Tried and true coconut flour recipes

[Panserbjorne]

let's get a thread going! I am resolved to kick grains and I need yummy inspiration. I love baking with coconut flour as well as almond flour. I figured we could start a thread for each as a compliment to the grain free threads! Bring 'em on. Which ones had you swooning?

[dogmom327]

Subbing. I've made some crazy yummy things with almond flour but my coconut flour stuff is just okay. I'd like to switch it up more.

[crunchy_mama]

I am not a big baker, but we all LOVE the cupcakes in the coconut flour cookbook. The chocolate ones are our favorite. I do the low sugar version and then stevia glycerite or ground stevia leaf. I have also made some blueberry ones from Elana's pantry that are pretty darn yummy as well.

[crunchy_mama]

I should add I make the cupcakes, but don't ever frost them though.

[Panserbjorne]

links!!! They sound awesome!

[FairyRae]

I really like using this recipe for muffins and bread. I typically don't love the eggy-ness of *some* coconut flour baked goods, and this recipe does not have that quality...

Coconut Flour Banana Bread

Ingredients

4 eggs
1/4 c melted coconut oil
1-2 tbs honey (optional--could use stevia instead or leave it out)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking soda (optional)

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a small greased loaf pan or muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes (less time for muffins). Turn loaf out of pan, cool on a rack b/4 serving (if you can wait that long.)

Fabulous additions are fresh or frozen cranberries and chopped walnuts, plus a little orange extract or juice.


Awesome thread idea!!!

[crunchy_mama]

http://www.elanaspantry.com/dairy-fr...-chip-cookies/
used raw honey instead of agave

[crunchy_mama]

oops wrong thread

[FairyRae]

This is fabulous and features coconut flour (among other grain free ingredients.) Blending a nut based flour w/ coconut flour seems to be a great combo--I want to play around w/ this kind of recipe lowering/dropping the starch flour...

http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2009...ry-garlic.html

Braided Bread with Rosemary & Garlic

Beat wet ingredients:
4 room temp eggs (cold eggs will harden the coconut oil)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp coconut oil, soft or liquified (see tip below)
2 tbsp ghee, soft or liquified
1/4 cup cashew milk
(How to Make Cashew Milk Video)

Add dry ingredients:
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup almond meal flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Beat again.

Separate into three piles and refrigerate for about an hour.

Roll each pile into a coil about 14 inches long. I did this with a little oil on my hands on unbleached parchment paper.
Refrigerate the coils again, until they are slightly firm, if necessary.
Braid the three coils, and brush with an egg white.

Bake on unbleached parchment paper, in a pre-heated oven, at 350 degrees, for about 30 minutes.

[Panserbjorne]

oh, and are you talking Fife's cookbook? If you have a sec can you post the cupcake recipe? I will do it if you are tied up, ya know...with a BABY and all!

[FairyRae]

We are loving the cinnamon sugar cookies from Fife's book (I got it for Christmas )--using the low sugar version plus stevia...but I subbed the sugar w/ (NOT TF--sorry!) corn free xylitol. I'm still not sure what I think of sugar alcohols, but for now I'm feeling like they are ok in moderation. Reading something on the Rachel Matesz's blog and on Kelly the Kitchen Kop, for some reason, made me feel less worrisome about them--do feel free to share any thoughts/links etc w/ me on this though! I'm not totally sold on their safety, but thinking they might just be better, healthwise, than other 'natural sugars'...ahhh--it's a tough call!) I bet they'd taste great w/ regular sugar or coconut sugar etc. as well...

Shoot--I can't find the book at the moment--I'll add the recipe in later.

ETA:
Cinnamon Sugar Cookies Recipe (from Bruce Fife's Cooking with Coconut Flour)

4 eggs
3/4 cup plus 2 TBS sugar (OR 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp. liquid or powdered stevia)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, melted (I used coconut oil)
3/4 cups sifted coconut flour

For rolling cookies in:
2 tsp cinnamon
1 TBS sugar

Combine wet ingredients and sweetner, stir in coconut flour. Let batter rest for 5 minutes to thicken. Blend cinnamon and sugar, form batter into 1.5 inch balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar. Place on cookie sheet 1 inch apart, flatten to diameter of 2 inches. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes--makes 2 dozen cookies.

[dogmom327]

FairyRae you have awesome timing! I was just in the kitchen looking at 4 or 5 bananas that need to be used for something (like bread) today. Off to make banana bread!

[anyuka]

subbing - excited to go grain free and try some great new recipes.

[krankedyann]

Subbing. I'm looking to broaden my horizons for the few pounds of it I have left!

[Panserbjorne]

I love the cream cheese squares on the TT website. I'll have to cut and paste the recipe. My kids also go nuts for the pumpkin muffins as well. Really TT has a great sampling of recipes on their site!

[nukuspot]

subbing. I'm GF and love coconut anything....But my coconut flour baking has always come out too dry. So I need some help here.

