Coconut Series: Baking With Coconut Flour (And A Simple Coconut Bread Recipe)

Photo By Elena's Pantry

There is so much to love about coconut. Perhaps that’s why we call it the “Tree of Life” in the Philippines. You can get so much use out of this one giant nut (yes, it’s a nut, hence coco-nut.) Even after you eat the yummy flesh and drink the juice, you can still get use out of the coconut husk by drying it up and using it to scrub and polish your wooden floor (if I remember correctly!). I have fond memories of cleaning our house with it. I grew up living so “green” without even knowing it. Anyway. Moving on.

Benefits of Coconut
A lot of people are looking for gluten-free alternatives these days, and I’m surprised that coconut flour has not been picked up as a superfood option. Compared to wheat bran, it has twice as much fiber. And why is fiber good for you? From the book Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat by Bruce Fife:

• High-fiber foods are generally lower in calories. By simply adding high-fiber foods to your diet will lower your calorie intake. Fiber absorbs fluids so your stomach will also feel full sooner, which mean less calories for you to consume. 
• Good bacteria in our intestines get their primary nourishment from fiber. When we eat a lot of fiber, the good bacteria will dominate your  digestive tract. We need these good bacteria to produce vitamins, improve nutrient absorption and overall promote good health. 
• Coconut fiber, specifically has been found to expel intestinal words. In some parts of the world, it is a traditional practice to eat coconut meat as a way to get rid of parasites in the body. 
• Fiber reduces many factors in heart disease. It helps reduce cholesterol, blood pressure and increase insulin sensitivity. Coconut flour, in particular, has a positive impact on blood lipid levels and will lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol while increasing your HDL (good) cholesterol. It improves antioxidant status and reduces oxidative stress.
• Dietary fiber helps moderate swings in blood sugar by slowing down the absorption of sugar into the blood stream. Coconut fiber has been shown to be very effective in moderating blood sugar and insulin levels. Which makes coconut flour a really good alternative in baking, since often there will be some sugar involved.
• Fiber also cleanses our digestive tract by sweeping along parasites, toxins and carcinogens with it. This helps prevent toxins from getting lodged in our intestinal tracts. It also readily absorbs fluids, and are found to soak up to 20 to 50 percent of carcinogenic compounds.  
• Coconut is a good source of many trace minerals. Coconuts generally grow in mineral rich volcanic soil, compared to grains that are mostly grown in mineral depleted soil. Coconut also does not contain phytic acid, like wheat and other grains. You don’t have to worry about soaking, sprouting or souring before using it in your baking needs.

If I haven’t convinced you yet to check out the benefits of adding more coconut in your diet, you can read this article written by Mary Enig, Coconut, In Support Of Good Health In the 21st Century (stuff that we Islanders have known for years!). Moderate use in conjunction with a varied diet of healthy foods is key. I personally want to focus on getting more nutrient-dense superfood in our diet instead of thinking about all the food we shouldn’t eat. And coconut is one of those superfood that I’m more happy to consume. If you’ve never tried coconut ever, give coconut milk a go and check out my Easy Peasy Curry recipe I shared last week. Today, we’re going to look at the goodness yumminess of baking with coconut flour. And we’re going to keep it simple too (for mamas like me who are culinary-challenged!)

Cooking With Coconut Flour: The Basics
Perhaps one of the reasons why coconut flour has not yet gained popularity is that it is quite difficult to work with for those who are not familiar with it. Most of our recipes in baking are designed for wheat flour and other similar grains. We can’t simply substitute coconut flour in our recipes and get the desired results. I would highly recommend buying Bruce Fife’s book Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat. He has a lot of great simple recipes that you can build on. Before I share a simple coconut recipe adapted from this book, I want to highlight a few things about using coconut flour:

• Coconut flour lacks gluten. Which means you need to use more eggs that a regular recipe would to hold together your baked goods.
• Coconut flour is highly absorbent. Which means you need to add a little bit more water/liquid to the recipe.  A general rule of thumb if you are trying to substitute some coconut flour in place of wheat flour is to add 1:1 ratio of coconut flour to liquid.
• Because coconut flour is highly absorbent, you need to keep the liquids in the recipe to a minimum. Using butter or coconut oil keeps it from drying out. 
• Sugar is an essential ingredient in baking with coconut flour. You can reduce it, but don’t omit. 

Okay, let’s get on to baking!

Simple Coconut Bread Recipe
This recipe is from Bruce Fife’s book I’ve linked to above. I highly recommend it!
Ingredients:

• 6 pastured eggs
• 1/2 cup butter or ghee
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder (or you can omit)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients (by hand or using a mixer) until there are no lumps. Pour into a greased 9x5x3-inch pan and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from pan and let it cool on rack. Yum!