xanthan gum substitute
 

Does anyone have a good xanthan gum substitute? It (or the corn in it) seems to be a problem for our youngest family member. I haven't been able to find guar gum locally. I've read on-line that gelatin can be used, but we don't eat animal products. Thanks!:)

This first site says that you would use equal amounts of guar gum for xanthem gum. But this product may be available in health food stores. You might also try east indian stores for guar gum too.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Misc.html

online sources would be:

gluten-free mall (found through yahoo).

celiac.com

kaylx.com

mannaharvest.net

We use milled flax seed in place of xan gum. I use equal amounts and it works well for us. We also use a lot of coconut to help recipes bind and to get away from the starchyness of some recipes. But that has worked very well for us :)

Thanks! I especially like the flax seed suggestion as it is a regular staple in my kitchen! :D

There's something called glucomannan flour that seems to work very much like a gel. It is basically a flour made from a special sort of yam. I haven't used it a ton, but I did put some in a frozen dessert and it gave it a wonderful, soft texture, almost like fat.

I also use flax meal in lots of things, I think it has gelling properties too. In fact... when I was a child my Mom used to make her own hair setting gel from flax seeds. :)

My experience with the coconut flour I'm using is that it is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture) more than almost anything else. I don't recall it being "gluey" or gelling.

Other gels are agar agar, guar gum and caragenen. I've found some products that mix a number of gels together to simulate cornstarch or to replace the properties of sugar. They're made by Expert Foods, but they might contain xanthum gum.

Thanks, Nancy! I have some agar agar on hand too. :)

I have bought guar bum in bulk from Bob's Red Mill online. I store it in the freezer until I need a new bag. I think it's been almost a year since I ordered it and I still have a couple of bags left.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/i...product_ID=215

Thanks Karen! I ended up working around the need for xanthan gum over Thanksgiving, but one of these days, I want to attempt gf bread again (Sunny Seed Bread from Food Allergy Survival Guide), and I will need to make use of a sub then. I appreciate all the responses! :D

Have you seen the information on Expandex? I have never used this.
http://www.expandexglutenfree.com/ Anne

I haven't used Expandex yet, but someone in my local celiac support group tried it. She said it worked more like flour than any other GF flour substitute that she had ever tried.

Dumb question: I thought guar gum, like xanthan gum, was grown on corn. I have a corn-sensitive kid, so I'd been avoiding both. If guar gum is ok, that opens up some interesting baking possibilities for us.

-Valerie

There's a wonderful google feature where you can enter:

define: term

In the search box (I have the Google Toolbar for my browser). Anyway, here's the definitions of guar gum: