How To Make Coconut Flour (Video)

Homemade coconut flour is an excellent way to use the leftover pulp from homemade coconut milk. It’s easy to make using a blender, strainer, food processor, and oven; no special equipment required!

What Is Coconut Flour?

Coconut flour is a gluten free alternative flour made from mature coconut meat. It’s excellent for low-carb baking, keto recipes, or anyone following the paleo diet. It can be used to create sweet desserts like coconut flour cake or savory recipes like homemade pizza crusts.

This unique flour is very different from traditional flour and other grain-based flours. It requires a lot of liquid and eggs for it to bake properly and can have a grainy texture if not sifted. I’ll share my coconut flour baking tips later in this article, but first I want to share how to make coconut flour at home!

How To Make Coconut Flour

You can make coconut flour from dry shredded coconut flakes or fresh coconut meat from mature coconuts. Before we make coconut flour, we need to make coconut milk! This is such a simple recipe, once you make your own coconut milk you won’t want to buy it again!

Ingredients:

2.5 cups raw grated coconut meat or dried shredded coconut

3-4 cups of water – hot but not boiling

Instructions:

Warm the water in a saucepan or teakettle. Pour the coconut meat into a high speed blender base. Then, pour the hot water over the coconut flakes. Secure the high-speed blender with the lid and blend on high for 1-3 minutes, or until the coconut milk is thick and creamy. Next, line a strainer with cheesecloth and strain the coconut milk. You can also use a nut milk bag if you have one available. Squeeze all the liquid out of the pulp and set the coconut pulp aside. Store the coconut milk in a container or glass jar in the refrigerator.

Dehydrating The Coconut Flour

Oven Method

Now that you have coconut pulp, you can now make coconut flour. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit – or the lowest temperature possible. Then, take the pulp and spread it over a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use a fork to break up any clumps and spread the pulp into a flat layer.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake at a very low heat for 45 minutes to an hour. The coconut flour needs to dry out completely before you remove it from the oven. Once dried, bring the organic coconut flour out of the oven and let it cool completely.

Dehydrator Method

If you have access to a dehydrator, you can dry the coconut flour on dehydrator sheets. The directions are almost the same as the oven method except you can dry the coconut flour at a lower heat in the dehydrator.

Spread the coconut pulp over the dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 98 degrees for 10-12 hours, or until the coconut is completely dried.

Grind Into Flour

The final step for making coconut flour is grinding the dried coconut pulp into fine powder. You can use a coffee grinder, food processor or blender. I prefer a coffee grinder for this step. Grind the coconut flour into a fine flour and then store it in an airtight container.

Baking Tips

Now that you know how to make coconut flour, let’s learn how to bake with it!

Tip one: Use a recipe that is created for coconut flour. You may be tempted to make your favorite recipe for quick bread, but you can’t use coconut flour in a 1:1 ratio with other flours. It works completely different with liquids and absorbs a ton of liquid. Which brings me to my next tip..

Tip two: Use a lot of eggs! You’ll find the almost every coconut flour recipe uses a lot of eggs. That’s because coconut flour doesn’t contain gluten, so eggs are used to bind the ingredients together. I’ve tested flax eggs many times and have found they don’t work in place of eggs.

Tip three: Sift the flour! Sift, sift and sift. Sifting is such an important step in baking, especially when you use alternative flours. Sifting coconut flour will result in a lighter bake that tastes amazing. Don’t skip the sifting!

Coconut Flour Nutrition

Nutrition based per cup of coconut flour.

Calories: 481

Carbohydrates: 72g

Sugar: 24g

Net Carbs: 32g

Fiber: 40g dietary fiber

Fat: 12g

Protein: 24g

As you can see, you can learn how to make coconut flour at home with simple ingredients and equipment. If you’re looking for ways to use coconut flour, here’s a list of the best coconut flour recipes.

(And if after reading all of this, you’d rather just buy – here’s an explainer on the best coconut flour you can buy.)

FAQ

Related Articles:

• 61 Different Types of Flour & How To Use Them
• The Best Coconut Oil You Can Buy
• The Best Coconut Butter You Can Buy

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