Jules Gluten-Free Flour Blend - Soft Pretzels

I’ve tested as many of the gluten-free and allergen-free flour blends that I can find, so I was very excited to try Jules Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour. This blend, like those I have reviewed in the past, is a mix of many different flours, but is unique in one very important way – it uses Expandex modified tapioca starch.

Expandex is made from tapioca root, but enhanced so that it behaves more like wheat flour. It’s objective is to provide a better texture, better binding properties, and a better appearance.

Jules’ flour combines Expandex tapioca starch with potato starch, corn starch, flour, rice flour, and xantham gum. Because the xantham gum is included in the mix, there’s no need to add more gums when following gluten-free or allergen-free recipes that call for them. Those with corn allergies will need to choose another blend, like the King Arthur Gluten-free flour.

For this test, I decided to use Jules’ recipe for soft pretzels. I made one modification to the recipe that’s available at her website – I substituted flax seed goop for the egg. Other than egg, her recipe is free of the top eight allergens. I purchased a 1.5-cup sample of the flour – the perfect amount to make my pretzels. I used the couple extra tablespoons I had for dusting my rolling surface.

So, how did the flour perform?

I found this flour really easy to work with as I rolled out the pretzels.

They rose nicely during proofing.

Even during the soda bath boil, the pretzels held together really well.

The end result?

Perfect pretzels that tasted great! You can pull these apart the same way you do a pretzel that you buy from a New York corner vendor. I saw none of the crumbling or grittiness that we sometimes get with gluten-free flours. This flour blend is a winner!