Grains, rice & flours · Gluten-free flours
Coconut flour
Very absorbent, fibre-rich flour from dried, defatted coconut; used in small amounts with plenty of egg.
Also called: defatted coconut flour
Photo: Veganbaking.net, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
What it is
Coconut flour is the finely ground coconut meat left after most of the oil and milk are pressed out. It is gluten-free and extremely absorbent, soaking up several times its weight in liquid, so it cannot replace wheat flour one-for-one. Recipes typically use a fraction of the flour and several eggs for structure. It tastes faintly of coconut and differs from desiccated coconut, which keeps its fat.
How it’s used
- Grain-free cakes and muffins (with eggs)
- Pancakes
- Thickening soups and smoothies
- Mixed in small amounts into gluten-free blends
Characteristics
- Taste
- Mild, slightly sweet coconut.
- Texture
- Fine but clumpy; bakes dense and moist.
- When cooked
- Rest batters a few minutes to let it absorb liquid before judging thickness.
- Sold as
- ground
- Cooking uses
- Suitable for baking, Used for thickening
- Common in
- Filipino, International
Storage
Cool, dry and dark. Airtight and cool; refrigerate in hot climates.
Diet, allergens and safety
No major allergens in typical versions.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Soy-free
- Caffeine-free
- Gluten-free. Coconut is listed as a tree nut in some countries' labelling rules; most tree-nut-allergic people tolerate it, but check individually.
Nutrition per 100 g
- Energy
- 409 kcal
- Protein
- 4.266 g
- Carbohydrate
- 14.663 g
- Fat
- 40.009 g
- Fibre
- 10.106 g
- Sugars
- 4.557 g
USDA FoodData Central: Nuts, coconut meat, dried (desiccated), not sweetened × 0.62 (a close stand-in).
Substitutes
Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.
- Almond flour — Use roughly 3–4 times as much and fewer eggs; follow a recipe written for it.
Related ingredients
Recipes with coconut flour
No recipe in the catalogue uses it yet.
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