Avalanche Coconut Flour product reviews

In an attempt to get my health, and pre-baby body, back on track I started to research, and consequently begin on a Paleo lifestyle. This in itself has lead me to discover many a new way to take traditional recipes and find healthier alternatives and as such coconut based products, including oils and flours suddenly become a very normal part of my weekly shop.

I had no idea coconut flour was actually "a thing" and even more surprisingly, upon starting me search at our local super market, was somewhat shocked to see Avalanche, a brand I typically associate with damn good coffee and hot chocolate, playing in this space - it didn't really seem like much of a natural fit for their category. But now I have opened my eyes I have seen that they do move broadly into the "baking space" with great quality cocoa powder too, and certainly appear to be doing something right.

Firstly I was a little shocked at the price, especially compared to the traditional flours I was used to purchasing, but once over that shock and the somewhat fearful first up baking attempt using coconut flour I was converted. It was easy to work with, had a great texture you would expect from a quality product and the end result was really lovely Coconut Flour Brownie. Paleo doesn't allow a lot of sweets but this has become one of my fav's and I have yet to stray from the Avalanche Coconut Flour and Cocoa.

We are not a gluten free family by any means, but I work with a lot of vegan, gluten free and vegan gluten free people. So when we have a morning tea, I do need to think about everyone. Recently, we had a food challenge which required us to all come up with something vegan and gluten free. I knew that Kr had recently reviewed the coconut flour so I thought I would give it a go.

The first thing I did was take my normal vegan cupcake recipe and followed it, but replaced the plain flour with the coconut flour. This was a bit of a disaster. Usually the cake mix comes out really wet and sloppy, but the coconut flour seemed to soak up all the liquid, so it was more like a cookie dough than a cake batter. I tried to cook it anyway, and when it came out it was really crumbly and sweaty. I think though, that it possibly needed something more in it to bind it - like an egg or something.

Not to be turned off at the first hurdle though, I decided to change up a peanut butter cookie recipe instead. So with peanut butter, coconut flour and coconut sugar as well, I made little peanut butter cookies. These came out really well. They weren't terribly sweet, but they had a great peanut and coconut flavour. The bonus was, that because they were also sugar free they were edible for every single person on our floor at work. I got a lot of pats on the back!

I also found that my toddler loved eating this flour by the handful. I have to agree, it was delicious - but I love coconut anyway. It would make a great crumble topping or something. I think in future, if I was going to bake more with this product I would not try to go vegan as much because it does need something to bind it together. I would also experiment with adding other flours in, like arrowroot, or rice flour. I'm sure there is a good mix that would work, but this is not as "stand alone" as I first hoped.

I was surprised at first that Avalanche was branching out into gluten free flour and was excited to be given the opportunity to try it.

I quite often cook gluten free, however normally take the easy option quite often and just get mixes. So I decided to first try making pikelets as I knew that it was something that I should be able to taste the coconut in. I did my research as like all gluten free flours recipes needed to be tweaked to make them just right. There were so many recipes and what I realised is that they use a lot more liquid/eggs.

On making up the batter I found that the texture was a little more grainy than what normal flour would make, but then not as grainy if using other gluten free flours. The mixture seemed a little runny that what I was use to also and was tempted to add some more flour - but didn't. What I found is that these pikelets were a little flatter than I am use to but I don't think adding more flour would have made a difference. The taste of these were lovely a had just a slight taste of coconut, the second batch I added chopped banana and these were extra tasty.

I then decided to try it in different ways as stated on the packet. I substituted coconut flour as a thickener in a casserole (lost coconut taste but worked well) and also mixed some up as a substitute to coconut milk in a curry (not as creamy as coconut milk from a tin - but it worked ).

Overall I will be recommending this to other family members that are gluten free and will continue to use it in my home too. At the price of $4.99 I think it is one of the cheaper gluten free flours (as long as you get the right recipes to use it with).

I must have been living under a rock since I had never heard of coconut flour before Avalanche gave KIWIreviews some packets for review. I put my hand up to try it as I was curious andI need to get my family eating healthier. My sister is also gluten intolerant but finds that many of the gluten-free flours and baking mixes available contain potato which she also has an intolerance to. I wanted to see if I could bake something that she could eat that the whole family would enjoy (except for her husband that hates coconut).

