March 23, 2024 - 5:39am
gluten-free baking powder???
I saw a gluten-free baking recipe the other day that called for "gluten-free baking powder". Duuuuh? I'm not aware of ANY baking powder that contains any form of gluten. What am I missing?
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I saw a gluten-free baking recipe the other day that called for "gluten-free baking powder". Duuuuh? I'm not aware of ANY baking powder that contains any form of gluten. What am I missing?
And/or to let those who have coeliac disease it is safe to use. I would think since it is often used in gluten baking it gives them an added reassurance it is gluten free as people associate it with cake, cookies and bread. In fact while it is good marketing i'm leaning towards the second reason.
Some baking powders contain wheat flour and therefore gluten. Eg (in the UK) M&S and Stockwells (Tesco). I think many UK baking powders used to contain wheatflour, but they have mostly moved to rice flour or cornstarch as the filler.
Lance
But on the rare occasion I have bought some there has never been gluten containing products. However I think when it comes to baking/cooking in general one has to be 100% sure it's gluten free as those who have coeliac disease can't even have a possible cross contamination.
Never seen any baking powders containing wheat flour. Why in the world would they? It would have no positive effect on their leavening performance. Maybe to cheaply bulk them up?
By the same token, people marketing ten penny nails and car tires really ought to advertise them as being gluten-free! I mean, you'd never suspect them to have any gluten, but it might be considered a marketing advantage anyway!
If people were eating nails and tyres then they might need to.
Ah, but if your food came in contact with these, it would be a big issue! Oh goodness, need to certify all kitchen utensils as being gluten free also, and one better get one's oven inspected for gluten as well.
Even if nails and tyres came into contact with gluten you still don't eat them. All food labelled gluten free would take into consideration that they haven't come into contact with anything that contains gluten and can cross contaminate.
Sounds good. I'll be looking for gluten-free labels on all my steaks and apples! Hey, you eat them! My point is that one would NEVER expect baking power to have any gluten in it. Just as I'd NEVER expect my apples and steaks to have gluten in them.
steaks and apples are not prepared with gluten. Apples are picked, washed and sold. Steaks don't come into contact with anything when sold as an uncooked steak, Whereas apples and steaks prepared in restaurants would need to be certified as gluten free. Baking powder is not a single food item. It has many ingredients and contains starches which could very well be produced in factories that handle gluten containing grains. Hence the need to specify it is gluten free.
Nice try. My applesauce and soy sauce are made with lots of stuff, and they strangely never bother to tell me they're gluten free. Oh, maybe because I would never expect them to have any gluten. Now, I have done a little research and indeed, old fashioned baking powders may have had small amounts of starches added to improve "consistency" and absorb moisture and increase shelf-life. More often cornstarch, but very occasionally flour. It is true that the shelf life of pure baking power is not much more than a year. So I will admit that gluten-free baking powder is, in some sense, justifiable, but I'm pretty sure all modern baking powder is naturally gluten-free. You package it in a moisture-proof container.
Depends on the item, i suppose. Baking powder has ingredients, like starches made from grains, that is more likely to have cross contamination as it is the kind of food that is probably made in factories that handles grains which have gluten. Also, it might be from a company that used to sell baking flour which had gluten and since went gluten free. Many things to consider. If the company that made apple sauce, which one would expect to be gluten free, also handled gluten and there could be cross contamination then they'd probably say "not gluten free". In other words you might expect baking powder to not be gluten free so it'll say "gluten free" if it is. And in the reverse you might expect apple sauce to be gluten free so it'll say if it isn't.
Here is the Marks & Spencer baking powder ingredient list:
Starch is probably added as an anti-clumping agent, or possibly to coat the acid/alkali particles to stop them being in close contact and dissipating strength in storage.
Lance
But this is a good example. Which might also explain why other companies specifically say theirs isn't because others are!
Thank you, Lance.
Interesting. But that's largely "consistency". Strength dissipation would come by admitting water. I've seen half a dozen baking powders, and never seen one with flour added. Thanks for the update.
Don't forget that people open a pack of baking powder and then probably use it over quite a long time, eg 6 months? As soon as it is opened, moisture from the atmosphere will get in, especially in a kitchen which will often have high humidity.
I'm suspecting that in the olden days, people used to buy baking powder in a bag. That would allow moisture to enter, and the baking powder would decrease in leavening potency pretty rapidly as a result. Modern baking powders are sold in more solid containers, with a plastic cap. But starches are pretty hydrophilic, so they will act as good absorbers. I thought cornstarch needed to be heated to absorb water effectively, though.
A lot of things are labeled "gluten-free" that you would never imagine needed to be labeled, at least in the US. It's mostly got to be a marketing gimmick.
Here's what the US Food and Drug Administration has to say:
But the opposite isn't true. That is, foods that ARE gluten-free aren't required to say that they are.
Yes, in the US at least the labeling is optional. But if you do use a "gluten-free" label then the produce has to meet that requirement of 20 ppm.
Your soy sauce never tells you it is gluten-free because it cannot be gluten-free. That's because the most common preparation of soy sauce is with a mixture of soybean and wheat. Tamari is traditionally made without wheat so it can be gluten-free, as long as it is not produced alongside traditional soy sauce.
Baking powders still have corn starch added not only to absorb moisture but as a diluent that minimizes the acid-base self-reaction in the container and to make it easier to measure.
It sounds confusing but I imagine someone who has coeliac disease, and has to live life like this, knows what to do and what to look out for.
When I see a package of fresh off the hove beef tagged as gluten free! Smile.