Within months of embarking upon my gluten free life, I had begun exploring the world of baking. I really loved kneading bread, baking pies, and experimenting at my own little bake shop (a.k.a. the kitchen table). No longer was my world one of all purpose flour, or ready made mixes. I’d branched out. I was testing whole wheat flours (e.g. bread, pastry). I even began a blog about my attempt to make a perfect loaf of whole wheat bread. I thought I’d broadened my horizons, until I stopped eating gluten.

I found myself swimming in a sea of unfamiliar products. I bought boxed mixes for homemade pizza crust, brownies, and cakes. Yet, they were all quite terrible in those days. The time had again come for me to pick up my apron. I scoured the internet trying to understand the various flours before me. I bought a few different kinds that were popular at the time (i.e. white flours and starches), and began again. The results were acceptable, but the baked goods I made just didn’t stand up to their gluten containing counterparts. So, I kept trying. I kept reading what other gluten free bloggers were discovering in their kitchens. I asked questions.

Finally, one flour that really struck me as quite useful in any recipe was sweet white sorghum flour. This flour has a very light flavor and texture, but without any of the graininess I had learned to expect from white rice flour. It looks, and feels, like all purpose wheat flour. In addition to its good looks and texture, sorghum flour has more fiber and protein than rice flours and starches, and is a valuable source of iron. I use sorghum flour in just about everything I make. I love that it’s a whole grain flour, that it’s nutritionally outstanding, and that it gives my baked goods a soft texture with a sturdy structure.

Sorghum is a grain with its origins rooted in Africa and India. Sorghum has been used for eons to feed both humans, and cattle alike. It is often eaten as porridge, and as molasses, but it is also used in gluten free baking and gluten free beers. While there are many colors of the sorghum grain, the one most often encountered is the white or sweet white.

While no one flour is ever going to substitute straight into any recipe, it’s nice to find a good base flour to work around. For me, sorghum is the foundation I like to start my baking upon.