Potato flour is a nutritious thickening agent for soups, stews, and gravies, and can also be used in batters and bread. It requires additional moisture when baking and should be mixed with cold liquids to avoid clumping.
Potato flour not only provides soups, stews and gravies with a quick and effective thickening agent, but also those who eat it with hearty nutrition. Unlike potato starch, potato flour is derived from dried and powdered potatoes, typically ensuring it is full of protein and iron. In addition to thickening dishes, it makes thick and tasty food coatings or batters and can also be used in baking bread. When substituting white flour for potato flour, remember to use plenty of liquid. This dried potato powder also mixes well with cold liquids.
The heavy starches in potato flour usually make it excellent for thickening soups and stews. The usual recipe for this includes equal parts potato flour and cold water mixed together until it forms a thin white glue-like slurry or paste. This slurry can then be mixed into any dish containing a sauce or stock. Cooks who try to mix potato flour directly into food may find that the flour will clump and refuse to distribute evenly. This happens because the hot fluids often cause the flour to seize or clog.
The same rules apply when breading chicken, fish, meat or vegetables. The eggs and milk used to bind the potato flour to these foods must be cold, or the flour will pool and fall off. Leaving the binding ingredients in the refrigerator until needed works well because they’ll still be cold when whisked together. Once this floury batter is attached to the food, it can usually be fried or baked without a problem because it has already mixed with the cold liquids.
Baking bread with this flour can be quite tricky, even for some experienced bakers. It absorbs much more liquid than regular white flour and requires additional moisture to bake into soft, light bread products. Even if you add just the right amount of liquid, the end results are often slightly denser and heavier than regular bread.
Proper baking with potato flour may require the baker to add a few different types of moisture. Adding an additional half part to each of the wet ingredients can do the trick. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup (237 mL) of water, 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of butter and 1/2 cup (about 118 mL) of yogurt – a cook might mix in another 1/2 cup (about 118 mL) of water, 1/2 tablespoon (about 7 mL) of butter and 1/4 cup (about 60 mL) of yogurt to produce the right consistency. Since potato flour isn’t able to fully absorb denser fats, these can help ensure that the bread doesn’t become too dry.
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