Coconut fail
Coconut flour and I have never really been friends.
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, and for some insane reason I keep trying to act like coconut flour can easily replace other flours. It doesn’t work.
At all.
I’m on a major tortilla kick -well, my whole life is a major tortilla kick- and was really wanting to make some beloved quinoa pita tortillas. Alas, we were out of quinoa flour, but I had a giant bag of unused coconut flour. (I think I should have realized that I never use coconut flour because it never turns out the way I expect. Like these sad pancakes.)
“That will totally work!”
Except not.
I mixed the coconut flour with water and a little sea salt,
it crumbled in the pan.
Added egg whites and baking powder,
it crumbled in the pan.
[This is sounding like really bad poetry at this point, haha]
Livi and I ate this one covered in maple syrup.
It was good, but I think I can successfully say that about anything edible covered in maple syrup.
Then I added a lot more egg whites -I had a whole carton that I’m kind of bummed ended up being wasted- and still didn’t work.
And, in a last-ditch effort to keep the ingredients from being wasted, I tried to turn it into this recipe (another favorite) by adding a splash of apple cider vinegar, honey, almond meal, poured it into a loaf pan and said a prayer.
Meet the crumbly loaf that never held together, destined for the trash can.
Since I have no coconut flour tortilla recipe, I would just recommend making this. Or this. Or this. Or keep buying tortillas pre-made at Trader Joe’s like I will be doing 😉
After my domino effect of cooking fails, I had a glass of wine.
The end.
Any coconut flour recipes you can recommend? Do you ever make homemade breads or tortillas? Any cooking fails lately?
Have a happy Monday!
xoxo
Gina
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This happens to me all the time. It usually happens with pancakes though and I just scramble it and eat it anyways.
Coconut flour is SO tricky to work with! I know most people use tons of eggs to make it work better, but for me, who has a slight allergy to eggs it’s almost impossible. Plus, I don’t really want to add 6 eggs to a loaf of banana bread per-say.
It definitely works if you mix it with other flours, but not usually alone (that I know of).
Which is kind of sad hah. I do like mixing it with twice the amount of almond milk and a little stevia, for a little coconut flour “frosting”. It’s SO good!
Hey Gina, I get the frustration! I’ve had some fails but also a couple of coconut flour success stories! Check out my blog:)
I’ve never baked with it but I do add it to my smoothies all the time– makes them thicker. And I also mix it with almond butter sometimes to get a coconut flavor 🙂
I seem to have one or two cooking fails a week, I know this when my starving hubby is pushing his food around with a fork..lol that’s How we learn I guess! Bring on the maple syrup…have a great week Gina! Love + Shine Courtstar
This is my life. I just tried to make coconut flour pancakes this weekend. In the trash they went. Tears. I know coconut flour tends to soak up liquids, so you have to use a lot more liquid and less flour, but I’m still failing. 🙁 You are not alone!
Haha well I think the glass of wine at the end was necessary! I have never tried to make my own bread or tortillas (aside from banana bread which is different) and I don’t think I have the motivation to.
Try this paleo pancakes:
2 eggs
2 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp coconut flour
2 ripe bananas
Blueberries.
play around with the coconut flour. Use 1 tsp first then can add more up to 1 tbsp.
I get your frustration with the coconut flour. I’ve yet to try pancakes with it, but I want to. I love my oat flour protein pancakes though, they are the best!
Elana’s pantry has some good recipes with it, but usually a greater ratio of almond flour to coconut and almost always together.
Maybe you could start using it has a binder in amazeballs or something? A coconut flour version of those would be super yummy!
I do make homemade bread almost weekly, as we don’t live near a store, and tortillas, love a mixture or whole wheat, oat flour, and flax.
Better luck to you next time with the coconut flour.
I have been considering home made tortillas lately but haven’t actually tried it yet. Now I know not to try it with coconut flour. I have been making up more and more recipes lately, and also attempting home made bread, so I have had more cooking fails lately than I care to admit.
Wah! I hate cooking fails! I made some coconut flour cupcakes a while back, and I remember them coming out rather well! Maybe you should look up a cupcake recipe! I’m pretty sure most coconut flour recipes call for a lot of eggs (yolks included)–much more than most standard recipes for baked goods tend to call for. Maybe that could be your problem. Keep trying! If you fail again, there’s always more wine.
Haha! It looks like you had two glasses of wine… It’s okay, I would have too. I’ve got too many cooking failures to rehash. But if I’ve learned anything from this lesson it’s too avoid coconut flour because I don’t need any help in the failure department.