I asked Aunty Google about coconut flour and found warnings against doing a direct substitution for wheat flour in recipes. That meant it was safest to use a coconut flour recipe. Most of the recipes I found were for the diet conscience and used other ingredients that I didn't have in the pantry so it took a bit of searching to find a recipe I could use. I noticed a strong coconut smell when I opened the packet so this flavour will come through in the final product too.

Since it is a Saturday morning tradition to make pancakes for breakfast I thought we would try this first. This was a bit failure. It was very eggy, browned very quickly and no one wanted to eat it. This scared me off using coconut flour for a few days but I knew I had to try a couple of other things to be able to give it a fair review.

Next I used the coconut flour in smoothies with brown bananas, frozen berries and milk. My daughters loved it. I couldn't taste the coconut and they didn't know that it was in there. It was certainly much healthier than adding yogurt or ice cream to thicken it like we normally would. There is also the bonus of added fibre and protein which made it more filling too.

Today I baked blueberry muffins. I have one daughter who loves blueberry muffins and she was begging to try them when she saw them cooling on the bench after school. My other daughter usually doesn't like blueberries so I decided to give them half each unsure if they would like it. They both polished it off and ate a whole one each. They groaned when I said that I had to take the rest to the office for morning tea tomorrow. It is safe to say that I will be baking another batch soon.

The coconut flour seemed expensive but a little goes a long way. I still have 2/3 of the bag left where I would have normally used 500g of regular flour in the pancakes and muffins. You certainly use a lot more eggs but if you have a free source then baking with coconut flour will probably cost about the same as regular baking. I can't wait to bake my sister's birthday cake this year.

I've been very health conscious lately and I've been limiting my gluten intake so I was really excited to be given some coconut flour to review.

The first thing that I noticed when I opened the bag was the strong coconut smell - it was devine! I had heard some differing experiences about using coconut flour so I went hunting to find a good recipe to try. I finally settled on making some good old chocolate muffins. Chocolate muffins are my sons (age 6.5 years) favourite and this particular recipe used both coconut flour and coconut sugar (which I was also given to review) so it was the perfect test.

My son loved them, I loved them and quite honestly I think they were the best chocolate muffin I have ever tasted! The coconut flour definitely changes the texture (think coconut mackintoshes) and the coconut flavour was quite strong but it complimented the chocolate so well. I've never made gluten free anything before so I was really surprised that they turned out so well - the only problem is trying not to gobble them all up in one go.

There is a decent amount of coconut flour per bag so as long as I don't go too crazy with it then it'll last me a while. I love that I'm making a healthier choice for my family when I use this product.

I've been wanting to try baking with coconut flour for a while now so thought this was as good a time as any to give it a go. Coconut flour is naturally gluten free and Avalanche produce a good range of gluten free products so I felt confident this would be safe to use for my family. I had no idea how to bake with coconut flour and didn't really find myself much more enlightened by the packaging on this product. I would have found it useful to have a recipe on the package or a website with recipes so I knew I was going to have instant success. Interestingly the ingredient list for this is desiccated coconut and sodium metabisulphite.

Anyway thank goodness for google. I found a few recipes that I felt confident trying but was interested to see that a lot of the recipes I looked at used a lot of eggs, bananas and honey. So I used the flour firstly in some cupcakes. These were pretty yummy and the kids pretty much demolished the whole batch before bed. The coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid so you use such a small amount (most recipes only used about 1/2 a cup) that the bag of flour will take a while to use up. I used the coconut flour in a heap of different baking. In banana bread, pancakes, cupcakes, muffins, thickening a curry, and sprinkled on breakfast cereal. Some items I would make again others not but I think the most interesting part of this process was realising that I can bake without using highly refined flours such as rice, tapioca, potato and maize and actually create something that is actually really nutritious rather than being full of empty calories.

Coconut flour obviously tastes coconutty so it is a taste the family has had to get used to but I think once we adapt our taste buds we may find it less enjoyable to eat baking made from my usual gluten free flours.

I still need to find some more "guaranteed good result" recipes but I feel confident enough now to try substitution with this coconut flour and am really excited about using it in my baking in the future. If you haven't tried coconut flour and want a product that is a bit more nutritious I would definitely recommend trying this.

I had never heard about coconut flour prior to seeing it on a list of products to review. I love to give new things a go, so this was a perfect opportunity.