[carnelian]

When I was transitioning to a more TF diet with less grains I used to make these coconut flour recipes alot. Using coconut palm sugar as the sweetener lowered the glycemic index rating. I remember them all being very good ::

gingerbread muffins
banana walnut muffins
herb biscuits
blueberry muffins
ginger-pear upside down cake (this was so )
dense chocolate cupcakes (good with raspberry coulis poured over)
double chocolate cookies
pb cookies

With almond flour ::

tangerine muffins ( I don't think you could tell these are grain free)
chocolate chip cookies

[FairyRae]

How could I have forgotten this gem? You can replace the orange w/ lemon for a delicious lemon cake too. (I'm hoping to try this recipe soon using dates/date syrup in place of honey, maybe w/ a little stevia as well. I'll report back if it *works*!)

Coconut flour Orange Cake

Ingredients
6 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup coconut milk
6 Tablespoons raw honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
juice of 1/2 medium orange
Directions
Take your eggs out of your refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure out coconut oil and place in an 8?x8? pan. Place the pan in the oven to melt the coconut oil. While the coconut oil is melting, whisk the eggs, coconut milk, honey, vanilla and orange zest together.
Once the coconut oil is melted (probably around five minutes or less), remove the pan from the oven and let it cool while you mix in the rest of your ingredients. Combine coconut flour, baking powder and sea salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet.
Once your pan is cooled enough to handle, carefully swirl your coconut oil around your pan in order to grease all sides. Then pour the coconut oil into the batter and mix until all lumps are gone.
Pour the batter into your greased pan and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.Place the cake on a cooling rack.
After the cake has cooled a bit, but is still warm, poke holes all over the top with a fork. Juice the orange half right over the whole cake, making sure to evenly distribute the juice.

[ihugtrees]

I have never had anything with coconut flour in it, but am considering going grain free. Is there a really strong coconut taste in baked goods made with the flour? What about with almond flour--strong almond taste?

[emmaegbert]

I think coconut flour does not taste very coconutty. It tastes kind of sweet to me, and has a very different texture than grain flour- kind of dense and crumbly. The proportions for things looked all WAY off to me when I first tried it.

I was eating grain and sugar free during preg (had diet-controlled gestational diabetes). I've just resolved to go back to that for a couple of months and see how I feel since baby is 8mos old and I seem to be gaining weight and losing energy. Been at it since new years and it feels good so far. I have to get back to coconut flour again- this thread is coming at a good moment for me. I don't think I can eat banana bread or cookies though, even when the sugars are less processed for me I think the carbs are probably the problem, not neccessarily the processing. When I was testing my blood sugar 4+ times a day, well, it was pretty unforgiving. (edited to say- I was testing my blood all the time b/c of the GD. I don't have diabetes normally, but having GD pretty much lets me know that I have a strong pre-disposition to not handling sugars well)

I've been making a nut crust w/ a coconut flour. I don't have amounts though, I just do it by look and feel. In the food processor I grind cashews and almonds together (or pine nuts and walnuts, or whatever mix I have around) until smooth but not a paste. I add some butter or coconut oil, pulse it, and add some toasted unsweet coconut (if I have it, esp if its for a sweet pie or tart) and a couple tablespoons of coconut flour. Pinch of sea salt, maybe a little cinnamon and/or 1-2tsp of honey or agave if its for a sweet pie. It makes a mushy kind of dough which I press into a pan (with damp fingers) and then toast in a cool oven (like 350) watching carefully so it doesn't burn.

I've liked these recipes below pretty well- both to me kind of taste better then next day.

COCONUT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (adapted with some trial and error from Bruce Fife recipe I found online)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut flour
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tsp (or so) cinnamon (optional)
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil/butter
5 tbls buttermilk (or unsweetened coconut milk, cream, yogurt, or milk)
1 tablespoon agave
15 drops stevia extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
optional: handful of sesame, sunflower, or chia seeds
optional: handful of lightly toasted unsweetened coconut (nice if you're going very coconutty with these, using coconut oil and coconut milk, skipping berries and seeds and adding some chopped walnuts)

Whisk eggs, oil, milk, agave, stevia, salt and vanilla. Stir coconut flour and baking powder into the batter and mix until there are no lumps. Stir in frozen blueberries (or other berries, or fruit) and nuts, stirring gently. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin (or lined with muffin papers). Bake at 400 F for 15-18 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

CHEESE BISCUITS- didn't love them as much but they were good. Nice and sturdy for lunch or a snack to take with you. Also adapted from what I am pretty sure was a Fife recipe I found online.

4 eggs
1⁄4 cup butter, melted
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
a couple grinds of pepper
1/3 cup sifted coconut flour
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
3⁄4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Blend together eggs, butter, salt, pepper.

Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Stir in cheese. Drop batter by the spoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Makes 8 biscuits.