GF 1:1 Flour Blend

Michael Eisenwasser

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A four-ingredient rice and starch blend that swaps one-for-one with wheat flour in most low-FODMAP baking recipes.

Prep 5 min

Cook 1 min

Serves 16

Gluten-freeDairy-freeVegan

Ingredients

• 2 cups (300 g) white rice flour
• 2/3 cup (80 g) tapioca starch (also labeled tapioca flour)
• 1/3 cup (55 g) potato starch (not potato flour)
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Makes about 3 cups (440 g). One serving is 1/4 cup (about 30 g), which gives roughly 16 servings.

Instructions

Combine

1. Add the rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, and xanthan gum to a large bowl or the jar you plan to store it in.
2. Whisk for a full minute so the xanthan gum distributes evenly. Clumps of xanthan in one spot will make that scoop gummy.

Store

1. Transfer to an airtight jar or container. Label it with the date.
2. Whisk or shake again before each use, since starches and flours settle at different rates.

Tips & Substitutions

• Swap 1:1 by volume in most cookie, muffin, quick-bread, and pancake recipes. If the batter looks thick, add liquid 1 teaspoon at a time until it matches the original texture.
• Commonly low-FODMAP-friendly commercial blends: Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (blue bag) uses sweet rice, brown rice, sorghum, potato starch, tapioca, and xanthan. King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure for Measure is rice, sorghum, tapioca, and potato based. Schär Mix Universal is low-FODMAP certified in its home market. Check the current label and Monash app before buying.
• Avoid the red-bag Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour. It contains garbanzo bean and fava bean flour, both high-FODMAP at baked-good serves.
• Skip any blend with inulin, chicory root fiber, coconut flour above 15 g per serve, or almond flour above 24 g per serve. Some "high-fiber" GF blends add inulin for texture; check the label.
• For a xanthan-free version, leave it out and add 1 teaspoon of ground psyllium husk or chia seed per cup of flour when mixing the final recipe. You can also sub guar gum 1:1 for xanthan.
• Sweet rice flour (also labeled glutinous or Mochiko) can replace up to half the white rice flour for a softer crumb in cookies and cakes. It's still low-FODMAP.
• Gums bother some people with IBS even at low-FODMAP amounts. If xanthan or guar gives you trouble, use the psyllium or chia version.

Why This Works

Rice and starch do the lifting. White rice flour is low-FODMAP at 100 g per serve, which is far above any normal baking portion. Tapioca starch and potato starch are low-FODMAP at 100 g each. Together they hit the texture of wheat flour without the FODMAPs.

The "1:1" label is misleading for FODMAPs. A gluten-free 1:1 blend only means it substitutes 1:1 for wheat in volume. It says nothing about FODMAPs. The red-label Bob's Red Mill blend is 1:1 with wheat but high-FODMAP because of the garbanzo and fava bean flour. Always read the ingredient list.

Xanthan gum holds it together. Wheat flour has gluten, which gives baked goods their structure. Gluten-free blends need a binder to keep cookies from crumbling and breads from falling apart. Xanthan at 1 teaspoon per 4 cups of blend (about 1/4 teaspoon per cup) is low-FODMAP at typical recipe amounts.

Drop-in for most recipes. Anywhere a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, you can scoop this blend in by volume or weight and get close to the original result. Denser, wetter doughs (like yeast breads) do better with a dedicated bread blend.

Storage

Keep the blend in an airtight jar at cool room temperature for up to 6 months. In a humid kitchen, store it in the fridge to prevent clumping. If you smell anything off or see moisture beading on the jar walls, start over with a fresh batch.

Not sure about an ingredient? FODMAP Tracker includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings to help you cook with confidence.