Let's talk about coconut flour

In August I wrote about my new found love of coconut. (You can read all about that  HERE) Well, guess what? It has continued and spiraled till being deliciously out of control.  Perhaps I ate a whole box of somoa girl scout cookies by myself... in one sitting. I thought I would hate them! I always had... they have coconut and until recently I have hated all things coconut.  But, enough about my somoa eating problems I have something amazing to share with you, two words. Coconut Flour.  You can make cakes, pancakes, bread, cookies, ect. with coconut flour! It leaves an almost somoa like flavor in your mouth, incredible!



Let's talk about Coconut flour:

2 Tablespoons of coconut flour contain:
1.5g fat (1 gram saturated fat)
9g fiber
2g protein

that is pretty incredible for only 2 Tablespoons of the stuff.  The fiber is over tripled in Coconut flour vs. wheat flour and the protein is about doubled.  Coconut flour is very dense so you only need about half the amount of coconut flour that you would need of wheat.  The texture is very different from wheat flour and that can be hard to get used to but I think it taste much better.  Coconut flour does not absorb moisture well so you need to add more liquid (eggs work best) to help it stick together.  I decided to try one of my favorite "normal" cake recipes and see if I can use only coconut flour in it and see how it worked out.

(I have also added the link to the recipe here: Strawberry summer cake so even if you don't have any coconut flour you should try the "normal version")

6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup coconut flour ( you can use 11/2 of all-purpose flour)
11/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar (I actually used stevia) and 1 Tbs to sprinkle on top (I did use normal cane sugar for this)
2 eggs (the normal recipe calls for 1 egg I just needed two for my coconut flour)
3/4 milk (I used coconut milk the normal recipe calls for 1/2 milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound of strawberrys

preheat your oven to 350 degrees. The first thing I always do with this recipe is wash, hull, and cut my berries in half.
Mix your flour(s), baking powder, and salt in a medium size bowl
With an electric mixer beat your butter and sugar until fluffy than add your eggs, milk and vanilla.
Slowly add in your flour to your egg mixture.

Once combined pour in a greased 10-inch pie pan. Add you cut strawberries and cover the batter. Sprinkle with 1 Tbs sugar and put in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes lower temp to 325. Continue cooking for another 40-5o minutes (until a tooth pick comes out clean)

My coconut flour version of this cake was a little bit more crumbly than I was used to but it was still delicious!
Enjoy! This cakes is a perfect summer treat.