Delicious air pies - every housewife has her own own recipe signature flour dish, which she would not exchange for any treasures of the world and wonders of overseas cuisine. The technique of preparing these small culinary masterpieces was honed over the years, and the memory of the most delicate sponge cake, melting in the mouth, was protected and cherished by guests and household members after every dinner party or cozy home-cooked breakfast with the family.
It would seem that nothing can go wrong in this system that has been formed over decades, but life is full of surprises that tend to happen at the most inopportune moment. And if you most often cannot do without flour or sugar in preparing a delicious cake, then without starch it is quite possible.
White light powder
In order to determine what starch can be replaced with, you need to understand what it is generally used for. And this ingredient is needed to complete a task that is quite simple, but at the same time extremely important. The use of starch during cooking is necessary to remove excess liquid, which can not only adversely affect the taste of baked goods, but also significantly spoil it appearance, which, of course, no housewife will like. In addition, it is this ingredient that gives the dough that special ductility, which allows the manufacture of products of the most different forms and consistencies.
The relationship between starch and a thin waist
Even if the preparation of your favorite buns was preceded by a long and painstaking shopping trip, as a result of which the above-mentioned ingredient was purchased, every housewife should ask herself the question: “Is it really necessary?”
Baking is quite high in calories, and extra centimeters on the waist and hips is troublesome. That is why you should not additionally burden your favorite pretzels and pancakes with the addition of starch. Oddly enough, this lightest white powder can play quite a cruel joke on female figure at excessive consumption, and therefore it is worth thinking about what starch can be replaced with. Moreover, there are plenty of options for this.
Everything ingenious is simple
If your dish does not represent the material embodiment of high culinary delights, the most ordinary eggs, which can be found in almost any refrigerator on planet Earth, can serve as an excellent replacement. The viscosity of the dough remains excellent, and the texture does not suffer at all.
Eggs are exactly what you can use to replace starch when making pancakes and pancakes. You don’t have to worry about excess moisture in the dough, and the taste of the final frying or baking product will be richer and fuller. Just one egg can replace two tablespoons of starch - this is how you can easily solve the problem of lack of ingredients.
Biscuit dough
The previously proposed option is great for pancakes and pancakes, but it is completely unsuitable for airy cakes. The question naturally arises: “What can starch be replaced with when cooking? It’s simple - just ordinary wheat flour. The consistency will only become better, and you won’t have to worry about excess moisture.
Melt-in-your-mouth shortbread and pies
What can replace starch in such cases? It seems that there is this little trick especially for such cases - coconut flakes ground into powder. Of course, this option should only be used in sweet dough - a pie with cabbage or meat will be quite strange if it has a taste of “heavenly delight”. However, in other situations, coconut flakes are an excellent choice in case of a sad “non-meeting” with starch.
In this case, what can replace starch in salt dough? Ordinary semolina, ground using a coffee grinder. Whole grains can also be used, but in this case there is a chance of feeling them on the tongue, which will somewhat interrupt the excellent taste of the delicious homemade pie.
Miracle in a gravy boat
In addition to cookies, pancakes and pies, starch is also used in the preparation of sauces. Not only the desired (thick) consistency, but also an amazing nutty aroma will be given to this culinary miracle, which can highlight the taste of any main dish, by the most ordinary flour, pre-fried in a hot frying pan.
To the question: “Can starch be replaced in sweet sauces?” - in modern cooking there is only one answer - naturally. Thick cream or ordinary fat sour cream are ideal for this, as they will provide not only the desired consistency of the product, but also its excellent, more delicate taste.
Modern cooking is a real storehouse of amazing secrets, tested by time and millions of housewives. Here you can easily not only find out what you can use to replace starch in baked goods. The real treasures of cooking are open to any housewife, and to understand them, you just need to ask.
In many baking recipes, especially pies with juicy fruit or berry fillings, jelly, cookie dough or pancakes, we find starch, a white thickening powder. You need it quite often, but what if you run out of starch at the most inopportune moment? Or do you want to treat a guest to baked goods who, due to medical contraindications, should not eat starch? In this case, you can replace it without losing taste qualities your products.
What is starch
Translated from German, starch is “strong flour,” and if ordinary flour crumbles, then starch glues it together. Starch is a substance that belongs to complex carbohydrates, a polysaccharide. It looks like a white powder, sometimes with a slight yellowish tint; if you crush it in your hand, you will feel a creak. Starch does not have any special taste or smell, does not dissolve in cool water, but when interacting with warm or hot water it becomes thick and viscous, and it is these properties that are used in baking. Starch has a high calorie content, so dishes in which it is present give a feeling of fullness for a long time.
