Gluten Free Tips: Bean Flours

Pretty much, all of the older gluten free cookbooks relied heavily on rice flours. I can't say for certain when bean flours were added into the repertoire, but I'm reasonably certain that Bette Hagman was a major force in popularizing them in the small segment of society that can't tolerate wheat or gluten. She is very fond of "garfava" flour, made from a mixture of fava and garbanzo beans. Now, if you like the taste of garfava flour, you're set. Nearly any place that carries Bob's Red Mill's GF products will have the company's garbanzo-fava flour.

If you're like me and absolutely loathe, hate and despise the taste of garfava flour, well, there are alternatives.

First off, why bother with bean flours at all? Two big reasons: Moisture and Protein. Most GF flours are exceedingly dry, and rice flour is one of the driest. Bean flours contain a lot more moisture and so the texture of the final product tends to be better. Sorghum and amaranth also add some moisture, though amaranth also has a rather strong flavor. Also, most GF flours are very low in protein, though for rice-based products, I've started throwing in a tablespoon or so of rice protein powder to help with that. It's still dry, but at least it's slightly more nutritious.

The good news for those of us who can't stand garfava flour but otherwise enjoy Bette Hagman's cookbooks is that any bean flour will work as a replacement. The trick is to find one whose flavor you like. Personally, I recommend soy flour. It has the most protein of any bean flour I've looked at, and adds a quite pleasant flavor into whatever you make with it. Unfortunately, I've become sensitive to soy as well, so that's no longer an option for me. Lately I've been using white bean flour. It has a very mild flavor and still adds the protein and moisture. I use it as a direct replacement for garfava flour in the "4-flour bean mix" that Bette Hagman is so fond of. Unfortunately, it's rarely available in stores.

Those are the only two I've tried besides garfava, but my advice is just to find a bean flour whose taste is either unnoticeable or enjoyable. Garfava fails on both counts for me. If you're just starting out, you may think that it's not too bad. So did I, at first. After two years of extensive use of the blasted stuff, I was ready to consign it to flames. Yech. Either Bette Hagman has weird tastes or she's completely insane on this one.

Fair warning: regardless of which bean flour you choose, there will be a rather nasty aftertaste in the raw dough. White bean flour is slightly less noticeable than either soy or garfava, but it's still there. That aftertaste does cook out.

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