Using up the Flour

If you want to bake something, you need flour. Simple fact. Lots of options.

A while back, I started working with alternative flours. Alternative in the sense that they are not based on wheat and other ‘real’ grains. Part of the reason for this was that at some point I was faced with two challenges: shortages in the availability of ‘regular’ flour and some people in my family with health situations dominated by chronic inflammation. I also have to admit that I was curious. Doing things differently has always been a great fascination of mine.

As a result of these experiments, I had several flours on hand that needed a food purpose. And although their glory days of freshest use (and official expiration date) had passed, I was confident they were still good (smell, color, consistency).

Since I had already had good experiences with all the flours, I figured I would make the most of the abundance and variety by trying new flour combinations.

The candidates were:

1. Spelt Whole-Grain Flour: Your usual whole-wheat flour. If you want to use it instead of regular wheat flour or even whole wheat flour, you will need to add a little “glue” in the form of locust bean gum, guar gum, tapioca, psyllium husk, or the like (see 9. and 10. below).
2. Corn Flour and Rice Flour: The reason I put them in a row here is because I always combine them in about a 3/5 to 2/5 ratio (120-125 g corn flour and 75-80 g rice flour). This is an elegant mix for reducing the juiciness (like when you want to combine it with something like pumpkin) or for baking gluten-free cookies. You might want to keep the rice flour low, though, because otherwise the baked goods tend to taste like your kids made them in the sandbox. There is also cornstarch, which can be used as a stabilizer (I sometimes use it with the corn/rice mix if the all-purpose mix is not sticking well). The corn/rice flour mix does not work well on its own if you want to bake cakes or bread. So I usually mix them together (see post above). One small problem: both flours tend to be a little dusty.
3. Coconut Flour: Love this stuff. Works really well with unusual flour blends. Can be combined with corn/rice flour blends. Provides good texture for recipes that are too rich or too dry. Also makes an excellent vegan white sauce (see [Cheese Approach]).
4. Amaranth Flour: Really interesting flavor and texture. Needs a little help with stickiness though. I will give you the recipe from my experiment above at the beginning of the upcoming Spring issue [‘Cupcake Carnival’].
5. Buckwheat flour: A classic. I also recommend pairing it with another flour for baking cakes. Amaranth flour works well. Again, you need to support the stickiness. This is also an excellent choice if you are looking for structure not only for sweet baking, but also for savory or salty dishes. What I like most about this flour is the flavor. Just buckwheat. Delicious.
6. Brown Millet Flour: Yeah, I got you there, right? Probably not if you are a vegan baking pro. Which I am not. I discovered this flour as part of a gluten-free flour mix. When I bought it separately, I didn’t know what to do with it because it was made up of tiny little grains. Then I found that you can mix it with flours that lack texture because they are either dusty or absorb a lot of liquid. But the best thing about this flour is that you can use it to control sticky dough. For example, if your bread recipe calls for wet hands, you can roll it in brown millet flour and it will not only be manageable, but it will also have a nice even crust (assuming you remember to put a heat-resistant pot of water on the stove – my mother taught me that about baking bread).
7. Banana Flour: Yes, this is a very cool flour – I just recently discovered it for myself. I am sure a lot of people out there from banana growing areas are laughing now, but flour from green cooking bananas is just great. Sticks, blends beautifully with other gluten free / low gluten flours. Works like a starch (thickening) and like a flour (baking). Has an interesting subtle taste. Only bad character part: very dusty. So mix it well with other flours and best work with it in a place where the dust does not cover everything (I have a huge metal bowl that completely fills and overlaps the sink).
8. Potato Flour / Potato Starch: They are not the same, although they are often sold as such (our ‘potato flour’ package says on the side: 100% potato starch). You can easily tell the difference by the consistency: potato starch is a light white powder, basically tasteless, used for thickening, and potato flour is ground dried potatoes, which you can tell by the color and texture. Potato flour is used in baking recipes for bread. You can also use potato starch in baking, but it is not as heavy as potato flour. I always use potato starch in my recipes.
9. Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum: You can use these to improve the stickiness of many flours that are not made from ‘real’ grains and whole grains (all above). Not really flours themselves, but essential for vegan baking and thickening dishes. If mixed with flours, be sure to mix carefully before adding liquids.
   Sometimes used as a substitute for eggs.
10. Tapioca, Psyllium Husk: Same as locust bean and guar gum. You can use these to improve the stickiness of a lot of flours not made from ‘real’ grains and whole grains (all above). Not really flours themselves, but interesting for baking and thickening dishes. If you mix them with flours, you must mix them carefully before adding liquids. Please note here: These two will increase in amount. You must also be very careful with warm ingredients, they will lump together.
    Sometimes used as a substitute for eggs.

Doing things differently has always been a great fascination of mine.

Side Notes:

• Some of these flours are made from beans. So if you have a (digestive/health) problem with that, you might want to check before you start making those delicious cakes you can’t resist, right …?
• For everything concerning substitutes for eggs see my post [‘NoegkX – no fun?’]
• Be bold. It is not really difficult. If you mind some of the obstacles I mentioned above and get some practice, you will get the hang of it very quickly, I am sure. Also vegetables can be an interesting addition to the flour department. An example of that you can see in my recipe [‘Pizza Vagabond’]