Natural starch is found in those vegetables, fruits and legumes that we constantly consume: peas and beans, bananas and mangoes, rice and potatoes, millet and corn.
What are its benefits for the body?
Like any polysaccharide, in the acidic environment of the stomach, starch can be converted into glucose, which enters the brain through the bloodstream and nourishes it. Glucose provides energy, so a small amount of starch should be consumed by both adults and children.
What types of starch are there: potato, corn and other types
On store shelves we can find different types starch, which differ slightly from each other in their properties:
- Potato starch is the most common of all starches; it is added to jelly, sausages, gravies and soups, pastry cream and store-bought mayonnaise. It is also used for breading juicy products - fish, pork, hard cheeses;
- Corn starch is suitable for thickening jelly, especially milk starch; it is lighter than potato and wheat starch;
- Tapioca starch has the lowest moisture content and is recognized as the most environmentally friendly; it is used in soups, sauces and gravy, as well as in the production of instant noodles;
- Wheat starch absorbs excess liquid when kneading dough, keeps the shape of the finished baked goods, but when storing bread for a long time, it tends to make it stale;
- Rice starch is more often used in the production of syrups and sauces;
- Soy starch is suitable for the confectionery industry.
More suitable for baking cornstarch, it has the most delicate texture and gives the products a golden brown crust. Muffins, cupcakes, scones and casseroles are prepared with it.
In dietary nutrition, starch is also used - most often corn or rice, as the lightest.
Why is it added to baked goods?
In some recipes, starch is prescribed to be added to the dough, in others - directly to the filling itself.
So, starch:
- Gives the dough tenderness and looseness, here we are talking about shortbread;
- Helps you not get wet yeast dough in places of contact with the filling (if starch is sprinkled on a layer of dough, it will serve as a kind of gelling layer and will not allow berries or pieces of fruit to “settle” to the bottom of your baked goods);
- Makes the dough more plastic;
- Maintains the shape of baked products;
- Thickens liquid filling, this is especially important for fruit and berry pies and pies;
- Increases the shelf life of finished baked goods to 4 days;
- In biscuit dough, starch is designed to absorb excess moisture and “dry” the biscuits so that they turn out fluffier and taller.
Starch loves milk and fermented milk products, then it is not felt in the baked goods and does not give it a bland taste. It can be diluted in yogurt, kefir, sour and baked milk, and sour cream.
What can be replaced with starch?
In addition to the properties already listed, starch can act as a substitute, for example, in baking for strict vegetarians or religious people who observe fasting, it can replace eggs. To make baked goods less high in calories and softer, you can replace part of the flour with starch, usually 30%.
Sometimes starch can give baked goods an unpleasant, bland taste; to prevent this from happening, add flavorings—vanillin or cinnamon work well.
What can you use to replace starch in baking?
Starch is a thickening agent, so it can be replaced with products that have similar binding properties. So, the substitutes:
1. Rye, buckwheat, pumpkin or wheat flour
Buckwheat, pumpkin and rye flour are used in pie dough (yeast and yeast-free), cookies and muffins; wheat flour goes well in biscuit dough.
2. Flaxseed or chia seeds, ground into flour
This additive will be good for muffins, cookies or shortcakes; they will turn out crumbly, tender and soft. Also, gel from ground flax seeds is used to prepare jelly. In order for flax seeds to acquire the properties of starch:
- Let's take 1 tbsp. a spoonful of seeds ground into flour (you can do this in a coffee grinder);
- Soak in 2 tbsp. spoons of boiling water for 10 minutes.
3. Agar-agar or gelatin
These are unique substitutes, they can be added to yoghurt cakes or Bird's milk, other substitutes simply will not work. In order for gelatin to replace starch, you need:
- Take 1 tbsp. a spoonful of gelatin;
- Soak in 1.5 tbsp. spoons of warm water;
- Leave to swell for 30 minutes.
If we use agar-agar, we need to take into account that its gelling properties are much stronger, so we take less substance (1/2 teaspoon) and less water (1 tablespoon).
4. Semolina
This substitute is suitable for shortcrust pastry and curd products. Semolina increases in size when it absorbs moisture; when pouring the batter with semolina into the mold, you need to take this into account. The baked goods are fluffy, but denser and more filling than when using starch, and acquire a grainy structure.
5. Coconut flakes, crushed into powder
This replacement is ideal for adding to fruit and berry fillings for pies. In addition to the necessary viscosity, coconut flakes add sweetness and a pleasant taste to the products. You can reduce the amount of sugar in the filling or dough if you use coconut flakes.