I started off with doing some research on the internet and found that you can't just use is as a 1:1 replacement for normal flour as it soaks up so much moisture. I decided that rather than trying to replace standard flour with coconut flour, I would look for recipes which were specifically designed for coconut flour. A quick Google search came up with so many options.

When I opened the bag, I could smell the coconut - I love coconut so this was great. A quick look at the back of the bag showed me that there were only two ingredient - coconut (no surprises there) and sodium metabisulphite (from a search on the internet, I found that this was a preservative).

The first recipe that I tried was for Coconut Flour Waffles (jusenjoyfood.com). They were so quick to whip up. I was surprised how little coconut flour (1/2 cup) the recipe called for and how many eggs (8). We were having them for dessert for just two adults and two children, so I decided to half the recipe so that I didn't clear out all of my eggs and I also didn't know what they would be like the following day given that we were not going to eat the whole lot in one sitting. The mix made four waffles (half the recipe) - this was perfect for our family. They seemed to cook way faster than other waffle batters I had made up. They also became browny coloured pretty quickly. I think that it is necessary to watch them more so than waffles made with white flour. To serve them, we added some cream (both plain and with some Avalanche drinking chocolate mixed in), some fresh fruit, a sprinkling of coconut and a drizzle of maple syrup. The family demolished them pretty quickly.

The second trial of the coconut flour was our Sunday morning pikelets. We all have a strong idea of what our usual pikelets taste like so this was a challenge. We have previously tried a healthier option of pikelets and they haven't been accepted by the family. My father often comes around for our special Sunday morning breakfast as well, so he was in on the testing. We found that we needed to add even more milk than the recipe asked for as the mixture was very thick and not at all batter-like. Simultaneously we made up our standard Edmonds recipe so that we could compare with the ones using coconut flour. The first thing to notice was that there were a lot more eggs in the coconut flour batch and a little honey was used instead of sugar. The ingredients were much better for us in general. The ones with coconut flour became browner much quicker than the standard flour ones. The final test was the taste test. Out of the five of us, our four year old son was the only one who didn't like the coconut flour version. The rest of us much preferred them. The texture was very different and more interesting to eat.

When I first saw the bag of coconut flour, I thought that is was very little in comparison to a standard bag of flour and wouldn't go very far. I was wrong as you only use such a small amount for any recipe.

I like the fact that the coconut flour is high in fibre and protein. I think that I will use it in smoothies as I drink a lot of them and I am always looking for ways to add protein and fibre to my diet.

I am looking forward to testing this product out on other new recipes and learning more about how to use it effectively. It looks like it could have the bonus of reducing the amount of sugar required in family baking.

I decided to put my hand up and give another avalanche product a go as so far I have been 100% satisfied with everything I have tried. For me, I don't like branching out and trying new things as I go for the familiar. So this was a perfect opportunity to mix up the baking at our house. I opened the packet which ripped half way and I had to cut the other half off with scissors (wee bit frustrating but I can cope with that). The aroma of coconut hit me as soon as I opened it and I knew this was going to be great.

I for one LOVE coconut, my partner not so much and am unsure if my toddler enjoys it but that's another story. I went on Google to find the perfect recipe as I happened to have a few brown bananas that needed used. I stumbled across a simple banana muffin recipe that used coconut flour and coconut oil, of which I had both in my pantry. I followed the directions perfectly, mixed it all together and threw in the oven.

Before I decided to even make anything with the coconut flour I did a bit of research and saw that its really hard to cook with coconut flour as it soaks up liquid quicker, that baking with coconut flour is always better the day after and so on. So of course I was nervous that my baking wouldn't turn out. Was also a bit worried about the texture of the muffins as the coconut flour isn't as smooth as normal flour.

15 minutes later the timer on the oven beeped and I opened it up. The smell that wafted out was divine, banana and coconut goodness here I come. I let the muffins cool down for about 20 minutes before I tried one. I broke the muffin open, nice and moist, not dry, smells amazing, cooked perfectly. Time for the taste test and bang on! I expected it to be very coconutty but it wasn't. It tasted just like a normal banana muffin but way fluffier than normal. I think the coconut flour is going to be a huge hit in our household for sneaking extra protein and fibre into our meals and into our toddlers.

Next up I will give some chocolate chip cookies a go with coconut flour. Thanks avalanche another great product.