Homemade brown rice flour (left) and millet flour (rice) |
Fortunately, gluten free grains like millet, buckwheat, rice, and corn can be purchased for locally for between 50 and 1.30 per pound, which while more expensive than wheat flour, are still significantly cheaper than those gluten free flours. For the most part, I make do just using the grains and not the flour, but sometimes flour is necessary, like when you want to make a gluten free bread, cake, crackers, cookies, pancakes, muffins, or even as a binder or thickener for other foods.
I've thought long and hard about purchasing a grain grinder so that I can make my own gluten free flours, weighing out the fact that a decent grain grinder will cost at least a hundred dollars, and cheap grain grinders are not worth the money. (I got a cheap grain grinder from the US from a company that wanted me to write a review, but it did such a terrible job that I've had a hard time bringing myself to actually write the review, as I don't know how I can write anything positive about that hunk of scrap metal. At best, when I was trying to make rice flour, it managed to break the rice grains into two pieces, in addition to spraying rice bits all over my kitchen. Do NOT make the mistake of getting a cheap grain grinder- huge waste of money, in my opinion!)