Gluten Free Baking ~ Shopping List

I am planning to add several recipes that are gluten free...
I LOVE to bake
and was so unhappy
when I found that my world
would have to become a Gluten Free World...
I was certain my days of delicious little goodies were a thing of the past. 
It seemed that almost everything I tried was nasty, or at best, barely tolerable.

This was not the way I intended to eat for the rest of my life
and I certainly wasn't willing to torture my family with less than desirable food!

So my quest began!
I have had several friends who have shared their secrets with me and to them I am very grateful.
Now I wish to share some of the things I have gathered and my own secrets to making baking a wonderful experience again.

FIRST AND FOREMOST are your flour recipes...
no longer will you just run to the store and pick up a bag of flour
or even grind your own...
you will have to be intentional in your baking in a whole new way.

BUT it is FUN and it is YUMMY AND it is so WORTH IT!!!

The things you will need first off are below,
the list is not too long and I'll try to give you a few tips to where I've found these items:

Brown Rice Flour ~ I pick this one up in bulk from Winco...if you go back to the bulk food section and ask them for it, they will order it in...not too pricey.

Tapioca Flour/Starch (these are the same...not sure why they didn't make it easy and just call them one or the other...but they didn't, so just know that you just need Tapioca) ~ Also available at Winco in bulk.

Potato Starch ~ not to be confused with Potato Flour ~ because you will need both and they serve different purposes.  I have been able to find Potato Starch at the Fred Meyer in the bulk section, kinda spendy.

Potato Flour ~ again not to be confused with Potato Starch...you need both.  I think I was only able to find this one at Jake's Gluten Free Store...comes in a small bag (you don't need much of this one, so a small bag will do quite nicely)

Cornstarch ~ just head on over to the bulk section at Winco for this item as well.  I was very surprised at how much of this I use...pretty cheap stuff.

White Rice Flour ~ this one is a good one to buy from your local Asian Stores...makes your goodies so good!

Xanthan Gum ~ This one will make you raise an eyebrow or two...quite spendy...but you don't use too much of it at a time...essential to have, so grab yourself some.  This is also found in the bulk section of Winco ~ BUT it is with all the spices, not in the bins...you'll be happy to know that if you didn't already.  :0)

That's about it, aside from the normal baking powder and soda and such...
I've found that I use a lot more baking powder than I had in the past and less baking soda. 
That might be a good thing to note for yourself.

HUGE NOTE!!!  Do yourself a big ol' favor and write what the contents of your bag are on the little tag, cause sure enough you'll get them home and not have the slightest idea which is which -- they look so much alike. 

My next post will contain the flour recipes...
so head to the store and pick up the things on your shopping list and get ready to bake!

(Note:  The items above will cover making all of your goodies from cookies to cakes to pies to pancakes, Belgian waffles, German pancakes, biscuits, rolls, french bread, flour tortillas, pizza crust, doughnuts, sweet rolls and muffins)

For a heartier whole grain style bread that is still Gluten Free...I will share some ideas with you a little later on.  :0)