Organic coconut flour — dried, defatted, finely ground coconut meat. Naturally gluten-free, very high in fibre, and unlike any other flour in the cupboard.
Read this before you bake with it
Coconut flour cannot be substituted one-for-one for wheat flour, and attempting it is the reason most people's first coconut flour bake is inedible.
It is extraordinarily absorbent — it will take up something in the region of four to five times its own weight in liquid, where wheat flour takes roughly its own weight. Put 200 g of coconut flour where a recipe asked for 200 g of wheat flour and you will produce a dry brick.
The working rule:
- Use about a quarter to a third of the weight of wheat flour called for.
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Add an extra egg for roughly every 30 g of coconut flour used, or an equivalent binder. There is no gluten here and very little starch, so something has to hold the crumb together.
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Let the batter stand for five to ten minutes before baking. Coconut flour absorbs slowly, and a batter that looks correct straight after mixing will be far too thick by the time it goes in the oven — or, worse, will keep absorbing while it bakes.
- Sieve it, always. It clumps.
The most reliable approach is to use a recipe written for coconut flour rather than to convert one.
Where it comes from
It is a by-product of coconut milk and coconut oil production, and a good one: the flesh is pressed for its oil and milk, and what is left — mostly fibre and protein — is dried and milled. That is what “defatted” means on the label. It still holds some fat, which is why coconut flour goes rancid eventually and plain wheat flour does not.
What is actually in it
Two things stand out, and both explain its behaviour.
Fibre. Coconut flour is among the highest-fibre flours available — typically around a third to 40% fibre by weight, most of it insoluble. That is where the absorbency comes from, and it is a genuine nutritional advantage. It is also a reason to introduce it gradually if your diet is not already high in fibre, and to drink enough water with it.
Low carbohydrate. Much of what would be starch in a cereal flour is fibre here, which is why coconut flour appears constantly in low-carbohydrate and ketogenic baking.
The taste is mildly sweet and faintly coconut — present, but much less assertive than desiccated coconut, and it disappears in anything chocolate or spiced.
What it is good for
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Cakes, brownies, muffins and pancakes written for coconut flour — it gives a soft, tender, slightly damp crumb.
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Thickening soups, curries and stews — a teaspoon does a lot.
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Coating fish or chicken before frying, alone or blended with another flour.
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Adding fibre to a smoothie, porridge or an existing flour blend at 10–20%.
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Bread — only as part of a blend. Alone it will not make a loaf.
Allergen note
In the European Union, coconut is not classed as a tree nut for allergen labelling — botanically it is a drupe, and most people with tree nut allergies tolerate it. That said, coconut allergy does exist and cross-reactivity is occasionally reported, so if you have a severe nut allergy, discuss it with your allergist rather than assuming.
Storage
Cool, dry and airtight, and use it within a few months of opening. It retains some coconut oil and will eventually taste stale or soapy — that is the fat going off. In a warm kitchen, keep it in the fridge.
Iswari
NOW Foods