That’s so weird! Coconut flour has always worked really well for me. I use it for my protein pancakes, regular pancakes, breads, protein muffins, cupcakes, etc.
Thank the good Lord I did not buy coconut flour this weekend, I almost did! What is the best gluten free flour to replace whole wheat flour. I dont’ really want to use potato, corn, or rice flour. I made my own almond flour but have only used that to coat chicken for a Paleo Chicken Kiev.
Bummer!
This book uses coconut flour (but ZERO eggs!) in many of its yummy recipes: http://bit.ly/PRDesserts 🙂
I love the taste and texture of coconut flour, but I’ve never had much luck baking with it. No matter what I do, whatever I’m making seems to fall apart. I’ve heard that adding lots of eggs is what makes all the difference, but I usually just stick with adding coconut flour to smoothies – it gives them such a lovely thick texture.
I failed on coconut flour too. But one time it worked when making these Banana-Coconut-Pancakes: http://nourish-and-flourish.net/2011/08/cheater/
They held together and tasted fantastic!!
Over the weekend I made the best cookies I have had in a long time using coconut flour,honey,eggs,coconut oil.
Forget coconut flour fail, I always, ALWAYS have crab cakes fail. Seriously. I can never get them into beautiful patties like hamburgers. I love me some crab cakes (or any kind of seafood cakes) but to make them is just well…..a disaster. That is when I see crab cakes on a menu, I order them and simply weep a little inside b/c I wish I could make them.
haha Wine makes everything better.
I’m impressed with your persistence on trying to make the coconut flour to result in something good. I’ve never bought coconut flour- but I don’t think I will be now.
I’m a corn tortilla girl myself but my boyfriends nana makes the best flour tortillas in the world. Only flour ingredients: flour, oil and water. Everyone that tries them falls in love instantly!
I’ve never tried baking with coconut flour since I’m not a fan of coconut. But I’ve def had many cooking mishaps. The first time I tried baking gf bread. Ooof. It came out gross lol.
The all-purpose coconut flour from XO Baking is AMAZING! It’s become my go to, because I honestly can’t tell a difference. But yeah, I’ve heard not good things about just straight coconut flour. Apparently, it soaks up the moisture in everything like crazy?
That’s often a problem with gluten free I think. I see a lot of recipes for breads that call for xantham gum which will bind like gluten. I assume that would work in tortillas as well but I’ve never tried.
I love coconut flour! I bake with it once a week, usually pancakes on Sundays. It wasn’t always a successful road, so I wanted to share my no-fail pancake recipe. Give it one last go- these pancakes are sooooooo good 🙂
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2011/11/grain-free-and-dairy-free-fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes-revisited/
This is my go-to coconut flour pancake recipe. It’s delicious–I always make sure to use plenty of coconut milk with fat.
The only fail I see here is that your wine glasses aren’t NEARLY full enough! 🙂
That was all we had left in the bottle- another fail!
Here is a recipe for Coconut Tortillas I want to try at “Against All Grain”
http://www.againstallgrain.com/2011/05/04/grain-free-tortillas/
Good luck! Yes-coconut flour acts completely different than all other flours…
I’ve had success with her coconut flour tortilla/crepe recipes!
Also recommend this blog for coconut flour flatbread recipes — super easy & quick! http://www.thrive-style.com/2012/02/fancy-grilled-cheese-on-coconut-flour-flatbread-gluten-and-grain-free/
Don’t worry, we’ve all had our coconut flour fails! It does take a little time to get used to cooking with it. This is the tortilla recipe I use. It’s from the paleo comfort foods cookbook, but the civilized caveman shared it on his site (link below). It’s great for enchiladas, tacos or even little breakfast tacos. Give it a try!
http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/entrees/beef/paleo-comfort-foods-recipereview-breakfast-burrito/
I love coconut flour – it works for me all the time. You just have to learn how to use it. It’s better suited to some recipes and not others, AND you cannot replace it 1:1. Also when you’re new to coconut flour, it’s best to try someone elses recipe until you get used to how coconut flour works, and then try your own hand at making your own! But first it takes time to get to know it!
Take a look at my recipes on my blog!
