You use coconut flour!

Coconut is my new best friend and I love that I can use the flour that’s left over from making the milk to bake pretty much anything.

You can either buy the coconut flour already ready (we like the Bob’s Red Mill brand), or you can take your pulp that’s leftover from making coconut milk, dry it out (either in a 170˚ oven overnight on a baking sheet, or in a food dehydrator) and then grind it up really fine in a food processor, coffee grinder, or a Vitamix (or Blendtec, but I’m definitely on team Vitamix!)  ;)  And then you have coconut flour to bake with!

When I thought about going just gluten-free for the first time a couple of years ago (yes, it has taken me two years to get the point of actually REALLY doing it) it seemed like such an impossibility.  I was sure that I would never be able to eat anything that tasted good ever again.

But now that I have switched over and feel AMAZING (oh, by the way, I went to bed really late last night and woke up before 7 this morning WITHOUT any fogginess – unheard of for me after such a little amount of sleep!) I have no desire to eat anything that would make me feel terrible, no matter how good it might taste.

What I didn’t realize back when I was in allergy-denial, was that I could use coconut flour to make just about anything that I thought I was going to miss… pancakes, cookies, BREAD, muffins, anything!

AND, the benefits of coconut flour are pretty amazing:

• Coconut flour is very low-carb.
• Coconut flour is 58% dietary FIBER (more than any other flour!)
• Coconut flour is ideal for baking since it can handle high temperatures.
• Coconut flour is helpful while trying to lose (or maintain) weight since the glycemic index on it is low and it is packed with fiber.
• Coconut flour is high in protein!

There are a few tricks for using coconut flour though since it acts very differently from other types of flours.  Since coconut flour has SO MUCH more fiber than any other type of flour, it absorbs liquids like crazy, which means that if you bake with it then you need LESS flour and MORE liquid to make up for the extra that’s absorbed.

If you’re going to use it as a breading (like for chicken parmesan or even fried chicken) then you can use the 1:1 ratio since it will not be baked.

But if you are going to bake with it, then since coconut flour doesn’t have any gluten in it (what binds everything together when you’re cooking with wheat),  when you’re baking you’ll need to use another binder for the coconut flour so that everything doesn’t fall apart.  Typically with coconut flour, that binder is eggs.  LOTS and lots of eggs.  Typically AT LEAST 4-5 eggs (sometimes more) for every cup of coconut flour in a recipe.

The best thing to do when you’re looking for coconut flour recipes is to find one that someone else has used that has only coconut flour.  Coconut flour reacts differently in different recipes so substituting it for wheat flour in a recipe can get really tricky.

BUT, if you are brave enough to try substituting coconut flour for wheat flour in a recipe then you might want to try 1/4 – 1/3 coconut flour for every cup of wheat flour, plus 3/4 – 2/3 cup extra liquid with an extra egg or two as part of that liquid (depending on how much coconut flour you used).  Also, your liquid needs to be something fatty, NOT water, so I would recommend using coconut oil, butter, or full-fat yogurt as your extra liquid.

If you’re looking for some quality coconut flour recipes for your favorite bakery treats then check out these below:

• Coconut Flour Breakfast Bake
• Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Coconut Flour Cake DONUTS
• Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins Recipe
• Coconut Flour Waffles Recipe
• Coconut Flour Bread Recipe
• Coconut Flour Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes Recipe (just don’t eat this before a drug test!)  ;)
• Gluten-free Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe (also has almond flour)

See?  Not hard at all!!  :)

If you’re interested in finding more gluten-free recipes, then be sure to follow my Gluten-Free Pinterest board!  I’ll be posting great gluten-free recipes that I find to that board (and if you also have a gluten-free Pinterest board for me to follow then leave the link in the comments).

If you have any other recipes that you would like to share (or tips about using coconut flour), feel free to share the recipes or tips in the comments below!

Oh, and this is definitely the best coconut flour price that I’ve found!  Even though it seems pricey (even at half off), you don’t use anywhere near the same amount of flour that you would with other recipes.  I can make enough of the breakfast bake (linked to above) to last me all week with just 6 Tbsp. of coconut flour!

Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour, 16-Ounce Units (Pack of 4) List Price: $32.32 Price: $25.96 Read Reviews