Alternatives To White Flour

This is a thread where we can discuss white flour alternatives in baking an cooking. I am not necessarily looking for gluten free options, I just want to know what other people have experience using. Refined white flour isn't good for us, and I have been trying to move away from it.

My personal favourite is spelt flour. I find it replaces all purpose flour in recipes really well, without having to change anything else.

I also have a grain grinder attachment for my kitchen aid mixer, so I will be grinding my own flours in the future. I have already made oat flour a few times with it for cookies and muffins.

So what flour alternatives do you use?

 

Almond flour would probably be the best alternative. Coconut flour, too, esp. for baking.

 

Coconut flour interests me. I've been using a lot more coconut milks and creams in recipes and I want to start processing coconuts on my own. I figure if I blend all the coconut meat up I can strain out the liquids and toast the rest in the oven, then run it through my grain grinder. I have a feeling coconut will easily grind up very finely, which would be good for desserts.

Do you have any recipes you have tried with these flours in them PR?

 

Once, I used Graham Flour to make a carrot cake. It was very good.

 

i think only the older members will understand this post

 

I like spelt, too . I also don't experiment too much with flour alternatives these days. They are all different, and produce their own type of results, none of which can be compared to traditional wheat flour-crafted baked goods.

 

I ate spelt bread because it just was in reach but it clearly feels lighter to me. Like... it contains less fuel than average bread

 

Spelt is a high energy flour that contains a broader spectrum of vitamins and minerals than newer wheat varieties. It also requires less energy to digest it than it does to digest wheat.

 

I like corn flour. I make delicios cookies with it and sour cream)

 

I read an article this weekend that debunked all supposed health benefits of spelt in comparison to other more used grains (other then that is clearly lighter and easy digestible). But the article said there is in fact a grain that does have all these legendary attributes, they are oats. Downside: oats don't make good bread.

 

Have you tried oat flour? It's also very tasty and really healthy.

 

Link?

 

It was in the weekend edition of a dutch newspaper I read at my parents... But it should be able to be verified (I suspect ).

 

I can't seem to find any articles about that, no matter how I phrase the question to google. The closest is people on paleo diets saying it's bad because it contains gluten.

 

Gluten are only bad for people who have an intolerance to them.

But the article didn't say spelt is any worse for your health than other grains or bread. It just pointed out that there is no actual proof to the claims that it is much healthier (and these claims are one of the most important reasons it got so popular in the last decade). The university of Wageningen (hey its a dutch article ) is still researching it to make sure.

Of oats (translated from the dutch word haver, maybe there are different kinds of oats and this assertion only applies to a certain kind?) it has been certain for some time already that they have more health benefits than wheat or spelt grains. Unfortunately I don't like oatmeal at all.

 

Thanks for the info asmo! A revised internet search gave me this http://www.pactster.com/blog/nutrition/spelt-bread/ It also possibly lists that dutch article as its source? I can't tell.

Have you tried oat flour? I liked that in muffins and banana breads.

 

Kamut (pronounced kah-MOOT) flour is my favourite, I love the taste. Kind of nutty and yeasty. I've used buckwheat flour for pancakes. Amaranth is really good and high protein but tends to be expensive. I've used Teff flour as an addition in recipes, but not alone, it's pretty healthful, with a nutty taste. I've used bean flours when I had to go gluten free for a while. They make better bread than the rice flours available, much fluffier consistency. Garfava gave particularly good results, a mix of chickpea (garbanzo) and fava bean. Sorghum flour is another gluten free flour, it has a bit of a sweet taste to it. By the way, If you find whole grain flours too dense, you can add a couple of tablespoons of Vital Wheat Gluten to the recipe (not for gluten free diets of course).