This document provides tips and techniques for making gluten-free baked goods, focusing on cakes, cookies, pastry, bread, and common problems. It recommends using ingredients like ground nuts, xanthan gum, eggs, and fruits/vegetables to replace the binding and moisturizing functions of gluten. Breads work best as wet batters. Proper flour mixes, water quantity, proofing, and oven temperature are keys to avoiding dense or rubbery textures. Protein-rich and starchy gluten-free flours can improve structure and flavor.

1. Making Gluten-Free Glorious
Holly Taylor & Adriana Rabinovich

2. Thinking outside
the box to bake
better tasting
gluten-free food!

3. For each type of baking, think about the role of
gluten:
• Cakes - gives moisture, acts as a binding agent
and stops cake from crumbling
• Cookies – gives texture, crunch, flavour
• Pastry - binds, holds pastry together and gives
stretch making it easier to work
• Bread – gives structure/architecture, taste, crumb,
rise and flavour

4. Think
Which gluten free
ingredient(s) or technique
can I use to re-create that
specific quality?

5. Cake

6. Technique
The most important factor in making a good cake
Ingredients- can be adjusted to compensate for
lack of gluten:
• Ground nuts- add moisture, flavour and texture
(almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts)
• Xanthan gum - to stop cake from crumbling
• Additional eggs - for structure and rising
• Additional liquid - buttermilk, crème fraiche,
soured milk to get a better rise

8. Cakes
Weigh out ingredients rather
than use American style
cups, especially liquids
Top tip

9. Techniques to Consider
• Flourless
• Oil Based Emulsion
• Classic Emulsion
Butter/Sugar/Egg
• All in one
• Roulade/Meringue/
Dacquoise
• Carrot Cake
• Victoria Sponge
• Lemon Drizzle

10. All in one cakes
• For the lazy cook, gluten-
free flour blends are
perfect for making cakes
using the all-in-one
method
• No amount of electric
whisk action is going to
over develop the gluten
guaranteeing a beautiful
rise that will never go
rubbery

11. Problem…
Cake is
crumbly

12. Xanthan Gum
• Xanthan gum is gluten-free gluten!
• It helps to bind ingredients together,
lock moisture in and provide
structure to gluten-free bakes
• Just be careful not to use too much,
as an excess can make it difficult for
breads and cakes to rise and make
pastry crunchy rather than short!
• Use 1 tsp per cup of flour in bread
recipes and ½ tsp per cup for cakes
and pastries

13. Problem…
Cake is dry

14. Fruits and vegetables
• Another way to add moisture and
improve the texture of gluten free
bakes is to add fruits and
vegetables
• Try grated carrot, courgette, sweet
potato, beetroot or parsnip
• Add mashed banana, cooked
carrot, apple puree or even
avocado to get a really moist finish
• Use soaked dates or other dried
fruits to give a fudgy texture

15. Nut and seed flours
• Great for cakes and grain-
free breads
• Ground almonds, chestnut
flour and other ground nuts
and seeds can be used to
create rich and moist cakes
packed with flavour

16. Glycerine
• Helps to keep gluten-free cake moist and stop drying
out
• Around 2 tsp is needed for an average sponge cake
recipe

17. Problem…
Cake is heavy
& dense

18. Solutions
• More baking powder
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Increase egg (white/yolk)
• Acidified liquid: yogurt, buttermilk, crème
fraiche
• Soured milk

19. Eggs
• Many gluten-free recipes rely on eggs to provide
richness and structure
• They also help to bind the flours together, add colour
and aid the leavening process
• Even bakes not traditionally made with eggs like breads
and pastries turn out better with an egg added
• Adding a tbsp. of mayonnaise to cake recipes can also
help add moisture!
• For vegans use pectin or ground flax in water to add
moisture, plus a little extra baking powder

20. Pastry
Where gluten-free ingredients are
actually better!

21. Ingredients & Technique
• Add an egg to improve binding
• Roll out between sheets of cling film to help the pastry hold
together
• Keep everything well chilled and bake in a hot oven
• Roll and shape your pastry straight away to prevent it drying
out
• Work pastry into a dough without adding heat (food process
and palette knife)
• Use water to bind and give crispness
• Use Maillard principle to get better texture and flavour
• Increase amount of salt and sugar to improve flavour

22. Successful Gluten-Free Pastry
• Shortcrust
• Hot Water
• Pate Sucree (Sweet Pastry)
• Choux
• Chocolate Pastry
• Cornmeal Pastry

23. Pastry
• Gluten-free pastry is a little
more delicate and crumbly than
normal pastry but it’s also very
forgiving.
• You can over work it, it’s easy to
patch up and it doesn’t shrink
anywhere near as much as
normal pastry!
• It also has the most amazing
melt in the mouth texture, that
makes it sublime for desserts
• For the same reasons, gluten-
free shortbread is far superior to
the wheat version!

24. Hot Water Crust Pastry
• If you love traditional game
or pork pies then using a
gluten-free hot water crust
pastry can help cut down
on calories and fat!
• Gluten free flours bind
more water but less fat
than the traditional wheat
based versions
• Check out the Genius
website for a great GF hot
water crust recipe

25. Problem…
Pastry falls
apart or too
hard

26. Solutions
Egg/Water/Flour
Too much water, not
enough fat
Add more water
Fraisering
Clingfilm
Temperature
Seal with egg

27. Use a tortilla press
and or a wooden
tartlet shaper to
make the job of
rolling out pastry
easy and fun!
Top tip

28. Bread

29. Bread
Ingredients + Technique + Practice = SUCCESS
• Don’t think traditional bread dough
• Dough will be much wetter
• No kneading required
• Consider what type of yeast or rising agent to use
• How much liquid is needed?
• Which gluten free flours will work best?
• What can I add to improve texture and flavour (gelatine, agar agar, milk
powder, herbs, spices, seeds and nuts)
• Size matters
• Proving times
• Oven temperatures and baking times

30. Bread
Select the size of your
baking tin carefully and
don’t fill the tin more
than half way
Top tip

31. Problem…
Bread is the
wrong texture –
too hard or too
rubbery

32. Solutions
Ingredients
• Flour Mix – starch versus
protein
• Water quantity
• Dough vs Batter
• Yeast/Rising agents
Action/Technique
• Proofing
• Tin shape/size
• Oven temperature
• Baking time
• Maillard principle

33. Water
• Gluten-free flours are generally drier than wheat flours
• As a result cakes made with GF flour often require a
couple of extra tbsp of water to ensure a good rise
• While breads made with gluten free flour work better
when the dough is actually a thick batter – this helps
the bread to rise and become fluffy rather than heavy
and chewy
• Carbonated liquids can add even more volume!

34. Starchy flours
•Gluten-free baked goods are known for their pale colour
and crumbly texture
•Using tapioca starch can help things to brown more in the
oven
•While potato starch
and corn flour can improve
the crumb texture of baked
goods
•Recipes work best when the
starchy flours are mixed with
other GF flours in a 1:1 or 1:2
ratio

35. Protein rich flours
• Just like breads made with wheat, high protein content
in gluten-free flour adds structure and flavour to bread
• Good choices are sorghum, millet, amaranth, teff,
gluten-free oatmeal, soya flour and buckwheat

36. Vitamin C
• Yeast thrive in an acidic environment which promotes
better volume in gluten-free bread recipes
• Ascorbic acid also acts as a natural preservative,
increasing shelf-life

37. Anything is possible

38. Q&As