What is this group about? COCONUT FLOUR QUESTIONS

[Guest guest]

I subscribed to this group, recommended by

www.coconutresearchcenter.org, and find nothing about coconuts. I

suppose it's one of those cycles groups go through.

I have just purchased a copy of Bruce Fife's book, Cooking with

Coconut Flour (2011 edition).

I follow a diet which allows no starches, no gums, and no sweeteners

except ripe fruit and honey.

Personally, I cannot tolerate stevia -- it tastes sweet, but it

tastes wrong, and I dislike it. Granular stevia frequently has added

sugar alcohols such as erythritol, which causes profound

gastrointestinal upsets.

In going through the recipes in Mr. Fife's book, I was dismayed to

find out how many included ingredients I cannot tolerate, such as

corn starch and cream of tartar. (Corn IS a top allergen!)

Nowhere in the book did I find suggestions for substitutions for

these items. In the case of the cream of tartar, I assume it is being

used to stabilize the egg whites: that can be accomplished with a

little extra salt.

If I substitute honey for the sugar, this is adding additional

liquid. Implied in the discussion at the beginning of the book would

be the need for additional oil to preclude the product from becoming

dry, but in what proportions? When adapting recipes from wheat flour

to almond flour or pecan flour, I sometimes find it necessary to add

an additional amount of nut flour equal to the honey to compensate

for the liquid honey instead of sugar. However, p 34 clearly warns

against additional liquid, so I am uncertain how to adapt the use of

honey as my sole sweetener.

I am interested in the popovers and Yorkshire pudding recipes on

pages 49-50, but do not know what might be used in lieu of the corn starch.

I cannot use canned coconut milk because of the added gums used as

stabilizers. I can (and have) made my own coconut milk, but it is a

nuisance for every-day cooking. I do not tolerate milk or cream

unless it has been properly fermented into 24 hour yogurt, removing

all the lactose. Because yogurt is thicker than milk, my question

would be whether or not one might use a tablespoon of yogurt and a

tablespoon of water for each two tablespoons of milk, cream, or coconut milk.

I was advised that I could use coconut flour to thicken gravies, yet

I find only corn starch or arrowroot, neither of which I tolerate,

being used for that purpose in Cooking With Coconut Flour. Likewise

thickening fruit pie fillings. I take that back -- I found one

recipe, the shrimp sauce, on page 145, which apparently uses coconut

flour to thicken the sauce.

It is stated that one should follow the recipes exactly.

Unfortunately, that's not possible, unless I want to become very ill.

So where do I find the answers to the above questions?