Use ʻUlu Flour Baking Mix for Pastries, Pancakes and Cookies!

by Sarah Burchard

If you like the idea of using ʻulu flour, but do not know where to start, we recommend working with our All Purpose 1:1 ʻUlu Flour Baking Mix first. To make working with ‘ulu flour easier we created this mix as a gluten-free, cup-for-cup alternative to all-purpose flour for pastries. Now, you do not have to spend time recalculating your recipes and shopping for additional ingredients in order to make it work.

For best results:

This low-protein flour mix works best for pancakes, muffins and desserts, such as brownies, cakes and cookies. Simply swap out the amount of all-purpose flour in your recipe with the same amount of ʻUlu Flour Baking Mix and proceed as usual. 

What this flour should NOT be used for:

Although this flour mix will produce light and fluffy blueberry muffins, it will not create springy pasta noodles or a chewy, yet airy loaf of bread. That is because breads and pastas require high-protein flour to achieve these results. This is a low-protein pastry flour, intended for pastries and the like. Breads will be extremely dense and pasta dough will not develop the elasticity it needs to maintain its structure while cooking. 

Why we chose these ingredients:

‘Ulu flour is a healthy, locally produced alternative to wheat flour. It is high in starch, protein and fiber and in small amounts lends a wonderful earthy flavor. But like all gluten-free flours, it must be combined with a variety of starches, gums, protein and other gluten-free flours in order to mimic the result that gluten delivers. 

The starches help with texture and provide a more airy crumb.

Each one has their own specialty:

Cornstarch is also used as a thickening agent and aids in browning and lending a crunchy texture, potato starch acts as a tenderizer and adds moisture, and tapioca starch, also known as tapioca flour, provides lightness.

We prefer to use white rice flour to brown rice flour, only because we found brown rice flour to make pastries very dense.

For structure, we used milk powder which is high in protein. Milk powder also adds moisture and helps with browning. We tried making a dairy-free version of this mix with coconut milk powder, but found that the pastries came out with a somewhat gummy texture.

Finally, xanthan gum is used as a binding agent to mimic the elasticity and structure that gluten provides.

Click here to see all All Purpose ʻUlu Flour Baking Mix Recipes!