Best Gluten-Free Flours of 2023

Gluten-free flours are a great alternative if you have to avoid traditional flour or wheat flour. We reviewed and tested the best gluten-free flours to use for anything you’re looking to bake.

Gluten-Free Flours

Gluten-free flour doesn’t have the same properties as wheat flour, so when it comes to baking and cooking, you may need to adjust your recipes. Or you can shop for a one-to-one flour substitute, which are blends of different starches like bean and rice flour with a few added ingredients to give them more binding or rising properties. You may want to keep a few different gluten-free flours on hand, since different products work better for different uses in the kitchen. 

Here, you’ll find the best gluten-free flours, according to our research and testing. 

Best Gluten-free Flour For Bread + Best Overall

Pillsbury Multi-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend

Pros

• Contains xanthan gum
• Versatile and can be used in a wide range of recipes
• Suitable for use in yeasted breads 
• Neutral flavor 

Cons

• Not widely available 
• More expensive than other gluten-free flours

Pillsbury’s gluten-free flour is Mama Knows Gluten Free’s top choice for a number of reasons. First, it has a nice neutral flavor and is highly versatile in many different kinds of recipes, from sweet to savory, and it can be used as a one-for-one for regular wheat flour. Second, it already contains xanthan gum, which is very convenient—if a gluten-free flour blend doesn’t have this ingredient it’s likely that you will have to buy it separately and add it into most recipes. 

Finally, Pillsbury’s blend is the only gluten-free flour on the market that’s suitable for use in yeasted breads. The manufacturers of other popular gluten-free flour blends, like King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill, state that their products are not suitable for use in bread recipes that require yeast. Pillsbury’s gluten-free flour is the product that the founder of Mama Knows Gluten Free used to develop many of her recipes, including an easy gluten-free bread recipe that uses yeast. It’s the product we recommend again and again across the site. If you only want to keep one type of gluten-free flour in your pantry, it should be this one. 

However, one downside is that this product can be harder to find in grocery stores, and you may need to order it online from retailers like Walmart or Amazon. 

Specs

• Ingredients: rice flour, potato starch, pea fiber, tapioca starch, xanthan gum
• Calories per Serving: 90

Best for Cookies

King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour

Pros

• Contains xanthan gum
• Great flavor in cookies
• Versatile and did well in other recipes
• Easy to use  

Cons

• Not recommended for yeasted breads
• Texture was grainy in some recipes 

In our taste tests, the cookies made with this flour were the favorite, and didn’t have a noticeably different texture from cookies made with wheat flour. The cookies came out nice and light with an excellent flavor, and held their shape as they cooled. King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour also performed well in our biscuit taste test. 

This flour has a rice flour base, and we also like that it’s available in both 1-pound and 3-pound bags. However, this flour did less well in our pancake taste test, with pancakes that came out slightly grainy. 

Specs

• Ingredients: rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, sorghum flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, cellulose, vitamin and mineral blend, xanthan gum, cellulose gum 
• Calories per Serving: 100

Best for Cakes

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour

Pros

• Easy to substitute into cake recipes
• Contains xanthan gum
• Widely available 

Cons

• Not recommended for yeasted breads
• Can be grainy in some recipes

In our background research, Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour was not only popular among people who eat a gluten-free diet, but also easy to find at grocery stores. It’s primarily a rice flour blend that already has xanthan gum included. It has a neutral flavor that works well in sweet cakes and cookies. 

As the name suggests, this blend is intended to be used as a direct substitute for wheat flour. We still think that Pillsbury’s Gluten Free Flour is probably your best bet for most cake recipes, but if it’s not available this product from Bob’s Red Mill is a solid runner-up.

In our taste tests for pancakes, the texture was slightly more grainy than our top gluten-free flour choice, but still tasty. 

Specs

• Ingredients: sweet rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, whole grain sorghum flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum
• Calories per Serving: 130

Best for Frying

Argo Corn Starch 

Pros

• Makes for a crispy coating on fried foods
• Can also be used as a thickener 
• Inexpensive
• Widely available

Cons

• Not a one-to-one substitute to wheat flour

Even cooks who aren’t gluten-free swear by corn starch when it comes to getting a crispy batter or crunchy finish on fried foods. Plus, it’s naturally gluten-free and you may already have it in your pantry. You can make a batter by blending it with another gluten-free flour (like in these gluten-free mozzarella sticks) or use it on its own for a super light crispy coating.

Corn starch is useful for making scrambled eggs fluffy and thickening sauces and gravies, but you shouldn’t use it as a one-to-one substitute for wheat flour in recipes like brownies and cakes. 

Specs

• Ingredients: corn starch
• Calories per Serving: 30

Best for Pie Crust

Better Batter Original All Purpose Flour Blend, Certified Gluten-Free

Pros

• Contains xanthan gum
• Easy to use
• 1-for-1 substitute for wheat flour
• Free from a range of allergens 

Cons

• Not widely available 
• Expensive

For her gluten-free pie crust recipe, Mama Knows Gluten Free founder Audrey Roberts recommends either our top choice overall (Pillsbury) or Better Batter Original All Purpose. Not only is Better Batter certified gluten-free, it also has third party verification to ensure it’s free from a number of other common allergens including nuts, milk, and soy. 

The company is also a social enterprise, which means it donates to a range of good causes, like supporting families living with Autism and sustainable agriculture. 

However, this flour blend can be hard to find in grocery stores, so you may need to order it online. 

