16 Must-Try Tapioca Flour Recipes for Gluten-Free Cooking (2024)

FAQs

What does tapioca flour do in gluten-free baking? ›

Adding just the right amount of tapioca flour to your baked treats will create a light, airy, crispy and chewy texture. Perfect for adding to bread, cookies, brownies and pie crusts, tapioca flour is a great way to ensure that your ingredients bind together without using gluten!

Tapioca flour is one of the most popular flours in the world. It is highly prized as a South America and Caribbean baking staple for quick cheese bread. In addition, it can be used to thicken pie fillings, gravies, soups, and sauces. It's not quite as expected in the United States, but it is gaining popularity quickly.

Tapioca is poisonous when raw, but perfectly safe to eat and very nutritious when fully cooked or processed. Most tapioca starch currently on the market is safely made in factories and presents no risk of poisoning.

Tapioca starch is gluten-free, so it's a good choice if you have celiac disease. It's also easy to digest because it's low in FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols), a type of carbohydrate that's hard for your gut to process. It's a heart-healthy choice.

Tapioca caused an increase in anti-inflammatory bacteria and a decreased in pathogenic bacteria when fed to an animal model. However, this growth in beneficial bacteria may still be too much for patients with IBD.

The bottom line. Tapioca is high in carbs and calories, so it is not a traditionally healthful food. However, it can help a person meet the recommended daily allowance of several important nutrients. It can also be a tasty, nutritious food choice for people who need to gain weight.

Tapioca has a much higher caloric value than cassava, 100 grams of tapioca can provide up to 350 calories. Tapioca flour is much easier to digest than regular flour, which is why tapioca flour is often recommended for people with sensitive stomachs and intestines.

When taken by mouth: Tapioca is commonly consumed in foods. It is possibly safe when used in larger amounts as medicine, short-term. Side effects might include stomach pain, bloating, gas, and vomiting.

If you're in a pinch, you can swap all-purpose flour evenly for tapioca flour in most recipes, but keep in mind that all-purpose flour contains gluten. The swap may affect the texture of baked goods slightly—they'll have a little less chew and be slightly more dense.

Can you fry with tapioca starch? ›

This recipe is made with tapioca starch and no flour, so it is naturally gluten free. It gives you every step to make restaurant-quality fried chicken. This recipe will bring back those memories of real crispy fried chicken. The kind your grandma made!

This flour, as with most gluten-free flours, is typically best when used combined with other gluten-free flours. STORAGE: This is a dry product and does not require refrigeration or freezing. Opened or unopened, this product should be stored in a cool, dry area and has a 3-year shelf life from the production date.

The tapioca flour by itself yielded one of the more golden colored, crispy crusts so far. This was a winner.

Tapioca flour helps bind gluten free recipes and improves the texture of baked goods. Tapioca helps add crispness to crusts and chew to baked goods.

Gluten-free flours absorb more liquid.

You might notice a different ratio of ingredients in gluten-free recipes. Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Use xanthan gum or guar gum: Gluten-free flours lack the elasticity and structure that gluten provides, so adding a binder like xanthan or guar gum can help to hold the ingredients together and give your baked goods a better texture.

If you're in a pinch, you can swap all-purpose flour evenly for tapioca flour in most recipes, but keep in mind that all-purpose flour contains gluten. The swap may affect the texture of baked goods slightly—they'll have a little less chew and be slightly more dense.