Also, read these:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/baking-with-coconut-flour/
http://gnowfglins.com/2012/10/24/a-primer-baking-with-coconut-flour/#
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2011/11/grain-free-and-dairy-free-fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes-revisited/
Since coconut flour is basically just coconut minus the fat/liquid – maybe just add a lil coconut oil or coconut milk back to it and turn it into coconut butter…spread it on top of some regular pancakes?? I’ve never tried it tho. Putting it in smoothies sounds like a fab idea tho –
I like adding small amounts of coconut flour to some recipes but all coconut flour is usually disastrous. 🙂 Plus…holy fiber overload! haha This past week I started making my own corn tortillas and have made 6 batches since. Don’t think I’ll ever buy store-bought again!
It’s tricky but you need to use about 3-4 eggs for every 1/4 cup of coconut flour in bread like recipes. It helps a lot to use liquid sweetener too or extra liquid. I’m not a master yet but do have a good pancake recipe on my blog and some other coconut flour recipes. It also helps a lot to sift the coconut flour before using it. Hope this helps a little!
Cooking with coconut flour has never worked out for me. My step mom is great at it though!
The only thing I’ve done with coconut flour is add it to smoothies – I’ve heard about too many fails from other people!
I LOVE coconut flour but I have the same problem. And to make it worse, I take the same recipe and keep thinking I can make it work…NOT the case. It’s so much more absorbent and needs more eggs and/or liquid.
it was weird though- the more liquid and eggs i added, the less it wanted to work. that coconut flour is a strange one indeed 😉
I’ve never had a coconut flour un-fail! Haha! It never turns out good. And if it looks good, it doesn’t taste good.
Gina! You should look @ PaleOMG’s website for coconut flour recipes. She has a Paleo blog-if that wasn’t obvious, lol-but she doesn’t tolerate nuts well so she uses coconut flour most of the time for her baked goods and I’ve had great results every time. I really prefer coconut flour for Paleo/gluten-free baking over almond flour because the texture is so much more like the ‘real’ thing and almond flour baked goods always taste too rich/heavy for me. Good luck!
Here’s another coconut flour tortilla recipe:
http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2010/9/29/coconut-flour-tortillas
I haven’t tried it but it sounds similar to some of the other recipes linked already. Since it’s just one tortilla it may be easier to experiment with…less waste!
I LOVE coconut flour, but it can be so tricky!!! I like to use half coco flour/half almond flour for a recipe. It seems to do the trick most times.
A glass of wine is how I like to solve my baking problems, too 🙂
http://www.smoothiegirleatstoo.com/2010/11/moist-low-calorie-microwave-protein-fudge-muffins/
You should try these, they are tortillas made coconut flour and they actually work! Maybe worth a try.
http://www.againstallgrain.com/2013/01/26/crepes-grainfree-paleo/
Oh no! Bummer! I hate wasting ingredients too, but this has so happened to me with things. I have never used coconut flour, so you will have to share sometime what you *do* use it for. 🙂
I think the key when working with coconut flour isn’t just liquid, it’s a fatty liquid. The most successful recipes I’ve made have full-fat coconut milk (the kind with the cream on top), whole eggs or egg yolks, butter or oil.
That said, it *is* tricky to work with. I’ve only succeeded with pancakes or with blended flour recipes, never straight coconut four.
I see a few people have recommend this but these are my favorite pancakes — http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes/
I have also made these cookies for the kids and they loved them. http://thelemonbowl.com/2013/03/coconut-flour-chocolate-chip-cookies-gluten-and-dairy-free.html
I didn’t use date sugar for the cookies. I used pure maple syrup.
I’m not sure what the deal with coconut flour is, I can’t seem to get it to work for me. I just stay away from all flours now, its just easier!
I just recently discovered the protein muffin you were obsessed with for a while, that uses coconut flour, I love it!!
for now, that’s the only good recipe i’ve tried using it!
1/4 cup coconut flour, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1 cup egg whites, 1/2 tsp each of cumin and garlic! Cook like very thin pancakes! Coconut tortillas! Turn out perfect everytime! I highly suggest them 🙂
Maybe mix the coconut flour with some gluten free flour?
Girrrrrl, you are totally not alone on the whole coconut flour thing…sad, sad, things have happened in my kitchen w/ it. But…also great things 🙂 On Sunday I tried my hand at baked banana oatmeal, tasted like old socks…so gross!
I’ve seen some recipes that call for coconut flour, but I still haven’t bought any so I haven’t tried them yet. Substituting flours can be super tricky! I’ve definitely had my fair share of recipe fails too haha. Really enjoyed reading this post, your thought process of trying to salvage things is exactly what I’ve gone through too lol