If you don't use wheat flour what do you use?

   I get asked this question all the time.  It is a great question but there is not just one answer.  I don't use one type of flour when I bake.  When I first started on this journey I went to the library and checked out several gluten free baking books.  What I learned very quickly is that there are numerous flour blends that people use and prefer.  The first blend was a bean flour blend.  It calls for garfava bean flour (no that is not a made up word, it's garbonzo bean and fava bean flour mixed) , sorghum flour, corn starch, and tapioca flour.  When I used this flour blend my baked goods turned out dense, think chocolate chip cookies that weigh as much as a cantaloupe, and with an aftertaste that was distinctly bean. Needless to say I did not use this blend for long.
   The next blend I tested was Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.  When I use this flour I add sweet rice flour to the blend, to make the cohesion of the mix more like regular flour. Sweet rice is also called "glutinous" rice.  It does not have gluten in it but it makes the dough stick together like gluten does in wheat flour.  If a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour I will use 1 3/4 cups of Bob's and then 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour.  I have found this to be a pretty good blend for chocolate chip cookies. When my extended family was together recently my sister made her fabulous chocolate chip cookies using this blend.  Everybody ranted and raved about how good her cookies were.  When she told them they were g-free they were shocked,  "But they are so good" was the common response.  Well yeah, I don't want anything to do with baked goods if they taste like dog biscuits!
   Speaking of pets I have a cautionary tale to tell.  When I started making my flour blends I bought a lot of different flours.  I bought most of them in the bulk food section at our local co-op store.  I had white rice flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour, garbanzo flour, tapioca flour, cornstarch, potato flour and potato starch. All of these flours were in their own bulk food baggy.  My cat, Dora, loves baggies and everything that she thinks she might find in baggies.  She likes to claw at them to see what will happen.  One day, after hours of baking, I went to pick up my kids.  I tied up all the bags and left them in a pile on the counter.  My husband got home before me and when we came in the door he was standing in the middle of the kitchen with baggies and flour everywhere.  So the moral of the story is lots of flour+cat = big mess.  Oh and also my husband really wants to get rid of the cat, or maybe me.
   After a lot of mixing of different flours and a lot of baking I have decided on the following for my basic baking flour.
3 parts rice flour (either brown or white, the key is to get one that has a super fine grind)
1 part tapioca flour or starch (they are the same thing)
1 part potato starch (not flour, they are NOT the same thing)
1 part sweet rice flour
   If I don't have potato starch or tapioca I will substitute cornstarch.  I make this in a big batch and store it in a container in the refrigerator.  When I know I am going to bake I take it out and let it sit to warm up.
   When I want to try my hand at bread from scratch I will add quinoa flour.  If it calls for 2 cups of flour 1/4 cup of it will be the quinoa flour.  This adds a little more nutritional value to the bread.
   After a lot of flour, and a lot of mess, I finally make baked goods that are pretty darn close to the wheat ones I use to make.  My most discerning taste testers, my beautiful daughters, love to eat my cookies, cakes and brownies now and really that is all that matters!