Baking – What needs to be added to quinoa flour make it “behave” like all-purpose flour

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I'm a Type 2 diabetic who loves bread and pasta, so I'm exploring ways of making my favorite foods more "blood sugar friendly", hoping that I can re-integrate them into my diet in a healthy way.

Compared to all-purpose flour, quinoa flour has higher amounts of dietary fiber and protein and lower amount of carbs, making it a great candidate, nutritionally, but I also know that it (like many other "ancient grains") doesn't have the gluten that gives all-purpose flour so many of its useful characteristics.

Unfortunately, given the popularity of "gluten-free", the vast majority of search results that I get for "quinoa flour" and "gluten" end up taking me to recipes/articles for gluten-free cooking/baking, which is really the opposite of what I am looking for.

So does anyone have any tips on or experience with making quinoa flour into a more suitable standalone replacement for all-purpose flour? Add gluten for structure/airiness? More liquid to avoid dryness? Anything else?

Best Answer

Quinoa and Amaranth are from the same family and are quite similar in makeup and constitution. You’ll probably want to add some stabilizers and extra binding power to make up for the lack of gluten.

This recipe for amaranth bread adds rice flour, tapioca starch, arrowroot, and xanthan gum - which in my opinion is a bit of overkill. I would probably stick with just agar-agar for the mouthfeel, egg yolk for extra binding and xantham only if it’s too crumbly.

And on a side note, lightly toasted quinoa with bittersweet cocoa powder is a great (and classical if not downright tasty) addition to your breads. Good luck