I’ve shared with you in previous posts that often times I become the defacto expert on all things gluten free among friends, family, and colleagues. Recently I was asked about graham flour and decided to dedicate a post about it.
Most of us are familiar with “graham” only through our use of the ever popular graham crackers whether in box form or in our ready made pie shells. Naturally one can deduce that graham crackers are made up of graham flour. But what the heck is graham flour?
What is Graham Flour?
Simply put graham flour is coursely ground wheat flour that is less processed than whole wheat flour and bleached wheat flour. Instead of stripping the wheat of the outer layer (endosperm) processors keep the wheat whole. Then the wheat germ and wheat bran are removed, ground separately then added back to the ground whole wheat flour. This is what gives graham flour its darker brown color and sweeter taste.
What Does this All Mean?
In short graham Flour = wheat flour meaning that it is not gluten free. :( It is full of gluten and therefore would not be an alternative flour to use for your gluten free baking. This knowledge really bummed out the colleague that asked me since she was planning to use graham flour to make what she thought would be a gluten free “graham cracker crust”. Thank god she asked first right?
All this got me to thinking about how to replicate the yummy goodness of a graham cracker crust without the gluten but from scratch. Of course the simplest way to a gluten free graham cracker crust is to buy and crush gluten free graham crackers. But what what about those foodies with lots of time on their hands and who find joy in baking every single piece of the pie from scratch (aka me)?
Well this chef is on the case and can’t wait to share my very special scratch gluten free un graham graham cracker crust recipe very soon. Stay tuned :)
