With the popularity of coconut oil on the rise and popping up in mainstream media I thought I would take a look at the Hype surrounding coconut products and introduce you all to a trio of other coconut products which I think you will love if you introduce them into your pantry.
Coconut Flour
Coconut flour is the by-product of coconut milk production. After the coconut milk has been extracted, the leftover coconut meat is dried at low temps for a long period of time and then finely ground.
The Coconut Flour is very fine and resembles standard white flour in appearance, with a distinct coconut aroma. Coconut flour has a lot more fibre than standard white flour and is also low carb and naturally gluten free.
Of the trio I am discussing in this blog post coconut flour is perhaps the most difficult to work with. You can’t just replace 1 cup of white flour in a recipe with 1 cup of coconut flour, unless you don’t want your recipe to be very tasty.
Coconut Flour is incredibly absorbent so you need to increase the liquids in a recipe when baking with it. You also use a lot less Coconut Flour in a recipe than the standard flour it calls for.
Coconut Butter
I had never heard of coconut butter until not that long ago but oh my it is tasty, the jar I got sent to try some recipe’s out on is almost gone and I still had a lot of recipes I wanted to make. I will definitely be getting some more to try the other recipes at a later stage. My waist line might like a few weeks off these amazing baked goodies though!
The main difference between coconut butter and coconut oil is that coconut oil is oil extracted from the coconut while coconut butter is made from the meat of the coconut. You can use coconut butter as a replacement for recipes which include coconut oil.
Coconut butter is packed full of healthy fats which help keep you feeling fuller for longer, it also contains essential amino acids, magnesium and calcium.
Coconut Sugar
This sugar is derived from the coconut palm tree and is lower on the glycaemic index than sugar.
Coconut sugar is made in a natural 2-step process:
1. A cut is made on the flower of the coconut palm and the liquid sap is collected.
2. The sap is placed under heat until most of the water has evaporated.
The final product is coconut sugar, not to be confused with Palm Sugar which is similar but made from a different palm tree (and received a huge bad rep over the past few years, I’m picking the Kiwi’s here remember the Cadbury Chocolate Palm Oil Saga).
Whilst I still wouldn’t recommend consuming high levels of coconut sugar (it is still a sugar after all). It does retain a lot more nutrients than white sugar including Iron, Zinc, Potassium and Calcium.
There we have it, a trio of coconut products you can add into your pantry to create some yummy and healthy treats. Don’t worry I have a few recipes to come to get you started, so feel free to enter your e-mail address on the side bar …> and hit subscribe so you will receive notification of our new posts!
If you are looking to source one or all of these products please head over to our friends at the coconut oil shop who were generous enough to send us one of each of these products to trial and create some recipes from 🙂
Have you used any of these coconut products? What is your favourite thing to use them in?
I’ve only bought coconut oil before and it’s still in my fridge, I use it for stir fries and curries when I remember, I think I need to start being more adventurous!
My best non sweet tip for coconut oil is to put a teaspoon in your rice when it’s cooking, it makes it super yummy and is really good at room temperature the next day as leftovers 🙂