Cooking with Coconut Flour, by Dr. Bruce Fife, N.D.

How do you handle coconut flour?

Coconut flour behaves very differently from other flours. It cannot be substituted entirely for wheat flour in standard recipes, and it needs to be combined with wheat, rye, or oat flour. Read the excerpt below to learn how Dr. Bruce Fife (of the Coconut Research Center) developed recipes using coconut flour; He proves that it is possible to make delicious recipes using coconut flour--you just have to know how to handle it and use appropriate recipes. [These photographs are from his most recent cookbook, "The Coconut Flour Gourmet."] [Printed with full permission from Dr. Fife.] 
For the full article, see: http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/hwnl_10-1.htm

Chicken Fingers, Blueberry Almond Muffins, and Gourmet Tortillas, from "The Coconut Flour Gourmet," by Bruce Fife and Leslie Fife. [Printed with permission.]

Healthy Ways Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 1

E-Mail Edition

Excerpted from the article by Bruce Fife, N.D. in:

http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/hwnl_10-1.htm

[Click on the link above to read the full article, and to see photos of the two books mentioned, as well as beautiful photos of the dishes created using the recipes in the books.] [Visited 2 August 2015) ". . . Finally, I contacted the researchers at the Philippine Coconut Authority and asked them if they know how to make baked goods using only coconut flour. They said it couldn't be done. They had tried and were not successful. The only way you could use coconut flour was to substitute a little of it for wheat flour in a wheat recipe. This information didn't help. I was determined to make baked goods using only coconut flour. So I approached the problem with a different perspective. I put away the cookbooks and started from scratch. Using what I had learned from my many previous attempts and started experimenting again, but didn't bother to follow conventional procedures. I soon discovered the secret to making tasty baked goods using only coconut flour. Once I got the correct procedure down, I  was able to create a number of recipes for a variety of quick breads, muffins, pancakes, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other products that tasted every bit as good as those made using wheat flour. These recipes were compiled into a book titled Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat. With few exceptions all of the recipes in the book are made using coconut flour as the only flour. Since coconut flour is high in fiber it is naturally low in digestible carbohydrate, I was also able to make low-carb, low-sugar versions of each recipe. With the publication of this book I created a new market for coconut flour. Up to this point coconut flour was not packaged and sold to any great extent because nobody knew how to use it effectively. Now it could be used to make a variety of gluten-free and even low-carb recipes. The book was an immediate success and demand for coconut flour skyrocketed. Soon a number of companies were producing coconut flour and now virtually every health food store stocks it. For the most part, the recipes are very simple; you simply combine the ingredients (generally coconut flour, eggs, and oil) in a bowl, mix and bake, no kneading, rising, or special treatment and no need to add multiple flours, dough conditioners, gums, and other ingredients. It is much easier to make gluten-free baked goods using coconut flour than other flours. However, one thing I was not able to accomplish was yeast breads. I could make breads using baking soda like banana nut bread and pumpkin bread, but not yeast bread. Many people contacted me since the publication of this book and have asked for pizza crust and sandwich bread recipes. In response to these requests I teamed up with my wife and went back to the drawing board, or rather the kitchen, and began experimenting. From experience I knew I could not make suitable yeast bread using only coconut flour. I needed to add other gluten-free flours to get the right characteristics and taste and before long we developed a basic yeast bread recipe that was outstanding. When the first loaf of our final version came out of the oven we could hardly wait to try it. One of our friends just happened to be visiting at the time so we offered him a slice of our experimental bread. He gladly accepted. We handed him a slice and asked, "Tell us what you think of it?" He took a big bite and began chewing. The first word out of his mouth was an enthusiastic, "Mmmmm!" The second word out of his mouth was also "Mmmm." And the third word was "Mmmm." Enough said, we knew the recipe was a success. When we tasted the bread, our reactions were the same. This was without question the best gluten-free bread we had ever eaten. Right out of the oven it was just as good as freshly made wheat bread. Our yeast bread formula uses a mix of coconut flour and three other gluten-free flours. This mix can be used as an all-purpose flour mix to make a variety of yeast-based breads, including sandwich bread, dinner rolls, hamburger and hot dog buns, bread sticks, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, tortillas, scones, and even calzones. We combined our yeast bread recipes with a variety of new coconut flour recipes (many of which use 100% coconut flour) to make a variety of muffins, cakes, waffles, crepes, and other products and compiled them into a new cookbook titled The Coconut Flour Gourmet: 150 Delicious Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Recipes. Unlike our first book, we put no restriction on the carbohydrate content of the recipes. This allowed us to create our yeast bread formula and to be a little more creative in developing many other coconut flour recipes. Although this book does contain its share of sweets and desserts, it is loaded with savory dishes as well such as Sesame Pecan Chicken, Tempura Shrimp, Cajun Chicken Fingers, and Turkey Stuffing. Every recipe in this book is made using coconut flour and is completely gluten-free. For those people who are gluten intolerant this book provides a wealth of delicious recipes.