really caught me by surprise came from, non-other-than best selling cookbook author and low-carb celebrity Jennifer Eloff! She was incredibly complimentary, but suggested I skew more towards a gluten-free audience. My website’s overall fight, or angle, is 10 net carbs or less. I never had a beef with wheat, provided it didn’t impact my blood sugars (it does!). Because of the way it effects me, I never really much ate it, but I wasn’t opposed to using products containing wheat gluten (a protein, not a carb). In any event, since then, I’ve read a lot and have decided that modern wheat, including modern gluten, should generally be avoided. All this said, this is a recipe (Jennifer’s Recipe), and these notes should focus on the recipe-at-hand. I’ll focus on gluten in a blog post.
*Ahem*
Through our discussions, I asked if I could use her gluten-free bake mix on my website. She said, “Sure!” She loves it when people use it! Jennifer has a few variations of her bake mix, with the most recent using gelatin, in place of the xanthan gum. I thought about using it, instead of this one, but it’s more complicated to use than the one I ultimately selected. These should all work, and Jennifer does a fantastic job of explaining how to use each one.
Here are the links to her bake mixes:
- SPLENDID LOW-CARB BAKE MIX (not gluten-free)
- SPLENDID GLUTEN-FREE BAKE MIX
- SPLENDID GLUTEN-FREE BAKE MIX 2 (without xanthan gum)
Here is the one I’m using on my site and in recipes where this bake mix is used, unedited. What follows are Jennifer’s words …
——— *snip * ———–
Almond flour versus almond meal produces slight differences. Since my husband is merely intolerant of gluten, we use oat flour by Arrowhead Mills®. * 1/4 Cup almond meal = 28 g. 1 cup Gluten-Free Bake Mix (almond meal) = 134 g. (Jen)
Serving Size: Recipe makes about 2 1/2 cups of baking mix. A serving is considered 1/4 cup. Recipe makes 10 servings.
Photo Note: Photos taken with Spicy Ham and Cheddar Muffins.
Splendid Gluten-Free Bake Mix
Print RateIngredients
- 1 2/3 cup almond flour
- 3/4 cup certified gluten-free oat flour
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
Instructions
- In large bowl, combine almond flour, OR almond meal, oat flour (if you are intolerant to gluten-free oat flour then substitute another gluten-free flour like sorghum flour which others have had success with in the bake mix), coconut flour and xanthan gum. In container with airtight lid, place bake mix and shake the container well to combine. When measuring oat flour (not necessary with the other ingredients) into measuring cup, make sure to tap the cup on the counter top and fill to the top to get the correct yield for the bake mix. Keep bake mix at room temperature for up to one month or freeze for much longer storage.
- Instructions: Add 1/4 cup (60 mL) additional bake mix when substituting for 1 cup (250 mL) or more than 1 cup (250 mL) flour in recipes and use 2 tbsp (30 mL) more if substituting for less than 1 cup (250 mL). Always begin by adding an extra egg in muffins, loaves, cakes and coffee cakes, except for cookies and except if bake mix required is less than or equal to 1 cup (250 mL). Withhold a quarter of the liquid/wet/fat ingredients; add in as needed (usually need it all). If batter after processing at least a minute is still too thick, add more of the liquid ingredients and if accidentally the batter ends up too sloppy, then add a little more bake mix. If all the liquid has been used and the batter is still too stiff, add another egg and another if necessary. Baking experience is helpful.
- Helpful Hints: Great in muffins, loaves (with eggs!), cookies, squares or bars, coffee cakes, many cakes, pie crusts and a few other specialized applications, but will not be suitable for all applications, nor for most yeast applications. Xanthan gum has gluten-like properties, binding ingredients together to prevent crumbly outcomes.
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* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …
Thanks, D.J., nice of you to test drive my Splendid Gluten-free bake mix in some of your fabulous recipes! With regard to the Gluten-Free Bake Mix using gelatin: the rule of thumb is actually quite simple. Use 1 tsp gelatin per cup of bake mix and then add another tsp on top of that. 🙂 Add the gelatin to the wet ingredients and mix well.
Hi Jennifer. Thank you for letting me use it! I don’t bake very often, but your mix opened a whole new (long since closed) world for me. Thanks for the tips on the gelatin!
Any chance of a flaky pie crust recipe using this mix? That is one thing I really miss since going low carb. Press-in-place nut crusts are fine for a lot of things, but sometimes only a flaky pastry will do.
Hi Eric! Sorry for the delay in my response. I had just started a 4-day cook and couldn’t break away for a little research. In any event, my original thinking was that … no, I doubt it. In order for the little flakes to develop, you pretty much need gluten. Gluten is what provides the layers between the little layers of fat that melt into the dough, as it cooks. HOWEVER! With a little research, I found a thread on LowCarbFriends.com where this exact recipe was used to make pie dough and it’s got photos and descriptions. According to the woman doing the baking, "This Pie crust is so good!! It’s just like regular pie crust, tender, flakey and tastes delicious!! I’m so excited I could cry..happy tears, that is!!" Sounds really promising. The photos make it look a bit more "brittle" than a truly flakey crust, but her enthusiasm is winning me over. <br /><a href="http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/lowcarb-recipe-help-suggestions/774548-jennifers-delicious-pie-crust.html" target="_blank">Here is the thread</a>. <br /><a href="http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/lowcarb-recipe-help-suggestions/774548-jennifers-delicious-pie-crust.html#post15739080" target="_blank">Here is the recipe!<br /><I hope this gives you some hope. Please report back! 🙂
Any chance you could make a loaf of bread and use it in your bread pudding recipe??
Hi Sharon, I just used this mix to make a banana bread and a zucchini bread. Both turned out absolutely fantastic … HOWEVER … they were both quite dense. They essentially rose, then collapsed on themselves when they were removed from the heat. As a result, there’s no little pockets of air (carbon dioxide, actually) to absorb the egg mixture. I think you’d wind up with something super tasty, but it would be fairly dense. I think the lack of gluten doesn’t give this flour mix the necessary structure to stay firm and form big air pockets. You could give it a shot. As I said, I think the end result would be tasty, but … dense. That’s not necessarily a bad thing!
The low carb bake mix uses vanilla protein powder (which is what I want to use), so do you think it’s interchangeable with the other bake mixes or would it give a vanilla flavor or work differently? I know they are Jennifer’s but I just wanted your opinion if you don’t mind.
Thank you!
Too Bad you use Oat Flour…..even though it seems to be gluten free, there are some of us who don’t tolerate it well. Your recipes look yummy, just not doable for me. 🙁
Hi Jaime, I’m sorry … I didn’t see your comment! In any event, I’m not sure which recipe you’re discussing, so I can’t really comment. Regarding the oat flour comment, I understand that not everyone tolerates oats. I tried working on a great all purpose flour using paleo approved ingredients and … couldn’t come up with anything I liked that behaved well in a wide enough assortment of recipes. The GOOD news is, just about everything is possible (short of tricky things like croissants and phyllo), but … the majority of things can be approximated with more custom tailored blends. It’s more about knowing what you’d like to make and then find a recipe that suits your needs! This one fills some needs for those that want a simple blend and don’t mind a bit of oats. Sorry this won’t work for you, but thanks for the kind words! 🙂