A Tale of Many Flours, part 2

“Your flour is your dream and your bread is your fulfillment”.

Wow – 2 weeks have gone by since my last post. As I’m sure you know, things can get a little crazy sometimes. I’m still running my Good Food Dear Friends booth at our local Farmers Market each Saturday morning, as well as starting to take special orders. Well, I had an order for 15 dozen cookies this past week! Yes – that’s 180 No Bakes, Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter and Monster cookies. Our small community has an annual Festival and one of the non-profit groups asked to buy my cookies to sell at their food stand. The man who asked has become one of my biggest fans! His daughter and grand-daughter are both gluten free, and he likes my treats even though he can eat “regular” food! In fact, he didn’t order my chocolate chip cookies because he didn’t want to cause any problems competing with one of the other stands, which sells chocolate chip cookies. When I pointed out that people buying my cookies wouldn’t be buying cookies from the other stand, he said that mine are so good, there would definitely be competition. How’s that for a compliment?

Anyway, in addition to the 15 dozen cookies, I also had 5 special orders, plus all the regular cooking I do each week for my booth! So everything else got put on the back burner, including this blog. I’ll try to do better in the future.

Here’s the flour nutrient breakdown I put together for you.  For comparison, I’ve included 2 gluten flours.

Flour Type	Protein	Fiber	Vitamins	Minerals	Other Info
Enriched White	3g	<1g	B vitamins	Iron	Contains gluten
Whole Wheat	4g	4g	B vitamins	Iron	Contains gluten
Tapioca Flour	0	0	0	0	Considered “empty calories”
Potato Starch	0	0	0	0
White Rice Flour	2g	1g	0	0
Brown Rice Flour	3g	2g	B vitamins	Iron, magnesium, manganese	Whole grain flour
Almond Flour	4g	1g	Vitamin E	Calcium, Potassium, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese.	Higher in calories
Coconut Flour	3g	5g	0	Iron, potassium	Must use extra liquid when baking.  May help lower LDL’s
G/F Oat Flour	3g	2g	B-vitamins	Iron, Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,	Whole grain flour, Produces moist products, helps lower LDL’s
Sorghum Flour	4g	3g	0	iron	Considered a dense flour, adds tenderness to baked goods

I used Bob’s Red Mill brand for “apples to apples” comparison whenever possible.  Feel free to share information, but please give me credit as the author.  whenever possible.  (I noticed in Preview that the table still isn’t formatted correctly, but it’s better than it was with the old layout, and I think it’s still readable. )

This article provided much of the information I was looking for in my research.  It is a great summary of the health benefits of 14 gluten free flours.

I also found this chart : 

It shows carbs, calories, protein and fiber – no nutrients listed.  Some protein and fiber numbers are different than mine, which may be due to variations between brands.

Just as a side note, don’t be confused by the similarity in the names Potato Flour and Potato Starch. Potato flour is made from dried potatoes and does contain all the nutrients found in potatoes. It also tastes like potatoes. Which means it may be great for certain uses, but limited in its usefulness. It may be a good fit for gluten free bread, but it is also pretty expensive. Sounds like it’s time to experiment…

Potato starch, on the other hand, is processed in order to extract the starch from potatoes, and is just that – starch. No flavor and no nutrients. Just a white powder that, like tapioca and corn starches, is good for thickening fat and water into gravy. Doesn’t that sound appetizing?

Well, I think if I’m not careful, I’ll turn this late post into 3 weeks worth of thoughts. haha! So, in anticipation, try to figure out why starch based flours (especially tapioca starch) has become the industry standard for gluten free baking. I’ll bet it won’t be too difficult if you put your mind to it.

The answer next week. Until then, find the time, in all of your craziness, to enjoy Good Food with Dear Friends.

Lori