I totally thought I was on to a winner, you guys.
Back in 2010, I received a bag of coconut flour to test out, and I had wanted to make a loaf of bread with it. After doing a bit of Googling, I found that all the recipes were for loaves made by hand – none for a breadmaker, which is what I use primarily because it’s awesome and easy. Since I couldn’t find any bread machine recipes at all, I adapted one of my favorite breadmaker recipes to include coconut flour, and it was a resounding success; to this day, it’s one of my most-visited posts.
However, my recipe only uses partial coconut flour in conjunction with all-purpose flour. Flash forward to this June, when I attended a panel hosted by reality star Tenley Molzahn. Tenley has health issues that have led her to maintaining a gluten-free diet, and after the panel was over she stuck around to chat with attendees and answer questions about gluten-free living. Someone brought up coconut flour, and I had a chance to ask her about how I might create a gluten-free version of my coconut flour breadmaker loaf. Tenley had some great suggestions and recommended almond flour in place of the all-purpose flour, so when I got home from the conference, I ordered a few bags off Amazon.
This seemed like a brilliant idea: My original coconut flour recipe is years old at this point, from before I had a decent camera – heck, I’m pretty sure that post even pre-dates Pinterest. It was about time to update my recipe anyway, and I had grand visions of my beautiful bread, photographed with an angelic glow under summer sunlight. Plus, since this version would be gluten-free, my friends with dietary restrictions would be able to enjoy it, too! This was gonna be great!
So tonight, I made my recipe as normal, except this time I used 2 1/2 cups of almond flour in place of all-purpose flour. I put it in the breadmaker on “Bake Rapid”, and while it smelled great, it completely fell apart when the timer was up and I put it on the cooling rack. I thought, “Maybe it tastes better than it looks,” but no – it tastes awful, too! This happened to me the last time I tried to make coconut flour without gluten, although that time I used 100% coconut flour which was just asking for trouble.
I’m trying to figure out where I went wrong this time. Obviously, Tenley didn’t know what exactly was in my recipe – for all I know, I may have used way more almond flour than you’re supposed to. Or maybe it didn’t cook long enough, and I should avoid rapid bake mode? Or I’m missing something else?!
Gluten-free friends: Do you have any advice as to how I could make this recipe work without all-purpose flour? I have enough almond flour to try again, but since it’s expensive I’d hate to waste the rest of it on another flop!
Beeb Ashcroft
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I wish I had advice. I am just now starting to bake from scratch more but totally using all purpose flour…. not sure how I would make anything that looked good without it. Hope someone can assist you with this.
I’m not sure if it will ever be super successful in the bread machine. I know that it seems like you needed a lot more eggs. Coconut flour is very absorbent. You need just 1/4 coconut flour for the all purpose flour you would normally use. You would need about 6 -10 eggs. Coconut flour is tricky but really good once you conquer it.
This is why GF baking TERRIFIES me. I am so glad I don’t have gluten-intolerance or I’d be in big trouble. 😉
Yikes!! Hopefully someone can help you out, I’ve been thinking about trying some GF baking but now i’m even more scared lol
I don’t have any advice unfortunately 🙁 I hope you find a successful recipe
Rachael – thanks so much for the great tips! And thanks to everyone else for the moral support! 😉