Baking with Coconut Flour, part 3

I started baking with coconut flour in the Spring of 2010. I like the flour’s nutritional value: it’s high in protein and fiber, low in net carbs, grain-free, and a source of immune enhancing fatty acids.  If you’ve baked with it, you know that you can’t use it cup for cup to replace other flours because it soaks up much more liquid. You have to use less of it. You have to increase the amount of liquid you use as well as the leavening and in some cases you may have to test a recipe several times to produce satisfying results. What you might not realize is that additional modifications may be in order. 

Cups, grams, and confounding factors
If you’ve ever looked at cookbooks and recipes from the U.K. or Australia, you may have noticed that they call for ingredients in grams rather than cups. If you’re in the 40-something age bracket, you may have learned the metric system, as required, in seventh or eight grade, and then conveniently forgotten most of it because you weren’t expected to use it on a regular or daily basis. If you didn’t see the utility of it and of thinking in weight rather than measures and in grams rather than just ounces, in a moment you might.

How do you measure...up or down?
If you’ve done much baking (I hope) you know how much the way you measure matters.
Here’s how Erik Jacobsen describes the challenge of measuring accurately for baking:

“The problem is that measuring an ingredient by volume can result in a variety of different weights, i.e., different amounts of the ingredient, depending on how the measurement was made. In many recipes that use flour (cookies, for example), being off a little here or there doesn't really matter, but in yeast bread baking, it does. Too much flour in relation to water will often result in a "brick" rather than a nice soft loaf. Too much water compared to the amount of flour often results in another brick: the gluten structure isn't strong enough to support the loaf after it rises, and it collapses when the baking begins.”

The weight of it
Another confounding factor has to do with the texture and density of the flour, what it comes from (bread wheat vs. pastry wheat, refined vs. whole wheat, cake flour vs. all-purpose flour, barley vs. wheat, etc.) and how finely it was milled. Weigh a cup of each of these flours and you will find they vary in weight. Even two different brands of the same pastry, all-purpose, or bread flour can vary in weight when compared cup for cup.

Now think about gluten-free flours: sorghum, brown rice, white rice, millet, amaranth, teff, quinoa, and gluten-free oat flour. These too can vary in weight. The same goes for grain-free flours, such as blanched almond flour, whole almond meal, and coconut flour. Variations may exist between flours and within different brands of the same kind of flour.

Weighing in
I was recently reminded of this. Last month, one of my cooking assistants made an airy and delicious batch of Rosemary-Garlic Popovers using a recipe from Kelly Brozyna’s Spunky Coconut Blog and her gluten-free, casein-free, often egg-free cookbook, Grain-Free Baked Goods & Desserts. I wanted to replicate her results. I don’t know which brand of coconut flour she used. I followed the same recipe two weeks in a row using different brands of coconut flour each time. The results: different. Both of my batches came out denser and less appetizing than Anne’s.

Two weeks ago, I made Elana Amsterdam’s Red Velvet Cupcakes. Last week I made the same recipe again using a different brand of coconut flour. The first batch came out spongy. The second batch turned out much denser and better. I followed another recipes for RVCs (Red Velvet Cupcakes) and they too came out spongy. It was then that I realized that the flours probably varied considerably in weight.

The four flours
I have four brands in my fridge: Coconut Secret, Wilderness Family Naturals, Coconut On Line, and Tropical Traditions. One at a time, I took them out, fluffed them with a fork, spooned and leveled them into a half cup measure and then into a bowl and rubbed them between my fingers. One was noticeably coarse. Another felt fine and velvety soft; another felt slightly grainy. I made sure to use the same 1/2 cup measure for each and the same bowl for weighing on the scale.

I weighed each in ounces and then in grams. The gram measurement provided a better show of the dissimilarities between them. If you see 2 ounces, 1 4/8 ounces, 1 6/8 ounces, you may have a hard time visualizing the difference.

Here’s what I found in terms of difference between the coconut flours for half a cup measure:
59 grams, 45 grams, 48 grams, 56 grams

A different of 11 to 14 grams can make a significant difference in the texture of a recipe that calls for a relatively small amount of flour (1/2 cupful). Now imagine a larger recipe calling for an entire cup and the difference doubles along with the possible dissapointment.

Coconut flour conundrum
I don’t have a solution for you…yet. At this point I’m not sure which coconut flour to use and recommend. I like the idea of being able to buy it from a variety of vendors. I like giving people options. It makes shopping more convenient and healthy cooking less exclusive. However, if I follow recipes I find on line, which I frequently do, I don’t necessarily know which brand the author used. Even if I did, I wouldn’t go out and buy another brand (right now), since I have four bags in my refrigerator that I want to use them up before buying more.

