GF flour but no Xanthan gum

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

We had friends staying for Christmas and so I bought GF flour to use in cakes/puddings etc. The one cake I made was a failure - apparently because I needed Xanthan Gum. I intended sending the flour back with her but forgot and just found it in the back of my cupboard. Any suggestions for what I could use instead? I googled but only things I saw were also specialist ingredients. I'm avoiding supermarkets as fed up of people Ignoring distancing guidelines. so wondered if there is anything else we can use with it for baking. or use it for without Xanthan gum ? No GF requirements in our house. (I don't know anyone else GF to give it to else would)

I never used xanthan gum when baking GF cakes, only ever use it when making bread. But if cake making isn't working then you can use the flour to make pancakes or biscuits instead.

If it's Doves Farm, the xantham gum is already in the flour mix!

Can you not just use whatever xanthan gum is used instead of in conventional baking? I don't know if flour with no gluten means this won't work, just wondering.

What does xanthan gum do? Does it give it a sticky gluteny texture? If so adding a few tablespoons of besan should suffice.

Or you could add plain wheat flour or ground oats

You can use guar gum instead, use a bit less though. If it's for bread you can use psyllium husk powder instead.

I don't know exactly what Xanthan Gum does but it isn't needed in flour which isn't gluten free. It's not been added to this flour. As we're not a GF family I don't have guar gum or husk powder, and as per OP I'm avoiding supermarkets at the moment. Would it work in a crumble topping or for making roux sauces ? I just don't want to waste it

Self raising or plain?

This is SR

I bake GF a lot and I never use any gums or weird ingredients. I just use it as I would use regular flour; in cakes and pastry, I add some ground almonds if I have them to keep things moist but it's not essential. Most people can't tell the difference when I use it. I just wouldn't use it for bread. Anything else is fine (cakes, cookies, crumble, pancakes etc).

You can use it in crumbles like normal flour. This chocolate brownie recipe is nice if self raising.

use it for anything that doesn't need tor rise. So a roux, pancakes, crumble etc would all be fine

Im an experienced baker with coeliacs disease. Hundreds of chocolate sponges, vic sponges, carrot cakes, gingerbreads, marmalade cakes, banana breads, cupcakes and polenta cakes have been done in this household for 20+ years and we've never used xanthan gum. I find Asda is the best gf flour then doves farm but most work the same. Your cake didn't go wrong because it lacked xanthan gum, you don't need it!

Gf flour works well in pancakes or batters without xantham gum. If you haven't got eggs, use one cup of gf flour, a heaped TBS custard powder, a TSP baking powder and a cup of milk (add more milk if necessary). Mix together. Great pancake batter.

Or lemon cake could substitute orange if needed.

Thank you all, extremely helpful. @dragonicicle I have made hundreds of cakes in my time, this was the only one that ever failed, GF friend said it was the lack of the gum. Not sure what else it could have been, but will try again.
Lots of great tips on this thread. Thank you all

Did you use a specific gluten free recipe? I find that cakes which work well are things which are supposed to be moist. Something like a victoria sponge turns out too dry. I virtually never add xantham gum.

Nah, xantham gum can make things tough and I don't like using it. GF cake or bread can be a bit crumbly without it, so either make things which are ok being crumbly or don't need the strength of gluten, or add a bit of extra egg

@TW2013 no I didn't - probably where I went wrong! So in general cakes which get their moisture from other ingredients or maybe don't use as much flour as e.g. a Victoria sponge? Anyone got a tried and tested carrot cake recipe which doesn't need gum or any other special ingredients (I have some spare carrots which is why I was looking for the flour)

I use this one and just sub in gf flour (Asda's like i said upthread but any will have the same result). I've done it a few times for work and had v positive reviews, my friend did the same for an office bake and said the same so let me know what you think

www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/

We don't put walnuts in (my DD hates them)

Maybe more moist cakes, as suggested above? I can recommend Nigella's olive oil cake, which I always make GF for DD. It's pretty moist. Otherwise things like cookies, with butter, which are meant to be quite friable in any case.

@dragonicicle thank you - will try that over the weekend.
Thank you all x

@haba I only have a tiny bit of olive oil. Do you know if veg oil will work ?

Have a look at Becky Excell’s website, Gluten Free Cup of Tea. We are a coeliac family and make lots of her recipes. Made her chocolate loaf tin cake yesterday and it was amazing. We never use xantham gum