Baking with fruit flour and with tallow?
I am trying to learn how to bake with fruit flour and/or vegetable flour, but also tallow for a friend of mine who has pre-diabetes, wants to eat carbs, and wants to increase long chain fats in his diet.
he has bought tigernut, banana, pumpkin, breadfruit, and coconut flours. I am not allowed to use wheat flour. I am not allowed to use nut flowers. I am allowed to use either butter, butter oil (clarified butter plus stearic acid plus MCT oil), or tallow.
I need to come up with alternative recipes for standard items, because there aren't very many recipes that use non-gluten flower that don't also include fats that he won't let me use. He also restricts my use of sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey. Any ideas on how I can make tasty food with decent texture with these restrictions?
Just so I understand-
* Carbs are ok as long as there is no wheat and no simple sugars (honey,sugar,brown sugar,maple syrup).*
How about things like stevia, monk fruit, artificial sweeteners?
Is he trying to avoid wheat or gluten or both? A fruit flour based bread product would have better texture if vital wheat gluten (very low carbs but high protein) is used.
Are gums like xanthan or guar gum allowed? These are non-gluten ingredients that will give structure to a product.
The most forgiving products will be things like pancakes, tea breads/cakes (depending on sweetener availability),soda bread, flatbreads and possibly tortilla-type wraps.
The tallow/MCT oils are not that much an issue. Like any fat, just don't use too much and the outcome is thick and oily.
You have a learning curve ahead. I suggest you research a combination of gluten free baking and possibly wheat free baking (it is different than gluten free). The answer may be in the direction of Asian/mideast baking for some of these products. Also, for wheat free baking, you usually have to combine multiple types of flours in order to achieve something hardly similar to a wheat based product. Rather than try and duplicate a wheat based texture, focus on creating a different kind of deliciousness.
Good luck and keep posting. It will not be instantaneous but it can be done.
Is rye allowed?
watch out for fruit sugars. Coconut flour is a nut flour.
Your friend has a unique, and at some points contradictory, set of requirements.
What I suggest is getting to the roots of his condition(s), and find out what is a medical necessity and what is a personal preference.
For instance, is he a true celiac, or merely "gluten sensitive", or just following the fad of avoiding gluten?
Does he have an allergy to "_tree_ nuts" ?
Does he have to avoid fructose as well as glucose?
Is avoiding certain oils a matter of medical need (doctors orders) or a personal preference?
What is their doctor-recommended limit on grams of carbs per meal and per day?
Honestly? He's overweight and wants to lose weight, does better on low carb, doesn't use artificial sweeteners, wants me to restrict the sugars, but wants to be able to eat full fat homemade ice cream, croissants, and bread. He's driving me nuts, frankly. Doing my best to cook for him but running out of ideas. I like the suggestions about wheat free. Right now I'm feeding him quiches and I'm about to attempt things like zucchini bread. He recently took corn away, or I would still be making him his homemade corn tortillas that then become his homemade tortilla chips fried in tallow. I think he is addicted to the diet fad of the week.