Gluten Free Flour
In order to understand how you can effectively substitute gluten free flour for traditional wheat flour it can't hurt to understand some of the basic chemical properties. We don't have to go too deep here, but it is necessary to give a brief overview.
As you are probably aware, flour starts out as grain or seeds. It is then ground up into a very fine grain powder, or into a meal (the difference between a "meal" and a "powder" just refers to how much it is ground up - the powders are much finer than a traditional meal, like corn meal). Most all of the common flours that we cook with on a daily basis are all derived from wheat - which is completely prohibited in a gluten free diet. There are alternatives, however, though they are not nearly as possible. The alternatives are usually found in local health food stores - they may be difficult to find in your local Safeway or Dominicks.
Without getting too technical or into all of the chemistry which would (a) bore you and (b) drive me crazy, let's just try to define what gluten does. In essence, gluten is what puts the doughy consistency in dough. Have you watched a baker kneading the dough? That kneading process is actually what helps activate the gluten and helps the dough to rise. How it stretches back and forth and then kind of contracts on itself? That doughy behavior is largely attributed to gluten. So where am I going with the chemistry 101 lesson? Hold on, I'm getting there.
The point is that you have to use the right tool (or gluten free flour alternate) for the right job (recipe). Different desired results will require different gluten free flour substitutes because of their inherent properties. None of the substitutes will be the same as the wheat flower, so the mixing proportions and such will all be different.
When it comes to how to cook with the gluten free flour alternatives, you will need to do a bit more searching online. This varies quite a bit and different chefs have different recommendations about how to best make these substitutions depending upon the recipe type. Some recommend adding protein to the mix or adding gums to simulate the sticky effect of gluten. Yet other chefs will tell you that it is all in the type of pan that you use - thick wall versus thin walled baking pans - or the use of walled versus non walled pans. Then comes the more complex fact that the gluten free flour alternatives usually have to be combined in order to yield the desired effect. It's not as simple as merely substituting for the original wheat based flower. This is due to the fact that each substitute type has isn't own distinctive characteristics and so you might have to blend two or three of them to get just the consistency that you're looking for. Gluten free flour baking can be a bit of a challenge, but it is well worth the effort. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - so hop into the kitchen.