All-purpose flour is the most suited and used flour for baking purposes. The gluten content in it makes it perfect to get the desired result, be it taste-wise, texture-wise or appearance-wise. That being said, people are on the look out for flour substitutions for a variety of reasons. Be it for health reasons, allergies, unavailability, etc.
Flour substitution is not as easy as simply using any other flour instead of all-purpose flour in a given recipe. Even though it gives a good taste, texture and look, the nutritional value is almost nil except for the vitamins and minerals which are mandatorily added these days to enrich it. Even then it is just plain starch without any fiber content, which is one of the essential nutrients for our bodies.
So many bakers are moving towards incorporating all kinds of whole grain flours while baking. Whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour, barley flour, quinoa flour, millet flour, etc just to name a few. But the only problem is these flours usually don't work out exactly like all-purpose flour because it's whole grain and the difference in the gluten quantity in such flours and also because of the high fiber content.
Treats baked using whole grain flours generally tend to be on the heavier side, don't rise as much as it's white counterpart and the taste might also need some time to get used to. But once you start baking with whole grain flours regularly you will crave for that more and more and wouldn't even go back to baking with regular white flour. The recipe might need some minor changes to be incorporated to get better results, like increasing the baking powder/baking soda a little bit, not over mixing the batter thereby over working the gluten which will end up in hard, dense and heavy baked treat, etc.
To start with one might try substituting ⅓rd or ½ a portion of all-purpose flour with the whole grain flour of your choice. See how it works out and then from there move on to increase the quantity of the whole grain flour. Pretty soon you will end up baking with it 100%. That's where I'm now. Whole wheat pastry flour especially is a boon for people like me; those who want to bake healthy. This works in all types of baked treats, be it eggless cakes and cupcakes, eggless cookies, eggless muffins, eggless scones etc. Because it is milled from soft whole wheat the gluten content is not as high as regular whole wheat flour making it perfect for all treats.
Other whole grain flours don't work exactly like whole wheat pastry flour so may not be suitable for all types of recipes. Quinoa flour, oat flour, barley flour etc maybe partly used in a recipe in combination with either all-purpose flour or whole-wheat pastry flour. These flours might especially be suited for cookies, scones and sometimes in muffins too.
Some other examples of flour substitution:
1 cup sifted all purpose white flour, Substitute:
- ¼ cup soy flour plus ¾ cup white flour
- â…“ cup wheat germ plus â…” cup white flour
- â…“ cup whole wheat flour plus â…” cup white flour
- ¾ cup coarse cornmeal
- ¾ cup rice flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1.5 cups oat flour
Note
These substitutions may require additional leavening, so add 2.5 teaspoons baking powder per cup of flour to compensate. These alternatives to white flour will result in a heavier yeast bread product.
Gluten-free baking is yet another ball game altogether. At least it is not as difficult as it was even a decade ago. Thanks to the wide spread awareness of the Celiac disease in specific and gluten intolerance in general. These days it's not at all difficult to locate gluten-free flours.
Some of those are amaranth flour, coconut flour, almond flour etc. But the drawback is all-purpose flour can't be simply replaced by these flours. Recipes have to be tweaked to get decent results. Even ready to use gluten free mix is easily available these days. Gluten-free baking along with egg-free is when it gets really complicated.
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Bhaskari says
Hi
Can you please tell me the difference between all purpose flour and "maida" and how much to substitute for breads and cookies?
Madhuram says
Both are the same Bhaskari. Maida is the just the Indian term.
Sumitra (CM) says
Can we use coconut flour and its better or not? Thanks
Madhuram says
Coconut flour is gluten-free. It cannot be used to replace all-purpose flour.
Helene says
actually you can use coconut flour, depending on what your making, you will either need to use less coconut flour to liquid ratio or increase your liquid i.e. if it calls for 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk reduce your milk by 3/4, coconut flour is highly absorbent and will absorb a huge amount of liquid, also if you are using coconut flour, mixing it with a good quality gluten free flour or adding things like xanthem gum to replace the properties of gluten....I recommend if you are trying to reduce your carb intake to use a combination of gluten free flour and coconut flour, but there are plenty of recipes online for coconut flour use.....
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the valuable information Helene. Will definitely keep in mind.
amie says
Hi, is there something i can use that isnt flour or carb? I'm mainly looking at fruits, vegs, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs and meat. thanks
Madhuram says
You can try baking with almond flour, coconut flour. Since you are ok with using eggs baking with one of those flours shouldn't be a problem.
Catherine says
Hi!
