Almond Flour? Coconut flour? Whole wheat flour?

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vivian1201small
vivian1201small Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Any preference in flours? I know these choices can change the taste in foods, but I am willing to tweak taste for nutrition. Here is what I found for these flours per 1/2 cup.
Almond Coconut Whole wheat
Carbs. 12g. 32g. 42g
Fat. 28g. 8g. 1g
Protein 12g. 8g. 8g

So, do I want to go with lower carbs and higher fat or vice versa? I made some banana "pancakes" which includes eggs, almond milk, cinnamon, honey, flax seed, coconut oil, real maple syrup (1 tsp) and almond flour. Well, the calories for this one dish added up to over 600! The almond flour alone was almost 250. Just need some advice on these flours.
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Replies

  • dwilliamca
    dwilliamca Posts: 325 Member
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    I've played around baking with both almond and coconut flours when I was experimenting with low carb. I found a few recipes that were tasty and reasonable with calories. Coconut makes a very soft dough so cookies tend to fall apart. I remember people liked the almond flour cookies and almond flour blackberry cobbler. I haven't made either in quite some time. It's probably not worth jumping through hoops to try and make nut flours act like wheat flour unless you have a gluten allergy or like me just like to experiment. Low carb diets generally let you subtract fiber from the total carbs, so whole wheat is a little lower net carbs. So as for which is best, I guess it depends on your specific diet and what you like the taste of.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    filbo132 wrote: »
    Not sure about the other flours, but I like coconut flour, so much fiber.

    I've started using green banana flour instead - I add a bit to my protein pancake mix. Coconut flour made then dry and a weird texture, I don't get that with the banana flour
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I rarely use flour, and when I do it's mostly for a special occasion, so I tend to use the flour I'm used to. Baking can be unforgiving.

    When I make pizza I usually will use whole wheat flour.

    I experimented with some nut based flours for a low carb dessert, and it was fun and tasty, but calorie wise no benefit (probably the opposite), and I don't see much benefit to doing low carb desserts all that often so I haven't really used the flour since then.

    I guess it depends on goals and how much you bake.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Since the children grew up and moved out I rarely bake. When I do, I use whatever will taste best in what I'm making. I use regular unbleached flour for thickening things like sauces and gravy.
  • vivian1201small
    vivian1201small Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you for all the comments. I didn't think about the fiber part of these flours. This deduction from the carbs makes sense to me in regards to what I want to accomplish. Also, I have never heard of green banana flour! I'm going to look into thisnfliur and experiment. My goal is to lose 10 pounds.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Wheat flour all the way for me (unless making almond biscuits where wheat flour on its own does not give the desired texture). It's way lower in calories. Fat can be easily had from other sources, I don't need to get it from flour, especially when nothing adequately replaces the function of wheat flour.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    I prefer to use the flour that will produce the result I want, and then adjust portion to suit my calorie goal.

    This^

    Unless you are allergic to something just use the flour that gives you the texture and flavor you want.
  • Sarahb29
    Sarahb29 Posts: 952 Member
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    I have both coconut and almond flour and use them sparingly. Almond flour is low in carbs but very high in calories/fat so one pancake would be 500 calories or more. Essh! I do like making biscuits with it though.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    vivian1201small wrote: »
    Thank you for all the comments. I didn't think about the fiber part of these flours. This deduction from the carbs makes sense to me in regards to what I want to accomplish. Also, I have never heard of green banana flour! I'm going to look into thisnfliur and experiment. My goal is to lose 10 pounds.

    I eat very little baked/grain foods when I'm in a deficit - for me, they aren't satisfying enough to warrant the calories. Swaps and alternative ingredients in recipes generally bring crap results - id rather no brownie than a "low cal protein brownie". Urgh.

    That doesn't mean you can't eat baked goods and lose weight - just fit them in to your calorie goal.
  • bobtater1
    bobtater1 Posts: 172 Member
    edited September 2017
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    When I bake I don't see much of a caloric advantage in the flours but I do cut the sugar and oil in the baked goods and save that way. I use stevia/sugar combo. We put way too much sugar in. I also use unsweetened applesauce or yogurt or banana in place of oil or butter. in the recipe. Believe it or not, I can make a 120 calorie baked apple fritter and a 200 cal cinnamon roll.
  • silverblaze55
    silverblaze55 Posts: 14 Member
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    I can't eat wheat flour, so I've tried a lot of stuff with almond flour. Couple weird things to consider beyond nutritional info:
    It has a texture and a flavor. It does not rise. And it makes baked goods very very dense.

    I made some cookies that were okay taste-wise, but I could only eat a quarter of one at a time (which I guess is good thing) because of how dense/heavy they were. Other than that most baked things were a fail.
    Made decent enough pancakes. Especially with blueberries added.
    Made an acceptable pizza crust. The dough was very sticky and a pain to work with tho.

    As others have said, unless you have a reason to avoid wheat, almond flour probably isn't worth it for all the calories and trouble it is.

    Slightly related note: ground flaxseed is perfect for making roux (and the carbs are 75% fiber IIRC).
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    A lot of those just don't work if you replace regular flour. As much as I like whole grains, I've found *one* bread recipe that actually turned good while using 100% whole wheat flour. Replace some regular flour with some wheat flour? Sure, but if you replace the whole recipe with wheat it will be dry and dense.

    Your best bet if you really want to use them is to look for tried and true recipes designed for that type of flour (I found a recipe for almond flour cookies that looks tasty, for example).
  • ElizabethHanrahan
    ElizabethHanrahan Posts: 102 Member
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    If you are going to try the alternative flours you HAVE to use different recipes. They WON'T WORK in regular recipes because of the way they absorb liquid. The taste isn't the same either. With coconut flour, you will ALWAYS have a coconut taste. This isn't bad but you have to get used to it.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    If your goal is just to lose weight you could use regular all purpose flour in your cooking. It is the calories that matter for weight loss.
    Kamut flour is supposed to be lower calorie but I have never used it.
    http://www.kingarthurflour.com/guides/baking-with-ancient-grains/kamut-flour/
    https://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/FlourTypes.htm
  • olive1968
    olive1968 Posts: 148 Member
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    Baking with flours that don't have gluten isn't anything like normal baking. You can use them for thickeners and that kind of stuff, but anything that needs a rise needs help. You have to use xanthun gum or other types of additives. Even flours billed as GF almost always need additions for baking.

    My daughter has celiac so I'm learning to bake all over again. I'm not very good at it yet, frankly. None of the chemistry is the same. I don't see a reason to torture yourself with this kind of baking if you don't HAVE to!
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
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    I would strongly encourage you to try recipes designed specifically for these flours before venturing off on your own science experiments. These flours don't behave like wheat flour (which has gluten and reacts with other baking ingredients to produce specific chemical reactions). Almond flour is ground up almonds. It behaves and produces the same chemical reactions as if you tossed a bunch of almonds in cookie dough (instead of regular flour). You can create edible products that in some approximation resemble their gluten-based brethren, but it's not a matter of simply replacing the wheat flour with your substitute. Also, coconut flour is a bit like clumping kitty litter in terms of moisture absorbency so expect to use much less and/or much more liquid to create your culinary masterpiece.

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