How To Make Coconut Flour {Video Tutorial}

Heather Dessinger

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how to make coconut flour with fresh coconut

White Flour Is Good For You!

shredded coconut

Well, only this one, but that felt good to say just once! Seriously, though, it IS good for you! Coconut flour is rich in fiber, low carb and gluten free. And it’s more versatile than you might think . . . just check out these recipes for berry scones, orange vanilla cupcakes, fluffy pancakesblueberry muffins, and coconut flour cake (just to name a few).

How to Make Coconut Flour

Want to make your own? If you’ve already got coconut shreds from making your own coconut milk this will take you three minutes flat. AND it will save you money! One 12 oz. bag of shredded coconut ($3.29 at my store) can make 32 oz. of coconut milk and 1½ cups of coconut flour. Ounce for ounce, that’s less than 50% of what I would have paid at the grocery store ($6.80). It’s fun, kid-friendly and tastes better, too!

Quick Tip: Most recipes are geared toward the prepackaged stuff, which is more dense because of settling. When measuring, pack your homemade flour well to compensate. Also, it’s best to make coconut milk twice with your shreds to remove as much oil as possible. Coconut fiber is highly absorptive and recipes account for that, so you want to make sure your flour is very dry and oil-free.

Ready? Let’s learn how to make coconut flour!

Do you have a favorite coconut flour recipe? Share it below!

Photo credit: Piotr Bizior

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world. 

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57 thoughts on “How To Make Coconut Flour {Video Tutorial}”

  1. Well, that was easy! I’m going to save so much money now, all thanks to you! 🙂 I love Katie’s “can I have just a pinch”. 🙂 Too cute!

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  2. I buy my coconut flour from my market already ground, but I wanted to say I love love love your pancake recipe. Started making them several months ago and my whole family loves them. Just made the almond berry scones this morning and they are delicious too. Thanks for the great recipes and stuff.

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  3. The coconut shreds that I have are dehydrated. Will it still make coconut milk or should I just go straight to putting it in the food processor and make the flour?

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    • Hi Martha! If they are simply dehydrated coconut shreds (store bought or homemade) that have not been used for any other purpose you can make milk with them. Hope that helps!

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  4. This is great. Having the oven on for so many hours to dry the dessicated coconut seems very expensive and time consuming; especially for a student!! Does it have to be completely dried for baking? Any ideas guys?

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    • I dehydrate everything included sprouted seeds/grain outside in the sun – it is usually much faster!
      I nailed narrow boards together and stapled window screen on them (not the metal types, but vinyl over fiberglass cut right between the rows to eliminate fraying), More than one means a lid, stack as high as desired, but rotation may be needed.
      Coconut would need a double layer of screen, rotated, or even better, a very thin dishtowel such as muslin or flour sack type.

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  5. Hi! I went on a search for coconut flour in stores the other day, and I found Laxmi Brand “Coconut Powder: Coarse ground dried whole coconut” in the Indian section of one store. Would this work for baking, or would I need to grind it finer? After watching your video, it seems like it would be more of the “cornmeal texture,” as you described the batch that you ran through the food processor. Mine possibly is a tiny bit more coarse, though. I bought it instead of Red Mill’s coconut flour, b/c it was considerably more cheaper (or possibly had less quantity?). It was $2.99 for 14 oz. The package says that wheat is processed in the same line, but at this point I’m choosing to wink at that part, given the low price! One day I’ll become more hard-core!

    I stumbled upon your blog a few days ago, and am LOVING it! 😀

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  6. Heather, that is so awesome! I got a coconut estate and this is the first time I learnt about coconut flour. Thanks so much n luv ur video :o)

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  7. I really like this , can i just buy coconut flakes from shop then put in food processor to make it become coconut flour ???

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    • The shreds have oil in them, so what you’d end up with would actually be coconut butter. For flour it’s better to separate out the oil by making coconut milk first and then dehydrating the shreds.

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  8. Thanks! Just getting into making my own almond/rice milk, yogurt and such and will definitely be giving this a and your other recipes a try. Thanks so much for taking the time to share 🙂

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  9. Heather, you and Katie are delightful to watch! I have a coconut obsession lately and am thrilled to have found an inexpensive way to get more coconut milk for my smoothies and now coconut flour for baking. Thanks so much for your informative videos.
    annie

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  10. Healther, love your video!!! What kind of coffee bean grinder do you have? I had two but jammed them both up last year (think it was in grinding up flax seeds and then washing them…) Also, do you also have a Vitamix & if you do, do you find that you use the food processor just as much? Thanks! Kelly

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    • I just have a basic coffee grinder (Toastmaster), but I brush the flour out with a basting brush rather than wash it to keep it from gunking up. No Vitamix in my kitchen – I’ve been getting by just fine with a food processor 🙂 (Though if I were offered one I certainly wouldn’t turn it down!)

