Tapioca Flour/tapioca Starch

[floridanative]

My Mother is trying to make her own gluten-free flour for a dessert at a party tomorrow. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between tap. starch and tap. flour? She apparently got the wrong thing but before buying something else, wants to make sure they are not the same thing. I'm in the middle of doing taxes so I can't search for this answer right now. If someone knows about a thread on this, that would be great too. Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

[penguin]

Tapioca starch and tapioca flour are the same.

The confusing one is potato. Potato starch and potato flour are different. Bette Hagman's flour blend calls for potato starch, not flour.

[jerseyangel]

To further confuse the potato flour issue--potato starch and potato starch flour are the same thing. Potato flour is different.

[penguin]

To further confuse the potato flour issue--potato starch and potato starch flour are the same thing. Potato flour is different.

Remember when flour was flour and you didn't have to know what xanthan gum was or what it does?

[floridanative]

Thanks guys! I just buy mixes and add eggs and oil and whalah I'm done. As usual Mother likes to complicate things. Fine if she used to bake from scratch but in fact, pre dx she rarely did.....I told her to get the 123 GFP pan bar mix and make apple spice bars. Those things take 10 minutes to mix and are addictive they're so good.

[jerseyangel]

Tiffany--Isn't it great, though, that she's really getting into it!

Remember when flour was flour and you didn't have to know what xanthan gum was or what it does?

Sometimes it feels like I'm speaking a whole new language

[floridanative]

Yes Patti - I am glad it gives her something to do. She's the absolute queen of worrying so if she has nothing to worry about she's pretty unhappy. Living gluten free now she should be set for life with worry. Thanks again.

[Cheri A]

Tiffany--Isn't it great, though, that she's really getting into it!

Sometimes it feels like I'm speaking a whole new language

ROFLMBO! Yeah, I remember the regular flour days.. for us it was only 5 mos. ago!! When I go getting all happy at what has worked and tell my friends, they get that "glazed over" look!

[Lynxear]

My Mother is trying to make her own gluten-free flour for a dessert at a party tomorrow. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between tap. starch and tap. flour? She apparently got the wrong thing but before buying something else, wants to make sure they are not the same thing. I'm in the middle of doing taxes so I can't search for this answer right now. If someone knows about a thread on this, that would be great too. Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

I like these kinds of questions. I used to be a library rat in my University days....I suppose there is such a thing as an internet rat too.

I'll start with a few definitions:

flour n.

1. A fine, powdery foodstuff obtained by grinding and sifting the meal of a grain, especially wheat, used

chiefly in baking.

2. Any of various similar finely ground or powdered foodstuffs, as of cassava, fish, or bananas.

3. A soft, fine powder.

starch n.

1. A naturally abundant nutrient carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, found chiefly in the seeds, fruits, tubers,

roots, and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice, and varying widely in

appearance according to source but commonly prepared as a white amorphous tasteless powder.

2. Any of various substances, such as natural starch, used to stiffen cloth, as in laundering.

3. Foods having a high content of starch, as rice, breads, and potatoes.

As you can see....Starch is a chemical property of a food

Flour is a process...a grinding of a material into a fine partical

So I think that the terms Tapioca Starch and Tapioca flour are marketing spin on the same things.

Marketing people always try to make their product sound different....bastards!!!!

There is another way Tapioca can be presented and that is "pearl tapioca". Nothing different chemically that I can see but in this case the tapioca is pelletized instead of floured.