Enjoying Gluten-Free Life

Baking Gluten-Free

King Arthur Flour is a name known to those of us who enjoyed baking in the gluten-full world. In 2010, this company jumped into the gluten-free world, making mixes – muffins, bread, cake, brownies, cookies, pizza, and pancakes – flours, and offering other resources specifically for those wanting to bake gluten-free. They invited us into their world through answers to questions below. The info about baking with flax eggs* taught me something new. (Check out the question about their free Baking Hotline.) 

King Arthur Flour has been centered on wheat for more than two centuries. Moving into the gluten-free arena takes a great deal of labor and money. Why did the company begin making gluten-free products?

Our mission is to inspire and educate all bakers – and to provide the products and support they need to bake their best. We recognized that there was a market for *delicious* gluten-free baking mixes for people following a gluten-free diet, so we set out to fulfill that need. And based on customer feedback and sales, we achieved our goal of creating really good gluten-free mixes. We also built our expertise in gluten-free baking so we can offer recipes, ingredients, and trouble-shooting advice via our Baking Hotline, too.

To put reader’s minds at ease, what steps do you take from farm to packaging to ensure that your gluten-free products truly are gluten-free?

All King Arthur Flour gluten-free baking mixes are Certified Gluten-Free™ by the nonprofit Gluten-Free Certification Organization, a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group, and are tested to contain less than 10ppm gluten (stricter than the FDA requirement). The mixes are manufactured offsite in a dedicated gluten-free facility (which is also free of the most common allergens).

I like the fact that some of your mixes can be made with someone’s favorite add-ins – the cookie mix becomes chocolate chip or cinnamon raisin, the muffins easily become apple walnut or cranberry orange. What process does King Arthur Flour go through in creating mixes?

This is a big question! According to Sue Gray, product development manager (and one of the masterminds behind our gluten-free mixes), the process involves Sue and her team educating themselves about what products are (or aren’t) on the market and what consumers need; learning what new and different ingredients are available; developing, baking, and evaluating test formulas, with feedback from consumers, and the employee-owners at KAF; making changes based on that feedback; getting more feedback; and so on until the mix is deemed ready. 

Are there any new flours or mixes that we can look forward to? Perhaps almond flour or a mix for whole grain bread or a yellow cake?

We’ll be offering a gluten-free yellow cake mix in early 2012, so stay tuned for that. We currently sell almond flour and toasted almond flour, but they’re not certified gluten-free. I’ll pass that idea along to our product development team for sure.

How are new recipes chosen for development and what is the process? Are they inspired by your customer’s comments? And do they test with multiple types of flours, dairy substitutes, etc.?

According to Sue Gray, some recipes are inspired by customers, some by restaurant trends, some by new products we see at trade shows – we’re open to inspiration from wherever it comes! Every recipe is baked and sampled and adjusted according to our experts’ judgment before publication, whether on our blog, in our catalogue, in The Baking Sheet newsletter, or elsewhere.

Yes, we test with multiple types of flour, and once we have a product we like, then we begin testing variables—dairy-free, egg-free etc. Since there are so many variables we do not test every option available. We post tips on the website when we find a substitute that we feel works well. We have found that milk replacements often work—soy milk, rice milk and almond milk. Flax gels often work for egg replacement—except in very high sugar and fat items like brownies and cakes.

What sort of questions can your Baking Hotline answer about gluten-free baking? Is it geared to a beginning gluten-free baker or would someone at a more advanced level also find answers to his or her more complex questions?

The gluten-free experts on our Baking Hotline are equipped to answer both basic and more complex questions about gluten-free baking. They have professional gluten-free baking experience, including being involved in recipe development here at King Arthur Flour.

People commenting on your mixes and even some recipes say that the baked goods taste fresh longer than is often the case with gluten-free. Can you share the secret?

King Arthur Flour gluten-free baking mixes do have better keeping qualities than other gluten-free mixes on the market. Part of the secret is using very high quality ingredients – but of course our formulas are proprietary and we can’t really say more than that!

Thank you to King Arthur Flour (who did not pay me anything for this – it’s purely informational.)

*For those who don’t know – a ground flax and water combination substitutes for eggs with those allergic to eggs or vegans.