By Meg Haworth, August 11, 2010 11:00 am

It all began when a baker was thoroughly disgusted with a gluten free flour blend from a competitive company.  He was using it in his gluten free baked goods and coming up with inconsistent products regularly.  His apple and blueberry turnovers would crack.  The batches would either be too dry or too wet. 

One day, a woman from a local bakery told him of a flour company that had what she believed to be the best gluten free flours she had ever tried.  So, the baker called Authentic Foods and shared his pie crust  story with Steven  Rice, the owner. 

Steven Rice, who has a biochemistry background,  confidently told him he could solve the issue using his flours.  On the first try, it was a huge success!  The pie crust was flaky and so delicious even he could hardly believe that it was gluten free.

Afterwards,  Steven Rice decided to use his various blends to determine which one works best in terms of flakiness, taste and all those other features we look for in an outstanding pastry – gluten free or not.

Of course we can’t and won’t reveal the recipe – that’s proprietary information that belongs to the baker.  However, we do want to share the ride we went on here as we tested and worked with the various possibilities that Steve had in mind.

In the next blog, look for our first installment of “Test Kitchen Capers” in which we share stories from our test kitchen here at Authentic Foods.  We’ll tell you what happened when we tested our various flour blends with this fantastically flaky pie crust recipe.   

For now, go ahead and post your comments and thoughts here.  We’d love to know if you have compared our flours to gluten free flours from other companies.  What results did you get?

Written by Meg Haworth for Authentic Foods – Dedicated to manufacturing gluten free flours and baking mixes. Where it’s not just gluten free, it’s better!