The versatile root flour

cooking options: A cooking demonstration in progress.

Have you ever tried using alternative flour (root flour) to bake, and your cake or bread just didn’t come out right? You’re not alone. When using root flour, there are tricks to ensure your cakes, cookies or other baked goods and breads come out looking and tasting yummy.
Chef Susan Thomas, who was introduced to root flour in 2019, has the tips you need to make your perfect treats with root flour.
Last month, Thomas’ doubles made with cassava flour was a hit at the National Marketing Development Corporation’s (Namdevco) root crop demonstration at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain.
The great thing about root flour, Thomas said, is its diversity. “Root flour can be used for making baked products as well as drinks such as smoothies, punches, ice cream, etc. It maintains its nutritional value throughout. You can combine different types of root flours for the texture, layer or flavour to get your product to a particular outcome,” Thomas said.
Thomas has successfully made dumplings and saltfish, various breads, cookies, punches, ice cream, brownies, pone, various cakes, sweetbread and doubles, all using root flour. She said, “When you are using root flour, sift the flour at least six times to allow as much air to be trapped within the flour to allow your product to turn out lighter.
Once you follow Thomas’s advice, you will be baking like a root flour pro. Thomas explained, “Add a ­quarter-cup more liquid, eggs, etc, to the flour, and allow it to sit for a little while, about three to five minutes, to rehydrate and gain more moisture to facilitate a greater yield.”
She added, “Add a little more rising agent, whether it is baking powder or baking soda, to the root flour depending on what you are making because the root flour tends to be heavier,” Thomas said.
Thomas went on to explain the types of root flour and what they can be used for, specifically in baking. Cassava flour, she said, is a dense flour and tends to become gelatin-like when a dumpling is being boiled, but it makes a great fruit cake.
If you are opting to use breadfruit flour, then this alternative flour is light and fluffy, and works well in making cakes, pancakes, crepes, waffles and breads.
She said dasheen flour is a dense flour and is great for sweet bread or pone, and green banana flour has a dark, rich colour and is perfect for brownies or any chocolate-like dessert. It is also perfect for making smoothies, as one tablespoon will thicken your smoothie. It also produces great wraps and is very diverse.
She said sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, so one must be careful when using them to make traditional items like pone, sweet bread or brownies. This, she said, “is important, especially when producing items with recipes that call for sugar to be added”.
“You must reduce the amount of sugar by at least half a cup or the product will be overly sweet,” Thomas said.
The chef said root flour is a very interesting flour to work with. “The health benefits in comparison to our traditional all-purpose flour can hardly be argued against. I would advise people to experiment with these flours and have fun doing so. It is indeed exciting and provides a very clear understanding of the flour itself and its very wide-ranging applications in the field of cooking,” Thomas said.
Thomas said there are times when root flour must be mixed with regular all-purpose flour, but not to panic, because the nutrition content you are looking for will not be compromised.
About Susan Thomas:
Thomas obtained her degree in culinary management and trained to become a chef at the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI), commonly known as the Hotel School. She worked as a culinary arts teacher at SERVOL, then left to open her own catering business, Baked Home Style Caterers. She specialises in both local and international cuisine, as well as various traditional and non-traditional breads and cakes. She enjoys cooking and loves creating her own unique foods.
(Source: Express, July 8, 2022)