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 provides small amounts of several nutrients, such as potassium and iron. Products made from tapioca like tapioca resistant maltodextrin (TRM) may offer a few health benefits, including reducing cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

It's easy on your gut.

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.

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.

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.

Under proper storage conditions, tapioca flour typically remains usable for 6 to 12 months. Storing it in a cool, dry place away from sources of heat and moisture is critical for maintaining its quality.

Tapioca flour often provides a glossy final product, whereas cornstarch results in more of a matte finish. In most recipes, these two starches can be used interchangeably. Yet, you'll want to be careful of the differences listed and only swap in cornstarch if tapioca flour is not readily available to you.

A starch which comes from the cassava tuber. 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.

Is tapioca good for your liver? ›

Benefits Of Tapioca Fiber

This is due to improved liver insulin resistance, improved serum lipid levels and reduced hepatic lipid deposition – which boosts fat metabolism (Hu F 2020).

Tapioca pearls are low in potassium and phosphorus, while potatoes and peanuts are moderate sources of these minerals, making them safe for individuals with kidney disease when consumed in moderation.

Tapioca is low in saturated fat and sodium and contains small amounts of potassium, which may help regulate blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Cassava root is a source of natural resistant starch.

Nutritional value.

While both starches are similar in their nutritional build-up containing no fat or cholesterol, tapioca starch tends to have twice as much protein as potato starch. So, if you are looking to add protein to your diet, use tapioca starch!

Tapioca is a starch extracted from the cassava root through a process of washing and pulping. The wet pulp is then squeezed to extract a starchy liquid. Once all the water evaporates from the starchy liquid, the tapioca flour remains. Alternatively, cassava flour is the whole root, simply peeled, dried and ground.

Tapioca flour, or tapioca starch, is a popular, gluten-free flour made from the starch of cassava root ( 1 ). It's perhaps best known for the thick, chewy texture it lends to gluten-free baked goods but also works well as an allergy-friendly thickener for sauces, soups, puddings, and stews.

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.

“I have used tapioca flour in place of cornstarch for crisps, pie fillings, and cobblers,” Guas says. “The rough substitution is 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour for 1 tablespoon cornstarch.” Another significant benefit of tapioca is that it freezes well, keeping your baked goods the perfect consistency.

It binds ingredients and provides structure to the dough. It creates elastic doughs that do not need a mold to keep their form. It also helps retain moisture and prolongs the shelf life of the baked goods. Gluten-free dough mixes use xanthan gum, guar gum and/or ground seeds to take over these tasks.