Cooking with coconut flour ??

[Ellie]

A friend was wondering if coconut flour is similar to wheat flour for baking. I told her that my Hive friends know every thing. Don't let me down!! :D

[Veritaserum]

Very, very different. You use waaaaay less coconut flour (and more eggs). You cannot substitute coconut flour for wheat flour. You have to use special recipes.

[In the Rain]

Very, very different. You use waaaaay less coconut flour (and more eggs). You cannot substitute coconut flour for wheat flour. You have to use special recipes.

 

I agree with all of this! For the record, my family has liked things made with coconut flour. I get recipes from blogs.

[Ellie]

I knew it. Y'all are the best. Thanks!

[JumpyTheFrog]

The cookbook in the link above has excellent muffin and cake recipes. Even gluten-eating people like them.

[Momof3littles]

Way different, but it is yummy. Coconut flour is basically straight fiber and soaks up a ton of liquid. You usually need tons of eggs in comparison to a wheat flour recipe.There are some great blogs that use it, like healthyindulgences. I love the coconut flour banana nut muffins. Mariahealth is another good one.

[windmillmarie]

How funny you ask this. I just got an issue of Clean Eating magazine and there was a recipe requiring this ingredient. I had never heard of it and was headed over here to ask. What a nice coincidence!

[Momof3littles]

When you go to buy coconut flour you will be floored by the price. It seems expensive. But really a small bag goes a long way. I ordered some from Tropical Traditions because they had some awesome deal. I thought the amount I ordered wouldn't last all that long. Well after trying a few recipes I realized it will last me forever. So I threw a lot of it in the freezer.

 

One thing that is a pain about it is that it lumps up easily. You have to sift it each time you go to use it.

 

If I recall correctly Tropical Traditions has a lot of recipes on their site too.

I just finished a really old bag! It was Trop. Traditions and lasted for a long, long time. It was even substantially past the use by date but wasn't rancid or anything, so I used it up.

[Susan in TN]

One book I read said that when you substitute coconut flour for another kind of flour in a recipe, you need to increase the amount of liquid by the amount of coconut flour you added. It also mentioned that it's usually best when combined with other kinds of flour.

[dbmamaz]

i use mine fairly often - its in my sweet baking mix and my pastry mix. i keep it in the freezer because in the summer it was going rancid. i guess i could leave it out in the winter lol. i probably go through a bag in 2 mo.

[Veritaserum]

When you go to buy coconut flour you will be floored by the price. It seems expensive. But really a small bag goes a long way. I ordered some from Tropical Traditions because they had some awesome deal. I thought the amount I ordered wouldn't last all that long. Well after trying a few recipes I realized it will last me forever. So I threw a lot of it in the freezer.

 

One thing that is a pain about it is that it lumps up easily. You have to sift it each time you go to use it.

 

If I recall correctly Tropical Traditions has a lot of recipes on their site too.

 

I haven't had problems with clumping. Maybe it depends on the humidity where you live? I'm in a desert. :)

[Squiddles]

When you go to buy coconut flour you will be floored by the price. It seems expensive. But really a small bag goes a long way. I ordered some from Tropical Traditions because they had some awesome deal. I thought the amount I ordered wouldn't last all that long. Well after trying a few recipes I realized it will last me forever. So I threw a lot of it in the freezer.

 

 

about the price... this is good to know, I was avoiding it for this reason :thumbup:

[Coffeemama]

I ordered some off of Amazon this week to us for thickening beef stew. We are mostly gluten free here, but sometimes I start making something forgetting that I typically use flour in it. So my beef stew was more of a soup. I can't wait to try it with the coconut flour. Good to know that i should just add a little at a time until i get used to working with it.

[Susan in TN]

I ordered some off of Amazon this week to us for thickening beef stew. We are mostly gluten free here, but sometimes I start making something forgetting that I typically use flour in it. So my beef stew was more of a soup. I can't wait to try it with the coconut flour. Good to know that i should just add a little at a time until i get used to working with it.

 

Let us know how it turns out!

[Momof3littles]

Xanthan gum is kind of slimy feeling, but if you go really light on it, it can thicken things up a bit. Too much and you end up with slime. It also thickens shakes, smoothies, that type of thing.

 

On lowcarbfriends there are a lot of people having success making dumplings using oat fiber and glucomannan. Some people have then basically pureed up the dumpling type of mixture to use as a thickener.

 

Just tossing that out there in case the coconut flour doesn't thicken well for you.

 

(sorry, crossposted with WendyK. I agree that the coconut flour probably won't work out).

[mumto2]

I learn something new here most days. Didn't even know that coconut flour existed! :)

[Coffeemama]

 

 

I have tried using it as a thickener. NOT GOOD. Don't do it. It will ruin your food.

 

A better thickener is xanthan gum.

Xanthan gum is kind of slimy feeling, but if you go really light on it, it can thicken things up a bit. Too much and you end up with slime. It also thickens shakes, smoothies, that type of thing.

 

Thank you! I guess ill have to use the coconut flour for something else. Ill look at those other site reccommended.

 

On lowcarbfriends there are a lot of people having success making dumplings using oat fiber and glucomannan. Some people have then basically pureed up the dumpling type of mixture to use as a thickener.

 

Just tossing that out there in case the coconut flour doesn't thicken well for you.

 

(sorry, crossposted with WendyK. I agree that the coconut flour probably won't work out).

[Flowing Brook]

Like others said it is WAY different.

 

This is my favorite coconut flour baking book:

 

http://www.amazon.co...onut flour fife

 

The author uses real sugar though. I just substitute with whatever sugar substitutes and the recipes still work fine.

 

The biggest difference is that coconut flour sucks up liquid. So you use very little of it in a recipe and many of the recipes call for a ton of eggs. So a muffin recipe, for example, might use only 1/4 a cup of coconut flour, but 3/4 eggs.

 

 

 

I was going to post a link to this same book. This book seems to cover it all!

[Coffeemama]

Guess i multi quoted wrong...

 

Thank you for telling me! Guess ill use the coconut flour for one of those other wonderful recipes on the other sites. But i did come across two or three recipes that said coconut flour could be subbed, glad i didnt ruin a crockpot full of stew!

[LarlaB]

This is oh so random, but I found a great little coconut flour muffin recipe http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/coconutrmuffins.htm

 

I used stevia (because I can tolerate it in baked goods) and added a dollop of cream cheese & raspberry mixture w/ 1/2 packet of equal for sweetness on top- very, very good :)