Recipe for Gluten-Free French Apple Cake - A Girl Defloured (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep a gluten free cake from crumbling? ›

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Because gluten-free batters contain more liquid than traditional versions, they typically take longer to bake. If you remove them from the oven too soon, you may develop a gummy, mushy texture.

Although regular breads and cakes are not included in a gluten free diet, there are many creative ways in which people with coeliac disease can have their cake and eat it! Gluten gives bread, cakes and pastry the right texture. Without gluten, bread is less chewy and cakes and pastry can be drier and more crumbly.

What's the best gluten-free flour for baking? Bob's Red Mill gluten-free 1-to-1 baking mix is my favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend for baking. It has a mild texture and plenty of "stick" thanks to a blend of sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, and sorghum flour, plus some starches and xanthan gum.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture.

We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour. Note: This will also help batters become thicker and doughs to firm up.

However, you can actually mix a batter containing xanthan and/or guar gum to a point of diminishing returns. You can overwork the gums and end up with a stringy cake batter or rubbery cookie dough. (Having said that, doing this takes some work. Just don't take your aggressions out on a gluten-free cake batter.)

Some gluten free flours will produce a cake which is on the dry side. This might be due to the lack of gluten but can be for many other reasons. Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture.

If the original recipe calls for 260 grams of all-purpose flour, substitute with 260 grams of your blend. Beat the batter more. Because gluten-free flours provide less structure than all-purpose, the batter or dough you make with them may require more beating than that which you are accustomed.

How do you know when a gluten free cake is done? ›

Ultimately, the toothpick test is just one data source to rely upon: with the trio—toothpick, edges, & centre—you can reliably know your gluten-free baked goods are, well, baked! If your toothpick comes out with wet batter on it, your cake definitely needs more time.

YOUR CAKE IS SINKING IN THE MIDDLE OR NOT RISING

You may not have used enough raising agents. I do recommend experimenting with double action baking powders. Otherwise try using 25 percent more chemical raising agents (baking soda or baking powder) if you're converting a recipe to gluten free.

People who develop celiac disease later in life can have eaten gluten for many years without having a negative reaction. Studies suggest that a shift could be caused by the body reaching its breaking point after a lifetime of eating gluten. Stress and other environmental conditions may also be a part of the change.

Avoid all products with barley, rye, triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), farina, graham flour, semolina, and any other kind of flour, including self-rising and durum, not labeled gluten-free. Be careful of corn and rice products.

Cross Contamination from Kissing

If you kiss someone that has recently eaten or drank something containing gluten, there is a risk of cross contamination and being glutened because of the particles in their mouth. As we all know, a crumb contains enough traces of gluten to cause a reaction in some coeliacs.

As long as you have the time, it's better to let your batters and doughs sit. This will give flours and starches time to absorb liquid, which will prevent your recipes from developing a gritty, sandy texture. We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour.

This might be due to the lack of gluten but can be for many other reasons. Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture. The Juvela gluten free White and Fibre Mix have been developed to be as comparable to gluten containing flour as possible.

Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

Get an oven thermometer and make sure your temperature falls within the right range. You under-mixed the batter. Leaving pockets of dry ingredients that aren't mixed into the batter well enough can cause weak points inside your cake. Make sure to mix your batter thoroughly and that there are no dry spots.