Keep on reading
I plan to bake more coconut flour recipes, so for now, just know that your results may vary from what a particular blogger writes about, describes, and photographs. You may want to make a recipe more than once. You may have to tinker with the recipe to produce a texture that suits you. You could make two half batches of a recipe using two different brands of coconut flours; observe and note the differences in the texture and the consistency after baking. Another idea would be to weigh the flour you use (make sure you following the measuring tips in this and the last coconut flour post), then measure it and then if it comes out great use that weight as the ideal when using the same amount of coconut flour.

If you haven’t already subscribed to my blog, you can do that now using the link on the upper left hand side of this page. Then, you’ll receive updates when I make new posts and crack this portion of the coconut flour conundrum and post new recipes.

For more tips on baking with coconut flour, see Baking with Coconut Flour, part 2 and Baking with Cocout Flour Part 1.

I’d love to hear about the results you’ve produced using coconut flour. Which brand do you prefer and why? What’s your favorite coconut flour recipe?

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Comments

[Stefanie McDaniel]

I love this Baking with coconut flour series! Great job!

I actually just got done with a bag of Let's do Organic Coconut flour. I really liked the texture and consistency of everything I baked- Almond Butter Bars, Coconut Flour Biscuits, and Egg Quiches. The only other brand I have used is the coconut secret and I liked Let's do Organic A LOT better!

You should try Coconut Flour Biscuits. My boyfriend is a wild land firefighter and needs good nutrition quickly and efficiently. He may be called out to a fire and expected to be at the station an hour later. On top of that quality nutrition is hard to come by and may not be available for hours upon hours at a time. I always send him out with Coconut Flour Biscuits, I bake them in two dozen batches and they freeze wonderfully. I use this recipe http://cavegirlcourt.blogspot.com/2010/01/paleo-biscuits.html and typically will add cooked bacon crumbles in the mix.

[Roberta-Redefined Foodie]

I am also cooking more with coconut flour. I do know that I DO NOT like Let,s Do Coconut brand. I have had great results with Tropical Traditions as long as I sift it. I find that I like Elanas Pantry recipes because she uses only 1/2 cup in most of her recipes. Anymore than that I don't find that I like it.

[Debbie]

Interesting findings with the different brands of coconut flour. I use Tropical Traditions brand because it is produced in a facility that only processes coconut products. This made the difference in avoiding our nut allergies through cross-contamination. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Chef Rachel]

That's great to know.

Thank you for following my blog. I am also on Face Book now with a Healthy Cooking Coach page.

[Chef Rachel]

Hi Debbie

Thanks for sharing that. If too much coconut flour is used the end result can be heavy.

[Chef Rachel]

Hi Stefanie,

I can't wait to try these. Thanks for sending the link. I have some ideas to make them a bit airier too. Check out the Rosemary-Garlic Popover recipe too (if you use some starches).

Let me know if you have other coconut flour recipe favorites!

[Gretchen at The Gluten Free Edge]

I've been baking with coconut flour for several years using the only one available locally, Bob"s Red Mill. Lately I've been using it quite a bit more. Also,in baking sweet treats that do not call for coconut flour I always substitute one tablespoon of another flour with coconut flour - it ups the 'yum' factor as much as vanilla does!

[Stephanie]

I just made my first coconut flour recipe yesterday! Chocolate Chip Scones. I was following a recipe which had the flours by weight, which I found helpful. I do strongly prefer a digital scale for baking and sticky liquids like peanut butter or honey. I'll even take a recipe and the nutrition facts label and do the math to figure out how many grams of peanut butter equals the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe! (1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons = 4 servings = [see jar and multiply 4 * gram weight of one serving])

Looking forward to more info, especially about conversion, as I'm baking primarily for myself (gluten-free) and a diabetic friend.

[Stephanie]

P.S. links to the other two parts would be helpful in each post.

[Chef Rachel]

Hi Stephanie

Great idea! I will go back this week and insert the links to the other posts. Thank you!

[Trix]

It's much easier to understand when you put it that way!

[Diane Nelsen]

I'm interested in baking with coconut flour and was wanting to replace the white flour with coconut flour in my blueberry/oat muffins. Anyone know if the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups white flour...how much coconut flour whould you use instead?

[Kemo]

be that your oven is hotter than arageve you could try adjusting the temperature down a bit and maybe leaving the loaf in for a little longer.Another thing that sometimes helps is to remove the loaf from the tray and place it directly onto the bars of the oven shelf for the last five minutes of baking which allows the heat to get to the bottom.Also, if you're baking it on stoneware rather than a metal tray, that can make the bottom slow to cook.