Alright, here’s a list of products I use.
Please notify me if any of the links don’t work or the products are no longer listed.
THINGS THAT MAKE GLUTEN-FREE LIFE EASIER
Bread Maker—This has always been worth the cash we spent on it for my family. It has given us so many delicious, beautiful sandwiches, slices of French Toast, or breakfasts. The Bread-Maker is very simple and easy to use. It makes breads that would take time (and arm-muscle) to make. Here’s a reasonably priced bread-maker.
Electric Mixer—This isn’t just a gluten-free necessity, it is a necessity in every kitchen. My mixer is nothing fancy. It’s probably ten years old and sometimes doesn’t work exactly like it should. But it’s still useable. You can purchase a kitchenaid if you’re feeling wealthy. If not, this or thismight be more within your price range.
Blender—Makes delicious smoothies, grinds things like carrots and zucchini for cakes and breads, makes mayonnaise, salad dressings, and much more. It has always been worth having.This looks like a pretty good option to me.
Various pots and pans—Glass pyrex pans, baking sheets, saucepans, etc. I use them all and you will often need them in recipes. Of course, you should already have these in your kitchen.
Ramekins—I rarely use these, except for souffles. And they are one of those weird kitchen things that you probably don’t have. You don’t need this. You can’t make a souffle without them, but you don’t need them otherwise….Though they are kind of pretty containers for salad dressings. But of course you don’t need a fancy salad dressing container! These are reasonably priced.
Toaster—I don’t actually have one. But I want one. It would make our bread even better, and if I ever succeed in bagels I will certainly want one. We threw our old one out long ago because toasters can’t be salvaged from contamination. This one looks good.
Moving on.
INGREDIENTS:
Important note: Most of these links are amazon links because many people use amazon and find it more convenient than other sources. That being said, however, I HIGHLY recommend Azure Standard as a place to buy flours, produce, and ingredients in bulk. We usually buy from them twice a month and their prices are very reasonable. The link above is NOT an affiliate link…I’m recommending Azure because I truly believe that it’s a great food source. If you don’t have Azure available to you, however, the below sources are equally reasonably priced.
Flours:
Rice Flour: A great all-purpose gluten-free flour. I use this quite a bit and it’s good to have it in your kitchen. I use Bob’s Red Mill. I’d reccomend getting it in a 25 lb bag (less than $1/pound). You can get it organic, too, but that’s almost double the price. You can find rice flour here.
Oat Flour: I use this a lot in baking. However, it’s fairly expensive as a gluten free flour. What I do is purchase Quaker Oats and grind them into flour in our blender (you can also use a coffee grinder to grind oats). In any case, gluten-free whole oats are cheaper than flour. However, if you’d like gluten free oat flour pre=ground, you can get it here. Still have questions about oats? The Oat Issue is my page all about the bothersome oat question.
Millet Flour: I hardly ever use this, but if you’re interested you can find it here.
Starches:
Tapioca Starch/Tapioca Flour (they’re one in the same): You can find it from Bob’s Red Mill here. It’s generally considered a healthier option than cornstarch or potato starch. If you’d prefer to use tapioca flour, you can go ahead and substitute it for cornstarch or potato starch in any of my recipes (except for in sauces).
Potato Starch (not the same as potato flour!): Right here.
Cornstarch: Can be found in your local grocery store. Just check the label. Most cornstarch is gluten free.
Other:
Xanthan Gum: Sorry it’s expensive. But it’s a gluten-free necessity and you really won’t need to use more than 1 teaspoon or so in each recipe. We usually go through only 1 or 2 eight ounce bags in a year. Click here for xanthan gum.
Oh, and are you looking for the best gluten-free deals ever? Check out Janelle at Gluten Freely Frugal. I think she might be official deal-finder of the century. I am not getting paid to recommend her, so that last statement was completely honest. 🙂
P.S. I’m not getting paid to recommend any of this stuff.
Hi Linnaea I was just wondering,
1. What kind of milk (1%, 2%, whole, organic, grass fed etc…) and milk powder (brand/s) do you use in your recipes?
2. Do you grind your own rice flour. If so what kind of rice do you use?
3. Do you buy your ingredients in bulk? If so where?
Thanks so much, your stuff looks absolutely scrumptious!
Charity
We drink full fat store-bought milk during the winter, but during the summer we can usually buy it fresh. Delicious! For milk powder, we just buy whichever brand they have at the grocery store (I think we have Western Family now but we don’t use it much).
I don’t grind my own rice flour. I’ve tried it, but it’s way too coarse. We buy Lundberg rice flour in 20 lb bags from Azure Standard (https://www.azurestandard.com/).
Besides the rice flour, we don’t buy anything in bulk except honey (which we get from a local producer). Cornstarch we buy at the grocery store (it’s least expensive there), and we buy tapioca starch and potato starch from azure.
I just stumbled onto your site today after reading the article in Mary Jane’s Farm Magazine. I have been looking for a GF piecrust recipe forever and am planning to try yours today. I am new to GF baking. Often the GF crusts I have tried are not good, to say the least. I can’t wait! Regarding the rice flour that you use….do you just use white rice flour? Have you experimented with brown rice flour?
Actually, I usually use brown rice flour in this pie crust with no problems. I have used Bob’s Red Mill white rice flour in this recipe, and that worked just fine as well.
Side note: If you see “rice flour” anywhere in my recipes, just figure that I mean brown rice flour. That’s the flour I generally use.
The rice flour link isn’t working. Do you normally purchase yours from Amazon?
Hi Jessi,
I’ll update the link. Actually we normally purchase from azure in bulk: https://www.azurestandard.com/, but I used mostly amazon links in this post because amazon is more convenient for most people. But I also highly recommend azure (and I’m not paid to say that)…we order from them twice a month.
I am curious about your rice flour… the link takes me to a page with the product, however, the second line in the product description states as follows “Allergen Note: 5 lb size is repackaged by Azure Standard, and is processed in a facility that packs and stores peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and wheat products.”
From your experience, should I be concerned with the potential of cross-contamination of this product being re-packaged in a place with potential gluten exposure? I apologize but I am new to all of this and looking for some guidance. Love this website by the way!
Hi there,
Usually we are okay eating flour that has been processed in a facility that processes wheat; however, we try to avoid it. I’ve also noticed that as we’ve been eating gluten-free longer, we’ve become slightly less sensitive (I guess our guts healed over time, though we will never be able to go back to wheat again). If you’re just starting out you should try to avoid products processed in a facility that processes wheat, though.
Anyway, about that particular product: We actually don’t use it anymore. It’s been a while since I updated this page, sorry! We still order from Azure, but now we get Bob’s Red Mill rice flour in bulk. You can get it non organic (click here) or organic (click here).