Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Coconut and Lime Cakes And Some Tips For Cooking With Coconut Flour



Unless you have been living under a rock you would have noticed that coconut and its myriad of forms is increasingly making appearances in ‘healthy’ recipes. The latest is coconut flour.  But baking with coconut flour is not as simple as substituting a cup of wheat, spelt or buckwheat and turning out a batch of high-protein, nutritionally-rich and mouth-watering delish muffins that will impress all your friends. This stuff is different and you will have a lot more success if you arm yourself with some info and adjust your expectations.

A few important observations about Coconut Flour
-       You can’t substitute coconut flour in equal amounts of wheat flours: roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of coconut to 1 cup of grain based flour
-       Coconut flour is extraordinarily absorbent so you must increase your wet ingredients: generally 1 cup of coconut flour will require up to 6 beaten eggs and 1 cup of liquid
-       Coconut flour is very clumpy. To produce a fine texture beat thoroughly with other ingredients. Dont use it if you are after the light, fluffy texture of say a sponge
-       Coconut flour is expensive however you won’t be using the quantities of the cheaper grain-based flours so it is relatively affordable
-       Coconut flour has a distinctive coconuty flavour which will change the taste of the end result. Be realistic – if you hate coconut this flour may not be for you.

Coconut and Lime Cakes

Ingredients
3 eggs
1/3 cup of coconut flour
½ cup coconut oil
¼ cup of Rice Malt Syrup
Juice of 1 Lime
½ cup of unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
Icing
2 tbsp Rice Malt Syrup
½ cup of Mascarpone

Method
1.     Beat the eggs and Rice Malt Syrup for one minute.
2.     Add Coconut Oil, juice and almond milk and beat for further one minute.
3.     Sift baking powder and coconut flour into wet ingredients and beat for one minute
4.     Spoon into muffin cases or greased pattycake tin
5.     Bake in 200 degrees Celsius oven for 30 minutes
6.     Once cooled mix the mascarpone and Rice Malt Syrup and add to the top of cakes. The icing will hold up for a few days if refrigerated but for best results ice close to serving time.
- quantitity and cooking time may vary depending on size. My recipe makes 8





No comments:

Post a Comment