Millet flour, common in African and Asian cooking, contains no gluten, making it a frequent ingredient in gluten-free recipes for baked goods. Most specialty grocery and health food stores sell it. If you can't find millet flour for a recipe you're dying to try, there are several gluten-free substitutes you can use instead. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Sorghum Flour
Sorghum, also known as milo, is a type of grass that grows in tropical Africa. Its flavor is similar to millet, with a sweet undertone. Like millet flour, it works best in unleavened bread recipes and is often blended with other gluten-free flours to produce the best flavor and texture. Sorghum flour can be found at health food shops, specialty grocery stores and online.
Quinoa Flour
South American quinoa, readily available as a gluten-free cereal grain, makes a slightly nutty-tasting flour. Quinoa flour is more expensive than millet or sorghum flour, but it's less dependent on being combined with other gluten-free flours, and makes good gluten-free cookies, pancakes, breads and cakes. Look for quinoa flour in shops that carry a selection of gluten-free items and online.
Buckwheat Flour
Though it has a glutenous-sounding name, buckwheat flour contains no gluten. You can use it as a substitute for millet in recipes for cakes and breads. Unlike millet flour, which has a mild flavor, buckwheat flour has a strong, nutty taste and is often blended with lighter flours such as millet. If you don't mind the stronger taste, try buckwheat flour in place of millet flour. Buckwheat flour is a staple of organic groceries, and can be purchased online.
Montina Flour
Montina is a grass native to North America, also called "Indian rice grass." It's similar to millet in that it comes from a grass and it has a mild flavor. Montina can be purchased blended with rice and tapioca flour as an all-purpose baking flour to make baked goods that come out close to their wheat flour counterparts. Although it's grown domestically, montina flour is generally harder to find than other gluten-free flours, and it costs significantly more. Look for it in health food stores and online.
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