Against the grain: a guide to gluten-free flours

Also known as besan, ground chickpeas produce a rich, golden flour that’s great for absorbing moisture. Traditionally used in Indian dishes, such as the batter for onion bhajis, it’s also found in south European and North African dishes like the pancakes known as socca or farinita. It’s now my favourite flour for making savoury sauces and gravies and it makes a very tasty cheesy biscuit, but in a carrot cake it truly shines. Combine gram’s earthy flavour with nuts and cinnamon, dried pineapple or apricots soaked in orange juice (not forgetting the grated carrots, of course) and you have the start of something truly (gr)ambrosial.

If you’re used to rubbing butter into ordinary wheat flour to make biscuits or pastry, you’ll immediately notice a difference here – tapioca squeaks. It feels very different and it sounds (to me anyway) like boots on fresh fallen snow. Extracted from the cassava root, it’s native to Brazil where it turns up in pão de queijo, which loosely translates as cheesy bread. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s good for adding crustiness to gluten-free bakes.

Beloved by budgies, millet has more to offer than just birdseed. Its different varieties appear in African, Indian and Far Eastern dishes. In baking, millet flour is particularly helpful with crumb texture, so it’s very good in pastries and scones.

Incredibly absorbent, coconut flour can tend to ‘tighten’ bakes, so use it sparingly. It works well in biscuits and in small quantities will help bind pastry without imparting a distinct coconut flavour.

Once the trendy grain of salads and pilafs – the gluten-free alternative to couscous and bulgar wheat – quinoa now appears in a variety of forms, from breakfast flakes and pops to chips for snacking. Quinoa flour has a fairly strong nutty flavour that adds interest to gluten-free bread and sweet or savoury pastry.

Prepare to swoon as flaxseed flexes its culinary muscles before your very eyes. Marvel as it replaces eggs in vegan recipes, adds nutritional benefits to your breakfast bars and still manages to find time for a weekly Zumba class. It will never be a lead player, but it provides admirable support.

I’m off with the fairies for this one, where I imagine little woodland folk busy grinding their nuts for our delectation. It’s a magical dust but the flavour can be stronger than you expect so sprinkle with caution. Scarcely sourced from Italy and France (so you’ll probably need an online trawl to get your hands on some), it’s fantastic in Christmas recipes but it can also add its woody spirit to puddings and pastry at any time of the year.

Coming from the cannabis family, hemp flour carries its reputational baggage like a big Woodstock backpack, but this is the industrious one that’s trying to make an honest crust. Brownish green in colour, it looks and smells like no other flour. Though it’s not narcotic, it needs to be used sparingly. Rich in nutritious oils and protein, add a spoonful or two for its musky depth of flavour (and, let’s be honest, a bit of a talking point) to gingerbread, apple cake, and a deliciously dark loaf of bread.