Coconut Flour A Godsend

[draeko]

Hi everyone has anyone tried cooking with coconut flour? I just bought the book cooking with coconut flour by Bruce Fife and have been using it everyday the food is delicious and healthy!

[taweavmo3]

Oooh, thanks! I'm glad to know that the flour works well. I've really been trying to incorporate more cocunut into our diet. I have coconut oil that I use to cook with (plus I take it straight as a supplement) and I use coconut milk in smoothies and such.

I'll have to give that book a try...thanks for posting this.

[bakingbarb]

Hmmm, can you give examples of where one would use this at? I saw it at the store the other day but didn't know where I would use it. I can imagine it covering up the taste of some of the other flours, yes no?

TIA

[buffettbride]

Yes! Please share how you use coconut flour. I was just reading how it is high in fiber. I'd love to know good ways to use it too.

Is the flavor coconutty?

[draeko]

Nope I dont find it coconutty at all there are some recipes at www.simplycoconut.com I made the chocolate cake recipe for my birthday and it was a hit ...so yummy, muffins, pie crust meatloaf name it! I have the cookbook and I'd love to type all the recipes for everyone but dont know if it is legal!

[BRUMI1968]

I made banana bread with it, and it tasted pretty coconutty - though everyone liked it. Then I made an applesauce cake with it, which did not taste coconutty.

[Mango04]

I've made bananna and blueberry muffins using the recipe from tropicaltraditions.com

Mercola has a recipe on his website for chocolate cake using coconut flour. That one's good too.

It's a different flour to bake with. You usually need tons and tons of liquid and lots of eggs, but very little flour. It's good though, and pretty healthy as well.

[bakingbarb]

Nope I dont find it coconutty at all there are some recipes at www.simplycoconut.com I made the chocolate cake recipe for my birthday and it was a hit ...so yummy, muffins, pie crust meatloaf name it! I have the cookbook and I'd love to type all the recipes for everyone but dont know if it is legal!

I have been on a baking forum for years and we talk about this legal sharing of recipes for years. Some people feel it is no different if you gave the cookbook to a friend to copy from, others feel you should be made to go buy the book. The people that work for the company that sponsors the forum has published cookbooks and they have no problem with teh sharing. It is personal choice.

[Juliebove]

I made meatballs with it. We can't have eggs so I subbed in ground flax and water. I put them in a tomato sauce. Husband is Italian and he loved it.

[mamatide]

I have started using coconut flour in my banana muffins (I use the recipe from the gluten free foods for kids book) and substitute 1/3 cup into the 1 cup of flour listed. The only thing I've found across the board with coconut flour is that you will probably have to increase the amount of liquid in the recipe a little bit because coconut flour is very absorbent.

We make our banana muffins with coconut flour and chocolate chips with a cherry on top and they're delicious - we call them banana split muffins.

mamatide

[jillb]

Oooh, thanks! I'm glad to know that the flour works well. I've really been trying to incorporate more cocunut into our diet. I have coconut oil that I use to cook with (plus I take it straight as a supplement) and I use coconut milk in smoothies and such.

I'll have to give that book a try...thanks for posting this.

I believe in coconut oil as well for it's strong immune builder. I have recently started taking it and have a chocolate banana recipe using it.

[Offthegrid]

Recipes! Can we have recipes?

[loraleena]

I just made coconut flour blueberry muffins. -

Here is the recipe

1/2 cup sifted coconut flour

4 tbs unrefined coconut oil or butter

4 tbs coconut milk or milk or your choice

6 tbs honey (I would use less next time = they were a bit sweet)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)

6 eggs

Blend flour,eggs, oil, milk, honey, salt. Then blend in baking powder. Mix until no lumps. Add in rinsed frozen (thawed) or fresh berries. Drain juice if frozen. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes. You could probably omit honey if you can't have sugars. Coconut is naturally sweet.

[DonnaD777-777]

I believe in coconut oil as well for it's strong immune builder. I have recently started taking it and have a chocolate banana recipe using it.

Has anyone read the coconut oil miracle? It is an awesome book, it supports all of the benefits coconut has to offer. I love cooking with it, it makes the food really light. Because I have a very high fat diet (fat seems to be where i get a lot of my energy from to sustain me through the day), coconut oil is very relaxing on my digestive system. the complex of coconut oil does not need bile to be digested or absorbed into the blood stream, so it can be instantly absorbed into the blood stream and be used for energy.

[Yellow Rose]

I have been looking for a source of coconut flour. Where are ya'll buying it at?

Yellow Rose

[DonnaD777-777]

I have been looking for a source of coconut flour. Where are ya'll buying it at?

Yellow Rose

I just found the book and coconut flour at the local healthfood store in my town

[NoSugarShell]

I just bought the book this past weekend. The chicken and dumplings were awesome! The vanilla cupcakes were really good although not really light and fluffy. More like a muffin than a cupcake. The vanilla frosting was awesome!

