Gluten Free Forums - Elana's Pantry » ingredients

1. eatingfreely
   Member

   Does anyone have experience with your coconut flour turning GREEN after baking? I am fairly new to using coconut flour in my GF baking, and think I must have a bag of rancid/moldy flour.

   I just made some muffins tonight using coconut flour and ground sunflower seeds. After baking them, I ate one, and upon finishing it, noticed the rest of the muffins were developing a light green tinge, which I thought was very strange. Within an hour, the entire batch had turned deep jade green. I bake and cook A LOT and have never seen anything like this.

   I used coconut flour from this same bag about a month and a half ago, and the cookies turned moldy within 2 days, which I thought was strange, but it was summer and very hot in my apartment, and there was applesauce in the dough and I hadn't refrigerated them. I figured the moisture and heat made it moldy, I didn't think it was the coconut flour, but after this experience tonight, I think I had a bad batch of flour.

   anyway, now I feel kind of sick, itchy eyes and sore throat and a headache, and I think I'm having a reaction to what was probably a moldy muffin. I'm guessing the heat from the oven made the mold bloom? I'm feeling remarkably stupid for eating one of them...but they weren't green yet! Anyone ever had your coconut flour products turn GREEN, or experience a mold issue?

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. blukat
   Member

   Nothing can go moldy THAT fast especially having been exposed to heat. I think it was just a reaction to the sunflower seeds, which may have been raw, hence the color was from the SUNFLOWER SEEDS, not the coconuts...

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. lunecho
   Member

   Actually, I have bought coconut flour from different manufacturers and also tried hard to keep it fresh by freezing it in between uses, and I find that if used as the main flour in the recipe, the baked goods will go bad extraordinarily quickly - within a couple of days or so. And it's not just the way that bread will grow some mold on top, but the inside of the baked good will start to smell like moldy, mildewy towels. Quite yucky, and absolutely not salvageable of course. There is something about coconut flour that makes it mold very quickly when exposed to moisture so I can imagine buying a bag of not-so-fresh coconut flour would be particularly bad if any mold spores are already in the mix, if that makes sense. This has been a huge drawback to me for coconut flour - aside from the unusual, imperfect texture/taste in baking - so I tend to only add a couple of tablespoons of coconut flour to almond flour/alternative flour recipes to add some light and fluffiness without all the drawbacks. Also, I am very mold sensitive but I think that the high-fiber high-moisture quality can cause some serious GI issues with eating a lot of coconut flour-based items as well.

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. michaelsa
   Member

   I'm also extremely mold sensitive and have become sick from eating coconut flour that I suspect was moldy. I know Elana likes Tropical Traditions flour, but that one always makes me feel congested and dizzy, even if I just put my nose in the bag and smell it. I also bought a jar of their coconut cream and became so sick I almost had my husband drive me to the hospital. I was in bed all day after eating it.

   The texture of Tropical Traditions' flour is much better in baked products compared to Bob's Redmill, but I think Bob's Redmill is drier and therefore less moldy. I've had fewer issues with that brand of coconut flour, though it is much more difficult to get a good result with my baked goods. I'd rather have crumbling cakes than feel sick, though.

   I know you can kill mold by soaking food in water with a little vitamin C in it. I'm going to try to soak coconut flour (and almond flour!) in water with vitamin C and then rinse thoroughly, but it may just end up a mess. I'll let you know my result.

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. Julnick
   Member

   Hi all, I'm brand new here, I was going to properly introduce myself in the morning but this post made me smile... It's the ground sunflower seeds that turn it green. It's some kind of freak chemical reaction, I can't remember the specifics of it, but I have a cookie recipe that uses sunbutter and turns green when it cools. We use it for St. Patrick's Day cookies sans food coloring. :)

   Not that there can't be a mold issue with coconut flour, but I wouldn't panic over green sunflower muffins. :)

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. tfoster1
   Member

   I just made some muffins with coconut flour, no sunflower seeds. Carrot muffins and after 2 days they turned green. I suspect it is also the coconut flour. The flour is about a month 1/2 old but I store it in fridge. Does it really go bad?

   Posted 9 months ago #

7. striver
   Member

   All flour contains some moisture, albeit trace amounts, that can lead to it turning. I would think though that the flour would have to be quite old or poorly stored for mold to grow.

   Posted 1 month ago #

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