The immediate reaction to finding out you can no longer have gluten may be despair — especially if you love to bake. But gluten-free flours are increasingly easy to find in markets, offering a gustatory lifeline for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease.

Baking without gluten is not necessarily more difficult, but it requires different ingredients and, sometimes, slightly altered techniques. For delicious desserts, it helps to understand the role of gluten in baked goods, your available options and how to use alternative flours.

What Does Gluten Do in Baked Goods?

Gluten, inherent in all varieties of wheat, rye and barley, is a mixture of proteins that, when moistened and mixed or kneaded, lend structure and elasticity to doughs and baked goods. Food scientist Harold McGee explains in his book “On Food and Cooking” that the proteins in gluten “form long chains that stick to each other,” which hold pastries together and make bread chewy. They let pie dough roll without cracking, keep cakes from crumbling and give bread dough the strength to trap air bubbles as it ferments and bakes.

Which Gluten-Free Flour Works Best?

While a wide range of gluten-free flours made from grains, tubers, nuts and seeds exist, you can’t simply pick any one of them to stand in for wheat flour. Instead, you’ll need a blend of at least two or three, which can be bought prepackaged or mixed at home.

For the novice gluten-free baker, the best approach is to start with a store-bought blend that can be swapped in one-to-one for regular flour. It is “the easiest way to get familiarized with the textures and expectation of what it is to bake gluten-free,” said Aran Goyoaga, the author of “Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple: A New Way to Bake Gluten-Free.”

These blends are formulated to closely mimic all-purpose wheat flour’s characteristics and often contain a large proportion of starch, making them “great for things like cakes, cookies, pastry, brownies — basically everything that’s not gluten-free bread,” said Katarina Cermelj, the author of “The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free or Vegan.” For maximum versatility, she advised avoiding “blends that contain intensely flavored flours like chickpea.”

Blending individual flours yourself costs you less in the long run, and this simple all-purpose mix of millet, oat, and white and brown rice flours has a mildly nutty, sweet aroma. In addition to flavor, each component contributes to this blend’s effectiveness and versatility: White and brown rice deliver a hefty dose of starch; millet imparts a yellow hue and a rich, buttery flavor; oat adds protein and fiber to help with structure and moistness.

Whether your blend is store-bought or homemade, it should feel finely milled and texturally resemble wheat flour (as opposed to, say, cornmeal).

How Do I Bake With Gluten-Free Flour?

For basic desserts and other treats, Goyoaga advised starting with a recipe specifically developed for one-to-one gluten-free blends or one that calls for only cake flour or all-purpose wheat flour. According to Alice Medrich, a celebrated baker and the author of “Gluten-Free Flavor Flours,” those recipes should come from experienced bakers who thoroughly test recipes. She also warned against straying from a recipe: “Do it exactly as written that first time to see if you even like it, what it does and then play around a bit.” As for breads: Stick with recipes specifically written for gluten-free bread.

Because milling is inconsistent and flour densities vary across brands and varieties, use a scale to weigh your ingredients rather than measure with cups. If you still end up with dry or crumbly bakes when swapping in a blend, Cermelj and Medrich advise reducing the amount of flour by 10% for wet cake batters; reducing the butter or oil by 20% to 30% for buttery treats like cookies; and reducing the baking temperature by 25 degrees and increasing the baking time as needed.

And the more you bake without gluten, the more you’ll enjoy its benefits. Overmixing doughs and batters with wheat flour can result in toughness. With gluten-free flour, that risk is eliminated and means that cookie and pie doughs can be rerolled and that cake batters can be beaten well and end up with better textures.

Once you’re comfortable with one-to-one blends, try other wheatless flours. Nut flours and coconut flour contribute bold flavor and textural interest, even mild sweetness. Teff and buckwheat complement chocolate; corn flour shines in buttery biscuits and tarts; and oat flour highlights the brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies.

What Are Xanthan Gum and Psyllium Husk Powder? Do They Need to Be Used in Gluten-Free Baking?

When you buy gluten-free flour blends or consult gluten-free baking recipes, you’ll notice xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder often listed among the ingredients. These are binders, which Cermelj, who also earned a doctorate in chemistry, described as “hydrocolloids, which means they bind to a lot of water and make a sticky, elastic gel that kind of mimics the effects of gluten.”

Xanthan gum can save cakes, cookies or brownies from turning out crumbly. Goyoaga said some amount of xanthan gum is especially helpful for doughs that require stretching, such as puff pastry, croissant, pasta and pie dough, to prevent them from falling apart when rolled or leaking butter when baked. As you gain experience with gluten-free recipes, you’ll be able to guess how much, if any, xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder to add.

But Medrich called gluten-free bread “a whole other ballgame” — one where psyllium husk powder steps up to the plate. This fiber-rich, seed-derived ingredient encourages a chewy texture and, according to Goyoaga, is mandatory for holding together dough so it can be kneaded and shaped. Whatever you end up using, take heart: Going gluten-free isn’t the end of enjoying baked goods, but the beginning to discovering how delicious new ones can be.

