Recipe: The Easiest Gluten Free & Vegan Fruit Cake with No Added Sugar (2024)

FAQs

How to make gluten-free more moist? ›

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

One of the most common gluten-free baking tips is “let your batter rest”. Letting the batter rest gives the gluten-free flours and starches more time to absorb the moisture. In theory, it will turn your dry, crumbly cakes into delicious, moist masterpieces.

Gluten-free oats and oat flours add texture, which works well in biscuits and breakfast muffins. Ground almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts are ideal in a blend for dense cakes, traybakes and biscuits. Polenta has a grainy texture, but is very absorbent and so brings moisture to cakes.

This might be due to the lack of gluten but can be for many other reasons. Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture.

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Let Your Batters & Doughs Rest

We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour. Note: This will also help batters become thicker and doughs to firm up.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

If gluten-free cakes aren't falling apart, they often turn out heavy and unpleasantly dense. That's because gluten creates little pockets of air, so baked goods turn out springy and fluffy; gluten-free flours and grains are lacking this crucial element.

Why does my gluten-free cake sink in the middle? ›

YOUR CAKE IS SINKING IN THE MIDDLE OR NOT RISING

You may not have used enough raising agents. I do recommend experimenting with double action baking powders. Otherwise try using 25 percent more chemical raising agents (baking soda or baking powder) if you're converting a recipe to gluten free.

If the gluten free flour you are using doesn't contain xanthan gum, then you'll want to include it in your list of recipe ingredients. Even more so if you're making cake, muffins, bread and pizza crust, as these recipes typically rely on the structure gluten provides.

What's the best gluten-free flour for baking? Bob's Red Mill gluten-free 1-to-1 baking mix is my favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend for baking. It has a mild texture and plenty of "stick" thanks to a blend of sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, and sorghum flour, plus some starches and xanthan gum.

We often reach for almond flour in baking recipes when we're looking for a light, fluffy, cake-y texture with neutral flavor, because almond flour has a milder flavor than almond meal, and tends to fluff up nicely when baked!

Gluten-free goods tend to brown faster and take longer to cook through. So they need to be baked at a slightly lower temperature, for a slightly longer time. Every recipe is different, but in general, try lowering the temperature by 25 degrees and baking the item for 15 minutes longer.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

Honey and agave as a sugar substitute can enhance moisture as well, but be aware that you should cut down slightly on the other liquids you are using in the recipe, as honey and agave are not solid ingredients. Adding an extra egg or oil can also help, but use caution.

Dry, crumbly loaf- you may need more liquid (see above), fat or binder. Gluten free bread dough needs more fat than wheat bread dough whether it's oil, butter or something else. So if your bread is dry, simply add more fat to get a better crumb.

Mix the Additives in Before the Wet Ingredients

Without it, gluten-free products can be dry and crumbly. There is a way to compensate for this however — use xanthan gum. Some bakers also use gelatin or agar. If you're using additives, mix them thoroughly with the dry ingredients before adding the wet.