Gluten Free Wheat Starch

What is gluten free wheat starch and is wheat starch gluten free? These might sound like trick questions but the answer is they can be. Certified gluten free wheat starch is safe for celiacs and anyone with a gluten disorder. It takes a minute to get your head around using a product with the word wheat in it so keep reading and in two minutes you might be ready to try it.

this gluten free recipe

Living gluten free means keeping up with changes in food manufacturing and labelling laws. In this article I'm only talking about gluten-free wheat starch. Any product you buy must clearly state that it contains gluten-free wheat starch.

What is Gluten Free Wheat Starch

Much like cornstarch, wheat starch has been around forever but there was no effort to make it gluten free.

Grains, like corn and wheat, after being made into flour are further processed to remove all nutrition and leave only the starch. In the process of making wheat starch that includes removal of gluten proteins.

According to Schär wheat starch does not lend elasticity to dough. It is primarily used as a thickener. I've made pizza dough with it so this is shocking to me. I would have said it's "more stretchy" so I will be careful when I choose words to describe how different it is.

You May Have Eaten Wheat Starch

European countries they have been using gluten-free wheat starch for years. If you have travelled to Europe or taken a Celiac Cruise you have probably eaten some. We hear and see all the wonderful breads and pastries people enjoy but those products have been slower to come to North America.

My understanding is that in 2019 Celiac Canada revised their recommendations to include gluten free wheat starch, also called Codex wheat starch, as a product safe for celiacs. At that time I assumed it was for commercial use only and never searched for it.

Caputo Wheat Starch Flour Blend

The Italian company Caputo, has been making flour in Italy since 1924. In 2009 they launched their award-winning gluten free flour called Fioreglut. This flour blend contains wheat starch and the product is certified gluten free. In North America that means it has been tested to show that if there is a trace amount of gluten it must be less than 20 parts per million.

The Caputo Fioreglut ingredient label reads as follows.

• gluten free wheat starch
• maize starch
• dextrose
• buckwheat flour
• psyllium seed fibre
• rice starch
• thickener: guar; natural flavouring

You can see in the above photo I have purchased two different packages of Fioreglut. The ingredients are exactly the same.

Tips for Reading Labels: Caputo Fioreglut Flour

Gluten free wheat starch is the first ingredient listed in Fioreglut. By law ingredients are listed in order by weight with the heaviest ingredient listed first and the lightest ingredient listed last. This blend contains mostly wheat starch.

Maize is the British word for corn so maize starch is what we call cornstarch in North America. Maize starch is gluten free.

Dextrose is a type of sugar that usually comes from corn or wheat. If dextrose came from wheat it is still safe. The production methods involve a high level of hydrolyzation, which means that no gluten is left in the sugars. Dextrose is often used in foods as an artificial sweetener or a preservative.

Buckwheat flour: There's the word wheat again but that is simply an unfortunate name for another safe gluten-free flour. Checkout this post to see the recipes I make with buckwheat flour.

Psyllium seed fibre contains the outer layer of the psyllium seeds from the psyllium plant. It can be bought in whole husks (preferred for gluten-free baking) or powder form. Many gluten free cooks have this ingredient in their pantry as it is an effective binder, especially when baking yeast breads.

Rice starch: This ingredient is new to me. I use white rice flour, brown rice flour and sweet rice flour. None of those are rice starch. I started down a rabbit hole far enough to learn it is used in manufacturing. Examples are in face powder, baby food, soups and sauces, ready-to-eat meals, as a confectionery coating, in organic food products and dairy products. I'm not buying it so I stopped there.

Thickener: Guar: Guar gum and xanthan gum are common binders in gluten free baking. This flour blend includes guar gum.

Natural flavoring is another ingredient used in food manufacturing. My understanding is that it may contain artificial chemicals. Many of us are excited to learn how to use wheat starch in the kitchen but I was a little disappointed that this was listed as an ingredient.

King Arthur Wheat Starch Flour Blend

King Arthur also sells two gluten free flour blends that contain wheat starch; a Pizza Flour and a Bread Flour. Here are the ingredients as shown on their labels.

As you can see cellulose, pea protein and enzymes are not typical ingredients you have in your kitchen, even if you are a gluten free cook.

What to Make with Gluten-Free Wheat Starch

The most challenging recipes to make gluten free are yeast breads, puff pastry, phyllo pastry, croissants and more. I've been experimenting with pizza and bread. I'm excited to keep learning and sharing so watch for my pizza dough recipe coming soon.

As you may know my Banana Muffin recipe is written to experiment with different gluten free flours and I've tried them all. I made that recipe and substituted ½ cup of wheat starch blend for my EGFG flour blend.

My muffins had a significant dome and they felt more firm than I'm used to. It was just an experiment and I'm not trying it in all my recipes. Instead I'm focused on the most challenging yeast breads first and there are many of them.

Let me know in the comments below what you're making with these wheat starch blends and how you're tweaking the recipes.

Where To Buy Gluten-Free Wheat Starch

I don't think you can buy gluten free wheat starch as an ingredient, just flour blends that contain it.

In Italian shops near me I can buy Caputo Fioreglut flour in 1 kg and 5 kg bags. It isn't inexpensive but like most things the price goes down when you buy a larger quantity.

I also looked in German shops for Schär gluten free flour blends but was told they are not sold in Canada. I see five different flour blends on the Schär website in case they are available to you and you want to try them.

On Amazon I couldn't find the King Arthur gluten free Pizza Flour but I did find these two.

• King Arthur Bread Flour
• Caputo Fioreglut

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