Storing and Organizing GF Flours

[lil_miss_understood]

I don't know about the rest of you all who are gluten free, but *I* have about a billion different flours. There's sorghum, buckwheat, white rice, brown rice, sweet/glutenous rice, amaranth, millet/bajri, garbanzo/besan, tapioca, arrowroot, corn starch, potato flour, potato starch... and so on and so forth.
I am so SICK of opening my cupboard and being greeted by bag upon bag of open flour (held closed by clips but still~!).
So, how do YOU organize your flours? What kind of containers do you keep them in? If you keep them in containers, obviously you have to be able to identify them somehow (unless you're just *that good* ). Which flours do you keep in the fridge/freezer (I keep a few there but probably not all of them that I should)?

I'll be back in a while. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

[kjbrown92]

I have millet, sorghum, buckwheat, tapioca, sweet potato. Plus King Arthur wheat flour and King Arthur Rye for DH's English muffins. Mine are all in Tupperware/Rubbermaid. I finally bought a label maker this summer (me and my gadgets) to make sure I knew what was what (like two different kinds of sugar: beet, cane, two kinds of marshmallows: beet, cane) especially when they all look the same. I don't keep any of mine in the fridge (I keep milled/ground flaxseed and yeast in the freezer) in plastic sealed jars.

My DH's mother was a Tupperware manager for a long time (before I came along) and her cupboards were AMAZING. Everything went in Tupperware Storage Solutions, with labels on them. Even half gallons of ice cream went into Tupperware. I'm not that bad.

[mtn.mama]

I have a serious plastic aversion, so all my stuff gets stored in glass. Gallon, half gallon, quart and pint jars. All are labeled with permanent marker on white paper taped onto the jar... and grains have ratios marked (like teff 1:4).

Now that I'm clearing this stuff out, weighing it, packing it up and selling it, there is suddenly a ton of space in my pantry and cabinets. GF takes up a lot of space!!!

[tanyalynn]

I keep them in the original bags and then once they're open I put them in a ziploc bag (the whole original bag, folded over so they don't spill as much) and keep the whole thing in the freezer. No, it's not an efficient system, it's a mess. Part of the reason I'm happy to be trying grain-free. It takes up a ton of freezer space and I end up with about 4 open bags of brown rice flour.

Tapioca flour I don't refrigerate, sweet rice flour stays in the pantry too. Most everything else that I have (which is a shorter list than you, JR) I keep in the freezer.

I mainly shared so that you'd be more satisfied with your current organization scheme.

[mamafish9]

DH says I have to read this thread, LOL!

I have less than you, JR, but it's a mess. It lives in my pantry - I blow through a bag of most things in a couple of weeks, so I don't bother to try to keep it cool. I have a new grain mill, and I will grind buckwheat and millet that way (I'm going to try sifting to get light buckwheat flour, I'm sick of sorghum, and no one here in the PNW seems to carry light buckwheat). But I don't think I'll be getting away from the starches, and they seem to make the biggest mess.

My current goal is to get to one general purpose gf flour mix I like (I'm thinking light buckwheat and millet, fresh ground, and then tapioca starch). some sweet rice flour in addition to that, maybe, and then get rid of all the rest. I'm tired of the mess!

So - if you could only have 5 gf flours/starches/gums, what would they be?

I also need to clean out my "legacy" stuff. I got rid of my wheat flours, but the corn starch/baking powder/baking soda pile is a mess. DS seems to be OK with a little bit of corn now, so I think I can go back to regular baking powder, that will simplify a little.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

So - if you could only have 5 gf flours/starches/gums, what would they be?

Hmm. Most of my baking is done with brown rice, amaranth, sorghum, tapioca flour and xanthan gum. However, I use buckwheat (now) for soaking oatmeal and sweet rice for thickening (and adjusting recipes if I use too much liquid).
The day before yesterday was the first time I've tried teff so I'm not sure if I'd like it or not. I keep millet around in case I decide to venture to Kathy's blog since I know she uses it a fair amount (and in case I want to make corn free corn-bread... I have some friends who are *supposed* to be corn free).

Of course, then there are the flours I have laying around that I want to "play" with (but haven't had a chance yet). Like lotus root and water chestnut....
I need a new group. Gluten free flours anonymous.

But since most of my baking presently is done with the ones I said above, I guess I'd have to go with those... But I'd be happier if I could have 9. My main 5, buckwheat, sweet rice, millet and one extra slot for a "play" flour.

[kjbrown92]

You're right. I have water chestnut flour too (it's down in the other house so I forgot about it). I haven't ventured to use it though (I think I have some cake recipe that I wanted to try). I'm hoping that plastic is okay to store in as long as it's not liquid inside it and it doesn't get heated.... I can't use ziplocs because of the varmints. And you guys would laugh because we have a washer/dryer here that isn't hooked up (because our septic needs to be replaced and DH hasn't felt like putting in a new outlet for the dryer) so I store my buckwheat flour (and rice crackers, potato chips and things like that) IN the dryer.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

You're right. I have water chestnut flour too (it's down in the other house so I forgot about it). I haven't ventured to use it though (I think I have some cake recipe that I wanted to try). I'm hoping that plastic is okay to store in as long as it's not liquid inside it and it doesn't get heated.... I can't use ziplocs because of the varmints. And you guys would laugh because we have a washer/dryer here that isn't hooked up (because our septic needs to be replaced and DH hasn't felt like putting in a new outlet for the dryer) so I store my buckwheat flour (and rice crackers, potato chips and things like that) IN the dryer.

But! Without electricity, a dryer's not much more than a strangely-interiored cupboard, right?

[mamafish9]

OK, Kathy & JR, I'm not in your league - "play" flours and dryer storage, LOL!!!

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

But! Without electricity, a dryer's not much more than a strangely-interiored cupboard, right?

I keep asking for an outlet so I can use the dryer, and DH says, "then were would you store the crackers and chips?"

[Chinese Pistache]

I store mine like Tanya, but half the time, I don't even put them back in the freezer. I need to, though. Maybe I'll do that today. . .

LOL, Kathy at your mom's Tupperware obsession. And the ice cream