[loraleena]

You can order organic coconut flour from Bob's Red Mill.

[Yellow Rose]

You can order organic coconut flour from Bob's Red Mill.

Thanks, I tried Sun Harvest, and Whole Foods neither had it.

Yellow Rose

[hayley3]

I'm cheap and my health food store doesn't carry it anyway, so I'm looking for ways to grind my own. Someone said you can take dessicated coconut and grind it, but I took the flakes and ground it in my Vita Mix and it seems okay. A little coarse but I might give it a try later. Has anyone else tried grinding the flakes? I bought the coconut book and the almond flour book too. I'm excited!

I also finally made a decent almond flour crust yesterday for my cheesecake. My kid won't stop eating it. This is the second crust I've tried, as the first one didn't work.

Susie

[bakingbarb]

I'm cheap and my health food store doesn't carry it anyway, so I'm looking for ways to grind my own. Someone said you can take dessicated coconut and grind it, but I took the flakes and ground it in my Vita Mix and it seems okay. A little coarse but I might give it a try later. Has anyone else tried grinding the flakes? I bought the coconut book and the almond flour book too. I'm excited!

I also finally made a decent almond flour crust yesterday for my cheesecake. My kid won't stop eating it. This is the second crust I've tried, as the first one didn't work.

Susie

I also ground mine in my vitamix and thought it was a bit coarse. I am assuming that the coconut flour shouldn't be coarse?

Have you ground other things with it? I should say for flours, I did brown rice but not sure if it is fine enough. I just bought a bag of brown rice flour to compare.

[hayley3]

I have a grain grinder so I ground up some rice and the coconut was not as fine as the rice flour but I didn't think it was bad. I was thinking that maybe dehydrating the coconut flakes a little bit before grinding might help to make it finer. I love the Vita Mix for oatmeal flour.

Susie

I also ground mine in my vitamix and thought it was a bit coarse. I am assuming that the coconut flour shouldn't be coarse?

Have you ground other things with it? I should say for flours, I did brown rice but not sure if it is fine enough. I just bought a bag of brown rice flour to compare.

[Jujbe]

I'm new t o baking with wheat substitutes so need to make a lot of adjustments & learn anew. About coconut flour, it must be different than simply finely ground dried coconut. I'm thinking it's the meal left over after removing most of the fat (used for other purposes). Coconut meat is quite high in fat - if you leave a piece of fresh coconut on white writing paper, you'll see a grease stain after a few hours.

I bought some coconut flour today (Alpha Certified Organic) & compared its nutrient profile with Red Mill's coconut flour. Mine is a little higher in protein & lower in fat so maybe more fat has been removed from the meal used in the product I bought. Then I compared the nutrient profile on dried unsweetened coconut flakes on the USDA nutrient database Open Original Shared Link

I picked it for 14 g just as Red Mill's list. I won't list mine but the protein is 2.7 g & fat is 1/2 g & I'm only listing the basic nutrient breakdown to compare the differences. I'd say coconut flour & ground coconut are not the same thing. And while coconut milk may add a nice flavour, it's very high in fat. Not that I don't use it but I use it in Asian cooking, not baking. One cup of coconut milk has just over 48 g of fat. That's about the same as 1/4 cup oil so not real bad but fatty nonetheless for any who might think it had little fat.

Red Mill's coconut flour:

Serving Size 2 Tbsp (14 g)

Calories 60.00

Total Fat 1.50 g

Total Carbohydrate 10.00 g

Dietary Fiber 6.00 g

Protein 2.00 g

USDA for dried unsweetened coconut:

Calories 92.00

Total Fat 9.03 g

Total Carbohydrate 3.31 g

Dietary Fiber 2.3 g

Protein 0.96 g

I mixed up some flours but too late to bake tonight. Tomorrow I'll give it a try. I expect some less than stellar results at first. And I make the *best* breads, all sorts of diff types & now can't eat it any more. Oh well, I'll learn all over again.

[Guest digmom1014]

I just went on half.com to buy the book and he has several coconut books out there. I'm assuming it is the Coconut Lover's Cookbook. Is it?

[Darn210]

Red Mill's coconut flour:

Serving Size 2 Tbsp (14 g)

Calories 60.00

Total Fat 1.50 g

Total Carbohydrate 10.00 g

Dietary Fiber 6.00 g

Protein 2.00 g

USDA for dried unsweetened coconut:

Calories 92.00

Total Fat 9.03 g

Total Carbohydrate 3.31 g

Dietary Fiber 2.3 g

Protein 0.96 g

Jujbe, thanks for the comparison . . . it really helps explain the difference.

I'm thinking about experimenting with some coconut flour myself . . . seems like when I finally get the number of flours that I like to use into a "manageable" number, I find something else to add to the mix.