Can I replace 5 tbsp of all purpose flour for oatmeal? If I can, how many oatmeal do I need?
Thank you!!
Madhuram says
Yes you can Catherine.
kayah says
hi i know this is from ages ago but i have not got any flour at all in my house and i was thinking of making cookie dough... so is there anything else at all that i can use to replace flour especially with this quarintine stuff going on
Madhuram says
If you have quick cooking oats, you can make that into a fine powder and bake some cookies and brownies. Oat flour brownies, Oat flour chocolate chip cookies,flourless oatmeal peanut butter cookies.
S says
I want to use millet flour. How much do I use when recipes call for whilte or whole wheat flour?
Thanks.
Madhuram says
Start trying to replace 1/3rd of it first. Because millet is gluten-free you can't simply use it instead of all-purpose/whole wheat flour and get the same results especially if you want to make it egg free too.
Dipti Bandekar says
Hi,
some of the recipes are with coconut flour. But it is difficult to procure coconut flour. How can we replace it with some healthy flour?What is the proportion?
Thanks
Dipti
Madhuram says
Coconut flour is usually used as a gluten-free alternative. It doesn't work like all-purpose or whole wheat flour, because it doesn't have gluten. Gluten-free and egg free is quite tricky. Experimenting with different flours and ratio alone will help.
Huimei says
Good day.
I am from Singapore. Happened to read this interesting web. Currently my cookies recipe only required 1 dry ingredient tat was 100g of cake flour. May I know how to I replace cake flour with rolled oat meal/ rolled oat flour? Appreciate your advise with many thanks.
Madhuram says
You may try using equal portion of oat flour but you may not get the same results as using cake flour.
Marta says
I would like to make a corn casserole but it's asking for 4 T. of flour. I have an issue with gluten what can I use instead?
Madhuram says
Rice flour will work too. Cornstarch as well.
Sarah says
Can you grind the oats in a food processor to get a texture like flour? I'm wondering because I want to use it to thicken a sauce and we are clean eating and staying away from processed flours etc.
Madhuram says
Yes you can do that, Sarah.
mikaella says
Can i use quick cooking oats instead of rolled oats ???
😀
Madhuram says
Yes you can. But in some granola bar recipes, rolled oats will look better.
Kim says
Umm yeah I was trying to make cookies and none of these sound like s good substitute.
Madhuram says
I usually use whole wheat pastry flour for cookies and it turns out great.
madhu says
want to know ,what is self rising flour. how it differ from maida ?
Madhuram says
Self-rising flour has baking powder mixed in it. It is maida but with baking powder.
Jessica says
How can I substitute Coconut Flour for white flour?
Due to food allergies we cannot use soy, wheat, rice, or oats.
thanks!
Madhuram says
That's not quite easy Jessica. Gluten-free and egg free is complicated. I guess you have to figure it out on a trial and error basis.
Karl77 says
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LzqSeller says
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Ellie says
I am wondering if I can use only oatmeal instead of flour? And also I would like to use apple sauce instead of sugar , is this possible ?
heather says
I've never tried apple sauce, but I've tried banana puree with success. It has actually made things, like cookies, more muffin like. Good luck!
Madhuram says
Do try it Heather. Applesauce works fine in muffins. But in cookies they become very soft and chewy. So not a good choice if you want to make crispy cookies.
Karen says
I'm using whole wheat flour, and I want to find a substitute. Oat flour sound good, but what is the carbohydrate count compared to whole wheat flour?
Madhuram says
I'm guessing it should be about the same as in whole wheat flour.
Daisy says
When your saying •1/4 cup soy flour plus 3/4 cup white flour
Do you mean you can substitute 1/4 of soy flour to equal 3/4 cup. of white flour? Sorry I feel stupid not knowing if I am reading this right
Madhuram says
I mean that instead of using 1 cup of all-purpose flour you can use 3/4th cup of it plus 1/4 cup of soy flour or whole wheat flour instead to cut back on the white stuff.
Shrutika says
Where will i get whole wheat pastry flour or cake flour ?
Madhuram says
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2012/09/04/whole-wheat-pastry-flour-faq/
Cyndi says
I love your site!!!!!!!It is just like an app on my phone, I love it!!!! Also if you know the substitution for almond flour and the supplements (such as flour and leavening) to make a product that doesn't feel grainy. In cookies and brownies it is "okay" but I have NO idea for ratios when making cakes. Thank you for the assistance.
Madhuram says
Thanks Cyndi. I too need to look into almond flour baking. But doing egg free and gluten free is quite a task. I'll post once I'm successful.