If you looking for the best substitutes for buckwheat flour gluten free flours the you have come to the right place.
What Is Buckwheat Flour?
So what is Buckwheat flour? Buckwheat is a gluten-free grain, that comes from the seeds of the buckwheat plant, which is actually a herb, related to rhubarb and sorrel.
You can use buckwheat flour in lots of baking recipes from pancakes, bread, and noodles.
It is also gluten-free, making it a good option for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
As buckwheat flour doesn’t contain gluten, recipes using it will also need to use binding agents and to accommodate the buckwheat.
As some binding agents and leavenings contain gluten, if you want your recipe to be gluten-free, you will need to use arrowroot powder or tapioca starch in your buckwheat flour recipes.
Buckwheat flour is pretty easy to find in most large food store, online or in grocery stores.
What Does Buckwheat Flour Taste Like?
Buckwheat flour has a strong distinct taste. It’s flavour is a mix of nuttiness, sweetness and it’s slightly bitter. In terms of taste it is pretty similar to rye or whole wheat flour.
Out of all the gluten-free flours available it’s by far one of the most popular. It’s used a lot in pancakes and noodle recipes.
It’s nutty flavor is not overpowering making it a popular choice.
My Buckwheat Flour Recipes
11 Best Buckwheat Flour Substitutes
If you want to make a recipe that calls for buckwheat flour and you don’t have it to hand, luckily, there are lots of substitutes for buckwheat flour available.
Some of these substitutes may work better than the others for your recipes, but it depends on what you’re making.
You need to consider a few things when finding a buckwheat flour substitute. You can generally substitute buckwheat flour using a one-to-one ratio to get similar results.
Whilst none of the options have the exact same taste as buckwheat, here are 11 of the best buckwheat flour substitutes for you to try.
1. Chickpea Flour
Chickpea flour or garbanzo bean flour is a flour that has been made from finely ground chickpeas. It has a smooth and white texture. Using chickpeas flour in baking will give your recipes a distinct nutty flavour that is different from the flavour of buckwheat.
However chickpea flour is still a good substitute for buckwheat especially when used with a binding ingredient and has a high protein content. This is a great gluten-free substitute for your gluten-free recipes.
2. Oat Flour
Oat flour is flour made from finely ground oats. You can find oat flour in many food stores and health food stores. However it’s also very easy and cost effective to make by simply grinding whole oats in a food processor or blender.
It has a mild flavor and has lots of healthy benefits including being a good source of fiber.
Oat flour is an incredible buckwheat flour substitute. It has a very mild flavour so it won’t alter the flavour of most recipes.
In most recipes, you can use oat flour in equal amounts to buckwheat flour but the texture tends will be a bit softer and spongier. Oat flour therefore makes a great choice for muffins and cakes.
My Recipes using oat flour:
3. Tapioca Flour
Tapioca flour is generally used to make gluten-free bread. Tapioca flour gives bread a “chewy” texture by making it very elastic and stretchy, whereas other ingredients used to make gluten free bread don’t create the desired texture.
It works well as a replacement for buckwheat flour and is handy to keep in your kitchen if you have gluten intolerance or are wanting to cut back on gluten. It can be used for baking fruit pies, puddings, and bread.
4. Whole wheat Flour
If you don’t need your recipe to be gluten free then whole wheat flour is probably the best substitute Buckwheat flour that you will find. Whole wheat flour can be easily found and most people probably already have a bag sitting in their cupboards.
The taste of whole wheat flour is more mild the buckwheat. It will produce different results to buckwheat as it contains gluten. However this usually means a much better texture for your bakes.
You could also substitute buckwheat with white all purpose flour but whole wheat will provide a more similar colour and taste.
5. Brown Rice Flour
Brown rice flour is made from finely grounding brown rice. It has a mild nutty flavour, but the flavour is not as strong as buckwheat.
As it’s on the dense side it will produce different result to buckwheat flour, so for best results use alongside another flour too.
6. Sorghum Flour
Sorghum flour is another gluten-free flour substitute. It has a slightly nutty and sweet flavour, which makes it much more similar to buckwheat than some of these other options..
Sorghum flour works well in cookies and pancakes. However it you want to make cakes and breads the results can be very crumbly. This can be avoided if you use additional binders like eggs or xanthan gum.
7. Almond Flour
Almond flour is made from ground almonds. This is a healthy alternative to buckwheat flour and adds a hit of protein and fibre to your recipes, whilst being low carb.
It has a slightly sweet taste meaning almond flour work’s perfectly in sweet recipes. You can substitute buckwheat flour with almond flour using a 1:1 ratio.
My Almond Flour Recipes:
8. Coconut Flour
Coconut flour is made from grounding coconut until a flour forms. It has a slightly sweet and nutty flavour and is gluten free.
As buckwheat flour is heavier than coconut flour, you’ll want to use about 25% less of it in your recipe. It can also create drier doughs so you may need to add extra egg or liquid for moisture.
Looking for coconut flour substitutes?
My Coconut Flour Recipe:
9. Quinoa Flour
Quinoa flour is made from ground quinoa and can be found in some health food stores or you can easily order it online at Amazon. It may be just as easy to make it yourself by blending quinoa in a blender or food processor. The flavour of quinoa flour is earthy, grassy, and not quite as sweet as buckwheat.
Quinoa has lots of nutritional value and contains all the essential amino acids.
This is a substitute that’s often used in gluten-free baking as it’s gluten free. To get similar results to buckwheat you will usually need to combine with another flour or binder.
10. Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour
Gluten-free all purpose flour is a mix of lots flours, including garbanzo, potato starch, sorghum flour, and tapioca flour. It is perfect for using in recipes for pasta, pizza dough, and pie crusts.
It also gives a softer and spongy texture to muffins, bread, cakes, then some of these substitutes do. If you want to use this in place of place of buckwheat flour, as it doesn’t contain gluten you will need to use a thickening agents like guar gum or xanthan gum in baking recipes.
11. Spelt Flour
Spelt flour contains gluten-free, so not suitable is your recipe needs to be gluten free. However, when it comes to taste alone, this is probably be the closest thing to buckwheat that you can find and is a great alternative.
Spelt flour is very similar to plain flour, but it’s milled with the outer layer of the grain intact. This is what cause its high nutritional content and where the flavour comes from.
The gluten content means this is an option that works well in cakes and breads.
Final Thoughts on Buckwheat Flour Substitutes
The flours mentioned in this post are the best substitutes you can find for buckwheat flour. However depending on your recipe you will need to make tweaks in order to get the desired results. Although buckwheat flour has unique characteristics if your following a gluten-free diet or have gluten allergies you can easily use one of these gluten-free flour substitutes in it’s place.
