Ingredients
- Cottage Cheese, ricotta cheese, or yogurt in baked goods:
- Basic Substitutions
- For one cup dairy sub 1 TBS ACV and 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water (or on plan Fuel Pull milk)
- Eggs in baked goods:
- For 1 egg sub 1 TBS chia or flax meal w/3 TBS warm water. Let this sit and gel for a few min. Also add 1 tsp ACV per egg.
- Glucomannan:
- For 1 tsp Glucomannan sub 1 tsp Xanthan gum
- For 1 tsp Glucomannan sub 1 TBS Gelatin
Preparation
Step 1
Substituting for Almond flour:
You can substitute any nut or seed, ground up into meal or flour, in our recipes. Cashews are higher in carbs, so be aware of portioning. Flax, hazelnuts, walnuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds all are great subs. When using the higher fat nuts, simply use your food processor being careful not to grind it into a gooey mess. This would turn it into nut butter, which is also what one can substitute for peanut butter.
Coconut Flour and How to Use It:
1. What ratio can I use to replace regular flour with coconut flour?
I wish there was a simple answer here, but there is no strict ratio for taking a conventional recipe and recreating it with coconut flour. For example, a typical quick bread recipe takes 2 cups of flour, 1 or 2 eggs, 1/4 to 1/2 cup oil or butter, and anywhere between 1/4 to 1 cup of other liquids like milk or juice. Depending on the recipe writer, I’ve seen coconut flour breads take anywhere from 3/4 to 1 & 1/2 cups coconut flour, 6 eggs to 12 eggs, 1/3 to 1 cup of oil and no other liquids at all. And when I create a coconut flour recipe, I almost always try to add in some sort of additional protein (usually whey, but you could use hemp, soy or egg powder protein) to make up for the lack of gluten. I find this helps make a lighter, less dense end product.
2. How about subbing coconut flour into almond flour or other nut flour recipes?
Again, I’d say that there’s no simple ratio, but it is a little easier since they are both gluten free to start with and thus need some of the same considerations when baking. If I were to rework one of my own almond flour recipes, I would do about 1/2 cup coconut flour for every cup of almond flour. Then I’d probably double the eggs, and keep the liquids and additional protein about the same. If my batter seemed too thick, I’d add some additional liquid, one tablespoon a ta time until the consistency seemed right. If my batter was too thin, I’d add more coconut flour, one tablespoon at a time. But here’s where experience and gut instinct come into play. The “right” consistency for any gluten-free batter is very different than that of conventional recipes. It is typically much thicker and needs to be spread into the pan, not poured. Once again, the more you bake with coconut flour, the more you will get used to this and be able to tell what the right consistency is.
3. Gettin’ Eggy With It – do coconut flour recipes REALLY need all those eggs?
The most common complaint about coconut flour recipes are that they take a great many eggs. And they really do. I know I was startled when I first started o bake with it, and wondered if all the eggs were really necessary. But eggs, or egg replacers, really are important in coconut flour baking. This is due in part to the remarkable absorbency of coconut flour, but eggs also give it structure in the absence of gluten. It seems to require more structure than other low carb or gluten-free flours, so foregoing the eggs or egg
eplacers, or significantly cutting back on them, is not recommended.
http://nourishedkitchen.com/baking-with-coconut-flour/
http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2013/10/23/how-to-use-coconut-flour-2
http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2013/04/low-carb-basics-baking-with-coconut-flour.html
Almond Free Milk Alternatives:
Basically any nut can be made into milk, and many seeds. Cashew, walnut, hazelnut and sunflower seed milk could be made FP because they are lower in fat and carbs than some other nuts.
To make the cashew, walnut, hazelnut or sunflower seed milk as FP use 1/8 cup of nuts to 1 quart of hot water.
Put in the blender and blend for several minutes. The longer you blend, the creamier it will be. Strain through a paint strainer bag, or line a colander with a lint-free towel (can also use nut milk bag, a very fine mesh strainer, clean t-shirt).
-There are several S nut milk alternatives as well. You can make the cashew, hazelnut or walnut milk stronger (say 1/2 cup nuts to 1 quart of water). You can also use pecans, macadamia nuts, or Brazil nuts.
-Flaxseed milk can also be easily made, as well as sesame seed milk. These would automatically be FP because they are so low in fat and carbs. They are very strong though (just a word of warning). I made the flaxseed milk with 1/8 cup flax seeds to 1 quart of water. It is a bit hard to strain, as it becomes slurry after you blend it, but it does make a nice creamy milk.
-If you would like your nut/seed milks to be a bit thicker, and you do not have a problem with glucomannan, you can blend ¼ tsp in after you have strained the milk. Xanthan gum will also work, as will adding gelatin.
-A dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt is optional, but nice.
-It is best to soak the nuts in water and a Tbsp ACV for 6-8 hours. This not only helps with digestion, it also helps to make the milk creamier. Flax seeds and sesame seeds don't need to be soaked.
-You can dry the meal left in the towel to use as flour later.
**Coconut Milk (Compiled from notes of Edie Caruso and Tina Roberts.)
1 cup unsweetened coconut shreds.
4 cups hot water
Soak for 10 to 20 minutes
Run though a blender for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain through a lined colander. Pick up the corners of the towel to make a bag shape if not using a strainer bag. Squeeze the milk out. Twist the towel and get as much out as you can. Pour the milk into a glass jar, and seal finger tight. Place in the fridge. When cooled, the fat/cream will have come to the top. Shake to use full fat or remove for FP version of coconut milk. Save the cream for using in place of heavy/whipping cream or strain to make a cream cheese sub.
Edie says she uses the same method to make FP but only uses 1/4 cup coconut.