Gluten is a protein (technically a composite of multiple proteins) found in wheat and other types of grains, and it is crucial in baking as it provides the structure and generally holds what you are making together. When gluten is formed it creates a cross-linked network to give the dough or batter elasticity, and it is also useful for trapping carbon dioxide to make nice fluffy baked goods (among other things).
Someone was going to have a get together where there was going to be some cupcake decorating, so I decided I would bake some vanilla free cupcakes so my friend could participate as well. :) Now I had to create a recipe. I started off with a recipe I found online.
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons gluten-free Vanilla
1 3/4 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free flour
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons gluten-free Vanilla
1 3/4 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
I won't say much about this cause they didn't turn out very well... They were very light and fluffy on top, and super dense on the bottom and didn't brown right. They did have very good flavor however, and were very sweet and probably didn't need any frosting if you aren't a fan of super sweet things. But this recipe didn't seem to be ideal, so I decided to change to a derivation of my vanilla cupcake recipe I posted previously, and tried a few different alterations. The main difference between the recipes is obviously the lack of normal flour. The recipe I found online was as follows:
98 grams Gluten free flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2.5 oz milk
1 egg white
28 grams butter
74 grams sugar
1 tsp vanilla
(makes 6 cupcakes)
So this being one of my first attempts at gluten free baking I used King Arthur brand gluten free flour as opposed to making my own. This flour contains rice flour (basically milled rice), tapioca starch, and potato starch with a few other ingredients. These are pretty typical for most gluten free flours. Now the website says that this can be substituted 1:1 with normal flour, however this wasn't 100% true from my findings. Other things I had to consider besides the flour was if any of these things contained gluten. From what I had read some baking powders are processed on the same equpiment as glutenous ingredients, so make sure that it is gluten free, and some vanilla extracts can contain gluten and I also heard some unsalted butters (which contain "natural flavoring") may contain gluten in some cases. I scaled this recipe down to 1/4 of a batch (plus a bit extra baking powder and vanilla :) ) and went to town.
Again to make sure that there wasn't any residual gluten on any of my utensils I rewashed everything by hand, washed all my countertops, and let everything air dry (I was sorta paranoid that there could be gluten everywhere). So once everything is spotless I was ready to get to baking.
First step, mix the softened butter with the sugar.
Next take the remaining dry ingredients and combine them, and do the same with the milk, vanilla, and egg whites.
Mix 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated, then add 1/2 of the liquid and mix, 1/3 of the dry, remaining liquid, and then the remaining dry. This helps maintain good batter consistency. Pour the batter into a lined cupcake pan and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are firm enough on top where they don't feel fragile (or insert a toothpick and take it out and see if anything sticks to it, but I don't have any toothpicks...so I've just learned how to tell by feeling them).
So these cupcakes were not as sweet, so better for decorating, but they still didn't have the proper texture that I wanted. They were too firm, I wanted them to be fluffier. I changed the ingredients slightly so that I was adding more protein to give the cupcakes more structural support since there isn't any gluten. Therefore I replaced the milk with evaporated milk, and added double the number of egg whites. I followed the same procedure as last time, except I kept the egg whites separate from the other liquids and I beat them until they formed stiff peaks in a metal bowl (the bowl you use can matter, don't use a plastic one). So the only difference is in the last part of the recipe, where I added 1/3 dry, 1/2 liquid, 1/3 dry, remaining liquid, remaining dry, and then added egg whites and folded the batter until they were fully incorporated. This batter looked much thicker and fuller than my previous batch (each batch made 6 cupcakes). I baked them at the same settings as before and I got some pretty good cupcakes! The texture was still a little firm after letting them cool, but when they were warm they were very soft, had the right level of chewiness, and were quite tasty. The only thing I didn't like was the tops tended to collapse over time, so there were still some structural issues. So I did one more batch of cupcakes and this time I added 1/4 teaspoon of gelatin. This did seem to help a little in keeping the cupcakes' shape, and it didn't seem to affect the flavor at all, so those were my final product.
After giving my cupcakes to my friends to try, it seemed like they passed the test (well, most of the different varieties did pretty well and some people couldn't tell they were not regular cupcakes). All my effort ended up being completely worth it, and I'm glad my friend who cannot eat gluten was able to join in the cupcake decorating festivities :) The final recipe is given below. It made 6 cupcakes, so scale it appropriately!
Perhaps some time I will try making my own gluten free flour? We shall see.
Enjoy!
Again to make sure that there wasn't any residual gluten on any of my utensils I rewashed everything by hand, washed all my countertops, and let everything air dry (I was sorta paranoid that there could be gluten everywhere). So once everything is spotless I was ready to get to baking.
First step, mix the softened butter with the sugar.
Mix 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated, then add 1/2 of the liquid and mix, 1/3 of the dry, remaining liquid, and then the remaining dry. This helps maintain good batter consistency. Pour the batter into a lined cupcake pan and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are firm enough on top where they don't feel fragile (or insert a toothpick and take it out and see if anything sticks to it, but I don't have any toothpicks...so I've just learned how to tell by feeling them).
So these cupcakes were not as sweet, so better for decorating, but they still didn't have the proper texture that I wanted. They were too firm, I wanted them to be fluffier. I changed the ingredients slightly so that I was adding more protein to give the cupcakes more structural support since there isn't any gluten. Therefore I replaced the milk with evaporated milk, and added double the number of egg whites. I followed the same procedure as last time, except I kept the egg whites separate from the other liquids and I beat them until they formed stiff peaks in a metal bowl (the bowl you use can matter, don't use a plastic one). So the only difference is in the last part of the recipe, where I added 1/3 dry, 1/2 liquid, 1/3 dry, remaining liquid, remaining dry, and then added egg whites and folded the batter until they were fully incorporated. This batter looked much thicker and fuller than my previous batch (each batch made 6 cupcakes). I baked them at the same settings as before and I got some pretty good cupcakes! The texture was still a little firm after letting them cool, but when they were warm they were very soft, had the right level of chewiness, and were quite tasty. The only thing I didn't like was the tops tended to collapse over time, so there were still some structural issues. So I did one more batch of cupcakes and this time I added 1/4 teaspoon of gelatin. This did seem to help a little in keeping the cupcakes' shape, and it didn't seem to affect the flavor at all, so those were my final product.
After giving my cupcakes to my friends to try, it seemed like they passed the test (well, most of the different varieties did pretty well and some people couldn't tell they were not regular cupcakes). All my effort ended up being completely worth it, and I'm glad my friend who cannot eat gluten was able to join in the cupcake decorating festivities :) The final recipe is given below. It made 6 cupcakes, so scale it appropriately!
98 grams Gluten free flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2.5 oz evaporated milk
2 egg whites
28 grams butter
74 grams sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp gelatin
(makes 6 cupcakes)
Enjoy!
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