Specs

• Ingredients: white rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, pectin, xanthan gum
• Calories per Serving: 120

Best for Pancakes

Great Value Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour

Pros

• Contains xanthan gum
• Easy to use
• Great flavor
• Inexpensive 

Cons

• Only available at Walmart 
• Not as good in other baked goods

In our taste tests, the pancakes made with Great Value’s gluten-free flour were the favorite for texture and flavor, although the Pillsbury flour blend was a close second. The texture was light and fluffy, without the slightest hint of graininess (a common issue with pancakes made from other flour blends). 

Great Value is Walmart’s house brand, so you won’t find it at other grocery stores. However, we were pleased to see that it’s one of the most affordable gluten-free flour options even when ordering online. 

However, this flour blend didn’t perform as well in other recipe tests, like cookies and biscuits. 

Specs

• Ingredients: brown rice flour, tapioca starch, whole grain sorghum flour, corn starch, potato starch, xanthan gum
• Calories per Serving: 130

Best for Biscuits

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour

Pros

• Great for savory baked goods
• Gives biscuits and breads a good texture
• Contains more protein than rice-based gluten-free flours
• Widely available 

Cons

• Chickpea flavor is noticeable in some recipes
• Xanthan gum needs to be added for many recipes
• Not ideal for baking sweet pastries or desserts 

In our buttermilk biscuit test, Bob’s Red Mill was our testers’ favorite for texture and taste. The biscuits were light on the inside but still browned nicely on the top. Also, we were able to find this flour at most of the grocery stores we visited. 

The first ingredient in this all-purpose flour is garbanzo beans. This gives the flour a distinctive taste that we liked in savory recipes, but was odd in our cookie test. 

The blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum, so you will have to purchase this separately (we used Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum in our testing). However, there is a handy table on the back of the flour bag that indicates how much xanthan gum to add to different types of recipes. 

Specs

• Ingredients: garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, whole grain sorghum flour, fava bean flour
• Calories per Serving: 120

The Bottom Line:

If you want to buy just one gluten-free flour to keep on hand, it should be Pillsbury Multi-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend. Not only is it easy to use, it’s also the only gluten-free flour currently on the market that’s compatible with baking with yeast. 

What to Keep In Mind When Buying Gluten-Free Flours

Xanthan Gum

Some gluten-free flours on the market contain xanthan gum, which makes it easier to swap these products into recipes that call for wheat flour without making additional adjustments. If the blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum, you will probably need to buy it separately. Check the ingredients list to see if it’s included. 

What the Recipe Recommends

If you are using a recipe from a gluten-free cookbook author or gluten-free blogger, it’s worth seeing which product they recommend. If they developed the recipe using a specific brand, it’s worth considering using that same one. That’s because the ingredient blends can vary considerably from product to product. 

Other Dietary Restrictions

If you have other allergies or dietary restrictions in addition to gluten, then you’ll want to read the ingredient list carefully. Some gluten-free flours contain other common allergens like nuts or corn. 

How We Chose the Best Gluten-Free Flours 

Over the years, Mama Knows Gluten Free has used many different alternative flours and flour blends to develop recipes. We combined this depth of knowledge with a fresh round of side-by-side testing. We also conducted extensive research beforehand by interviewing different people who eat gluten-free diets, visiting a range of different grocery stores to see what products are available, and carefully reading manufacturer websites and ingredients lists. 

For this list, we tested eight different gluten-free flour alternatives in three different recipes: gluten-free buttermilk biscuits, gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies, and gluten-free pancakes.

In addition to the products recommended on this list, we also tested Bob’s Red Mill Grain-Free Paleo Baking Flour and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Oat Flour. Both these flours were acceptable substitutes for wheat flour, but not quite as good as the others. 

When selecting the best gluten-free flour, we made our picks based on taste, texture and ease of use. We did not evaluate the nutritional values of the products, although we have noted which products contain higher levels of protein. 

Why Trust Mama Knows Gluten-Free 

Audrey Roberts founded Mama Knows Gluten-Free with the goal of helping other families navigate the challenges of living with dietary restrictions. Over the years, she has tried out a wide range of different gluten-free flour alternatives in the development of her recipes. 

This article was researched and written by Margaret Badore, a journalist who has been covering food, health, and science for over 15 years. She also conducted a range of side-by-side taste tests to find the best gluten-free flours for different recipes. 

FAQs:

What Is Gluten-Free Flour Made Of?

Gluten-free flours vary from brand to brand, and even from product to product made by the same brand. Commonly found ingredients in gluten-free flour include garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, fava bean flour, almond flour, oats, rice flour, and tapioca flour. 

Some gluten-free flours also include xanthan gum, which is made from fermenting sugar. Some brands, such as Bob’s Red Mill, recommend adding your own xanthan gum to their blends for baking—the amount will vary by recipe. 

Can You Mix Gluten-Free Flour With Regular Flour?

We don’t recommend mixing gluten-free flour with regular flour. Gluten-free flour cooks and bakes very differently from wheat flour, so the resulting mix of different flours likely won’t behave as you might expect and can result in unpleasant or even inedible textures. 

How Long Does Gluten-Free Flour Last?

Most manufacturer’s place a “Best By” label on their products, which is typically about 12 months after the product is made. This date indicates the window within which the product will have the highest quality. However, if you find a bag of flour that’s past its “Best By” date in the back of the pantry, it’s probably still safe to eat if it looks and smells normal. Discard the product if it smells or looks off in any way. 

Is Gluten-Free Flour OK for the Keto Diet?

No, most gluten-free flours are not included in the Keto diet. However, there are a few low-carb flours, such as almost flour and coconut flour that are both gluten-free and included in the Keto Diet.