Recipe: All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend

By Brian Levy

This versatile gluten-free flour blend, from Brian Levy’s cookbook “Good & Sweet” (Avery, 2022), has a mildly nutty, sweet aroma — more like that of freshly milled wheat flour than the bland stuff often found in the “all-purpose” bag. (Be sure to use very finely milled flours, such as those from Bob’s Red Mill.) The blend is also fluffy like wheat flour, thanks to its precisely balanced formula that includes almost 60% whole grains. In addition to flavor, each component contributes to the effectiveness and versatility of this blend: White and brown rice deliver a hefty dose of starch; millet imparts a yellow hue and a rich, buttery flavor; and oat adds protein and fiber to help with structure and moistness. If avoiding gluten is a health concern, be sure to look for flours labeled “gluten-free” as even flours that are naturally gluten-free are sometimes processed in the same facility as wheat.

Yield: About 8 cups/1,000 grams flour

Total time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups/415 grams white rice flour

1 1/2 cups/205 grams millet flour

2 cups/190 grams oat flour

1 1/2 cups/190 grams brown rice flour

Xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together very well. (Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a large food processor.)

2. Transfer the flour blend to an airtight container and store in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months, or as long as it has a neutral, pleasant smell. One cup of this blend weighs about 130 grams and can be used interchangeably in recipes that call for a store-bought 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. If needed, add a binder like xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder as directed in the recipe. Psyllium husk is used in gluten-free bread recipes; add the amount as directed.

3. If you’re swapping in this flour blend for all-purpose wheat flour in baked goods, you may need to add anywhere from 1/4 teaspoon to 3/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum per cup/130 grams of this blend, depending on the desired level of elasticity. (For a sheet cake or brownie batter that already contains a lot of eggs, which are good binders, you don’t need much xanthan gum; for a buttery pie or biscuit dough, or for a batter for a cake roll, you’d need more.)

Recipe: Gluten-Free Yellow Sheet Cake

By Brian Levy

This is a classic one-bowl any-occasion yellow cake, but for one difference: rice and millet flours replace the usual wheat. That change does more than just make the cake gluten-free: These flavorful grains also enhance the yellow color and the buttery, vanilla-perfumed character of the cake. Using gluten-free flours also virtually eliminates the risk of overmixing the batter, so you can count on a soft, rich crumb. (Be sure to seek out finely milled flours to avoid a gritty texture.) Rice flour, instead of the traditional wheat flour, thickens the optional boiled-milk, or ermine, frosting.

Yield: 1 (9-by-13-inch) cake, 12 to 18 servings

Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes, plus cooling (or 3 hours with frosting)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup/227 grams unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups/296 grams granulated sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 1/3 cups/207 grams white rice flour

1 cup/130 grams millet flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/4 cups/287 grams whole milk

For the frosting (optional):

1/4 cup/43 grams white rice flour

1 cup/230 grams whole milk

2/3 cup/149 grams granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pinch fine salt

Preparation:

1 cup/227 grams unsalted butter, softened

1. Make the cake: Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 325 degrees. Lightly butter the sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (see Tips). Line the bottom and long sides with parchment paper.

2. Put the butter and sugar in a stand mixer bowl (or a large mixing bowl) and beat on medium-high speed with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer) until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, letting each incorporate before adding the next. Add the vanilla and salt, and beat to combine well, scraping down the sides as needed.

3. Add the rice flour, millet flour and baking powder and beat on low until fully incorporated. Raise the speed to medium-low and slowly stream the milk in. The batter may start to look grainy or curdled; that’s OK. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 37 to 40 minutes (start checking after 30 minutes if using a dark pan). Cool on a rack to room temperature.

5. If you’d like, make the frosting: In a small saucepan, whisk the rice flour and milk. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, and continue to cook until it resembles a thick pudding, 1 to 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the sugar, vanilla and salt. Transfer to a bowl and place reserved butter wrappers (see Tips) on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming; let cool to room temperature.

6. Once the pudding has cooled, beat the butter with a stand mixer and paddle attachment (or a hand mixer) until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Little by little, add the pudding to the butter, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Once combined, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, switch to the whisk attachment (if using a stand mixer), and whip for a few minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy like thick whipped cream.

7. Immediately spread the frosting over the surface of the cake in an even layer using an offset spatula. Serve the frosted cake within a couple of hours or cover the pan with foil and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Tips:

Save all the butter wrappers from this recipe. After making the pudding component of the frosting, press the wrappers on top of it to prevent a skin from developing. If you’re not making the frosting, use the wrappers to butter the pan for this cake or other cakes.

Use a metal cake pan that is light in color, as that yields a more even bake. If you only have a dark metal pan, your cake may bake more quickly and have a darker crust; start checking for doneness after 30 minutes.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Brian Levy/Julia Gartland
c. 2025 The New York Times Company