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      • I always clean my grinder with plain ole sea salt. I usually brush out the contents first with anything from a pastry brush to just a paper towel, then I throw in a good tablespoon of sea salt and grind it. The moisture in the salt attracts particles, and the rough texture cleans and sharpens the gears – and salt is a natural antibacterial preservative. Then I dump out the salt and wipe the grinder once more with a clean paper towel.

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  11. Hi! I love this. I made my coconut milk this morning and am DYING to make coconut flour for a recipe I have. Must I dehydrate them? 🙁 I plan to bake with them today. If I dont dry and dehydrate what would the ratio be? I dont want a soppy mess but I do want to make my zuchinni bread recipe today! Thanks for any help.

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    • Hi Krista! You could theoretically use the flour without drying it but I don’t know of any recipes that take that option into account when factoring the amount of liquid to add in. Seems like it would need to be a pretty forgiving recipe because shreds can retain different amounts of water depending on how hot it was, how long it soaked, etc.

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  12. Have any of you compared how well the flour absorbs moisture (homemade vs. commercial) in your recipes? I’ve made my own coconut flour (after making coconut milk), but it seems that it takes a long time to absorb moisture in the recipe. No matter how long I leave the batter sit, my baked goods are correctly baked on top, but mushy / custard-like on the bottom — even though the batter is completely mixed. It seems as if the fiber rises to the top!

    Since I haven’t tried commercial flour (too expensive!), I have no way of knowing if I haven’t defatted the coconut enough.

    Thanks for any insight,
    Sharon

    P.S. I use a pantyhose “leg” to strain the pulp. I haven’t worn p/h in years, so I had a few packages just sitting around. Works great!

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  13. Hi Heather,
    Do you think you could do the drying by leaving the coconut in the airing cupboard in the same way fresh herbs are dried and how long would it take [random guess is fine]?
    Best wishes from England.

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  14. I was wondering if you have tried coconut sugar? We are the coconut nuts at my house. We do so many coconut products with the sugar, flour oil and milk being out top favs.

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  15. Hi,

    Thanks for sharing.

    I would like to ask, is there gonna be any humidity issues involved in processing coconut flakes into coconut flour?
    The reason for my concern is that, i’m living in South east Asia with high humidity, and hence, i’m afraid that the outcome of the grated coconut/ coconut flakes would not be coconut flour.

    Thank you.

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  16. Maybe it’s because I’m on my iPhone, but no video shows- I was wondering if/he to dry the coconut before making the flour? & could you just blend it immediately after with a little oil to make coconut butter? Thanks!

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    • Yes, you will need to dry the flakes before grinding. I have a recipe for making coconut butter here, but I recommend using flakes that have not been used to make coconut milk 🙂

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  17. hey heather! I know this is an older post, but you may want to edit it, as those scones don’t have any coconut flour in them 🙂

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  18. I really want to thank you Mommy and Katie for sharing the coconut flour. I will be making ground chicken meatballs with coconut and pineapple. Katie was very awesome listening so well to mommy too.

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  19. how long can I keep coconut my homemade coconut flour in the fridge? I made some 4 months ago and put it in the fridge. is it still safe to bake with?

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  20. Just wondering if the degrees are in fahrenheit or celsius? And if i am able to store most coconut shreds in the fridge overnight and the dehydrate and make the flour the following day? Really don’t want them to go to waste!

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  21. I am wondering about coconut flour vs coconut meal. instead of using the store bought flour, I’ve just been grinding coconut in my vitamix and use it when coconut flour is called for. Is that why my cupcakes separated with an eggy layer on the bottom?

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  22. HI Heather, can I clarify baking in the oven for 12-18 hours? The flour is very dry at 30-45 mins already at 150 f. Should I continue to leave it in for 12 hours? Thanks in advance

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  23. I can’t see the video, is there any way to get written instructions like on your “how to make coconut milk from flakes”? Please and thank you!

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    • Great question. You can use dessicated coconut (as I did in this post), but it will be much more coarse and less absorbent than store-bought coconut flour and therefore cannot always be used as an equal substitute. When I created this tutorial years ago coconut flour was not as readily available as it is now so I made my own. Just something to be aware of 🙂

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  24. Thanks for this idea. I used the same coconut shreds to make two consecutive batches of coconut milk. I then dried them in my dehydrator, ran them through my food processor, and lastly tried them in my coffee grinder. They were still just as coarse as before, not a nice, fine powder like yours. My coffee grinder is Krups brand, is new, and has ground dried rosemary leaves to a powder, so I’m thinking it must be something to do with the coconut. Would you have any ideas why it’s not turning into a fine flour? Thanks for any help you might be able to give!

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