I’m not gluten free, but a lot of my friends are. So in my research to help my gluten free friends live happier, more frugal lives, I found an article on making xanthan gum at home. Xanthan gum is not horribly expensive. I bought a 1 lb bag at Amazon for $17.49. But you only use a tsp or so per recipe, so it lasts a long time.
The flakes before pulsing to a powder.
Even then, I thought if you could make some at home for little effort, it might be worth a try. So basically I mixed a little yeast and cornsyrup in a jar. Shook it around for 5 days and then added a 1/4 tsp of vodka and then dried what was left. It was an amber colored thick liquid, that dried into glasslike sheets. I powdered the dried sheets in the blender and then compared it’s thickening ability to my purchased xanthan gum.
After Pulsing to a Powder
I added a 1/4 tsp of each to 1 cup of water and stirred and waited. The commercial gum mixture got thicker and thicker the longer it sat. The homemade did nothing. I doubled the amount…still nothing. I did notice the water felt slippery when rubbed between my fingers…. but still never thickened the water.
Homemade left; Commercial Right. Notice in the white mixture, you can see the xanthan gum absorbing water and swelling like gel beads. Nothing like that happened on the left.
I tried to follow the insructions very carefully and for now have PLENTY of commercial xanthan gum to use. I love how it thickens a light salad dressing. I’m still playing around with it.
Homemade Xanthan Gum on the left. The two look nothing alike.
So has anyone made their own xantham gum successfully? Can you see what I did wrong?
To be honest, I never use xantham gum or guar gum any more. I never liked the taste or texture it gave my breads. I recently learned about using Psyllium husks as a substitute and really enjoyed the results. I am no expert but after some experimentation I use about 1/3 cup of psyllium husks for about every 4 cups of flour. The Pysillium husks need to be dissolved in warm water ( just like gelatin) so when I bake bread I add it to the water after I have dissolved the yeast and it is starting to get foamy–I usually wait about 1 min after that before adding it to my dry ingredients. The liquid will begin to gel from the pysllium husks and you can actually get bread that is kneadable.