King Arthur Flour is America’s oldest flour company, founded in Boston in 1790.They offer everything from baking products to inspiring educational programs. It is employee owned company. In 2010 King Arthur Flour launched its line of gluten-free baking mixes.
Even though I always try to bake or cook from scratch, I like to have some gluten free/vegan baking mix at home in case I have unexpected gusts, or just need something sweet- fast. (Who wasn’t there? ;-))
Gluten Free Pancake Mix- I can honestly say that first time my gluten free/ vegan pancakes came up fluffy. I like that. This mix is really great. I like how it tastes. No need to add xanthan gum since it is already inside the mix. Also sugar and baking soda is in the mix. I used egg replacer in place of eggs. Also I used soy milk and vegan butter. The pancakes came up really good.Light, soft and very fluffy. They have a perfect pancake flavor and are not far away from the taste of regular pancakes. The batter smells really nice (like vanilla) and delicious and is a little sweet. I will definitly keep King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Pancake mix in my kitchen handy.
This product gets from me [rating=5]
Gluten Free Brownie Mix– Here I got some weird results. The final taste of brownies was great but…I was not even able to cut brownies out from my pan. First they grew high in the oven, but I had to keep them much longer, than the instructions said. It looked like my mix didn’t want to bake. It looked more like it was cooking and boiling than baking. For very long time it was just liquid. When I finally decided to take it out and I let it to cool off, the brownie went down. It was not possible to cut it out since, it become kind of gooey and still more on liquid side. Surprisingly the taste was great! My friend and I just ate it up with spoon. 😉 I wonder if the reason for this could be egg substitute that I used. This time I have decided to go with flax seed plus water. I followed the instructions I have found on King Arthur Flour web site. Maybe I will try those again with egg replacer one day and see how it goes. I was disappointed though because I really was craving for brownies.
This product gets from me [rating=3]
Gluten Free All- Purpose Baking Mix– The pacakge contains basicly all the dry necessary ingredients. In most cases when you bake with this mix you need to add egg (egg replacer/egg substitue in Vegan case ;-)) , butter, milk. I tried this flour for my gluten free chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t add xanthan gum nor baking soda since it is inside the mix. I added vegan butter, sugar and milk just like my recipe calls for. When cookies were ready they were soft, but 30 min later they become hard. They tasted good though. Even hard version of my chocolate chip cookies. I am not sure again why the final product came out so different than when using different brand gluten free baking mix. Maybe for this mix egg replacer is always necessary, even if the recipe doesn’t call for it. I will try it again with different recipe and post my result.
UPDATE: I just made gluten-free cinnamon-streusel coffeecake using King Arthur Flour – Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Mix. Wow! It came so good! It came delicious and without any problems, even though I used egg replacer! The cake is great. Really great. Maybe not that fluffy, but really neat!
And that is why, I have decided to add a star!
This product gets from me [rating=4]
I personally think gluten free mixes from King Arthur Flour are quite decent (even though I didn’t got exactly the results I was hoping for). Some of them may not work with egg replacer/ nor even with egg substitute which may be the reason for my unsatisfactory baking results.
According to their web site they don’t use GMO ingredients. The reason why they don’t label their flour “non-GMO” is that they believe it is just not important to do so: ” Since we know there are no GMOs in the wheat supply, we believe this step is unnecessary.”
In my humble opinion this smells actually little fishy. If brand is really non-GMO, than why not to proudly show it? I understand it takes time and take money for all the process but I really think it is worth it. So I hope that the company is really using non-GMO ingredients and it is not only saying it as their marketing tool.
I would personally prefer more pure mixes without extra ingredients like cellulose or niacin amide (A B Vitamin). I prefer vitamins in natural form than added and listed more like chemicals in ingredients list. Before gluten free times I would eat some pancake mixes that I know also had some ingredients I wouldn’t want them there. So I think it is ok to have from time to time some pancakes or cookies made from mixes. I have to figure out though what egg substitute works the best for King Arthur Flour Mixes. If you used any mixes of this brand, please leave a comment below.
General rating: [rating=3]
Products provided by: www.kingarthurflour.com
UPDATE!:
I have received another e-mail from King Arthur Flour Company. Mrs. Natasha was very nice and very helpful and provided me with additional informations:
“Eggs play an essential role in creating structure in gluten free products. Replacing them with a commercial or single ingredient (flax meal) replacer will effect structure, texture, and mouth feel. We are not able to test every recipe against the multitude of egg replacers available. The higher the amounts of sugar and/or fat in the recipe/mix, the less likely the chance of a successful outcome.
We test our mixes with Ener-G and flax meal during development. Yes, using these two replacers, with the box panel recipes on the GFAP Baking Mix, the recipes do perform. They will be: less airy, less tender, and less browned in appearance. Both may or may not, alter the flavor profile of the finished product.”
* Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in the review is my own and honest viewpoint. I was not required to write a positive statement.