6. Eggs
We are considering the following replacement: 2 tbsp. spoons of corn or potato starch- this is 1 fresh chicken egg, which will replace starch in pancakes and pancakes, as well as in shortcrust pastry and juicy pies. In addition, eggs instead of starch can be used not only as an additive to the dough, but also as a thickener for pastry cream. To get the adhesive mass for the cream, we need:
- Separate the yolk from the white;
- Place the yolk in a tall whisking glass;
- Add 2 tbsp to the yolk. spoons of milk (it should not be cold) and a heaped teaspoon of sugar;
- Beat everything and add to boiling pastry cream (suitable for custard).
7. Oatmeal
To replace starch in milk jelly and fruit or berry fillings you need:
- Grind the dry flakes in a coffee grinder;
- Sift through a fine strainer several times.
8. Breadcrumbs
They are added to the dough for fruit and berry pies in the amount in which starch is usually taken.
9. Homemade starch
Suitable for replacing store-bought starch in any recipe. We get it like this:
- Wash the potatoes, peel them;
- Rinse thoroughly again;
- Grate on a fine grater;
- Squeeze through clean gauze, folded in half, into a separate glass to obtain juice;
- After some time, a sediment will appear in the glass of potato juice, this is our starch, drain off the excess liquid;
- Let the starch dry by pouring it onto a smooth surface;
- Let's use it.
Each type of dough has its own starch substitute. In some cases, you can do without starch completely by simply excluding it from the recipe (for example, in making biscuits, pancake or pancake dough, and puff pastry).
If the component is listed in the recipe for shortbread or biscuit dough
In biscuit dough, you can simply forget about starch; if you exclude it, the biscuit will not suffer. Or you can replace the starch with wheat flour, but it will be a little denser. Homemade starch is also suitable as a substitute.
In shortbread dough, starch is replaced with egg yolk or semolina.
If starch is needed in curd products - muffins, cookies, casseroles
IN cottage cheese baking starch is that viscous liquid that holds the cottage cheese and other ingredients together and prevents the dough from “sagging.” Starch in cottage cheese casseroles, cheesecakes, cookies and muffins are replaced with gelatin or agar-agar, buckwheat or corn flour, semolina.
Last time beneficial properties starch is often questioned and more and more questions arise about how to replace starch in baking. To be fair, it should be noted that starch is not used very often in baking. This complex carbohydrate obtained from fruits, grains, vegetables, legumes or nuts, as well as synthetically. In cooking, starch is used primarily as a thickener for fruit porridges and jelly. When making noodles, it is added to wheat flour in a ratio of 1:3. In confectionery products, starch may be an ingredient in cakes, cookies or Turkish delight. Sometimes it is used when baking lean pancakes. Natural starch is obtained from a variety of plants, mainly from cereals and potatoes, therefore, in the absence of one of the types, it can be replaced by another. Thus, wheat starch is most often used in baking. If necessary, it will be replaced by rice, potato, corn, soy and other types of this product. In the industrial production of confectionery products, natural starch is now often replaced with modified starch. For example, it is listed in some food leavening agents. You should be wary of such products because they pose a threat to human health if used for a long time. At home, in jelly, soups and sauces, starch is replaced with flour, preferably buckwheat or rye. If you have ground flax available, you can use flaxseed flour. For these purposes, ground pumpkin seeds or coconut flakes are also used. These ingredients are also an acceptable substitute for starch in baked goods. If a recipe uses starch together with flour (for example, in cookie dough or in food leavening agents), then, instead of the indicated proportion of this product, the dose of flour increases by the same amount. You can replace starch when baking pancakes, if there is no need to use exclusively lean ingredients, with eggs. One egg, due to its binding properties, will replace 2 tbsp. l. corn or potato starch. In conclusion, we note that you should not so zealously strive to replace starch with something in baking if there is no urgent need for it. Of course, as a supplier of carbohydrates, if used frequently, it can change your figure for the worse, however, like any baked goods, even without it. As part of other products, especially jelly, it is very useful, because soothes the inflamed gastric mucosa due to its enveloping effect. For other dishes it is usually used in very small quantities. So moderate use of natural starch is not only not harmful, but even necessary for human health.
Starch is present in recipes for biscuits, cutlets, jelly and sauces. Not everyone likes its taste, and sometimes it is simply not available in the kitchen and there is no opportunity to go to the store. It’s worth figuring out what to replace starch with in order to cook your favorite dishes, even when you don’t have it on hand.
Knowing how to replace starch in a recipe, you can prepare an even wider variety of dishes.
If you are making jelly, try using flax seeds. Fill them with water in a ratio of 1 to 3 and cook over low heat for 2-3 hours. At the end of cooking, add syrup, jam, honey or fruit.
If you plan to bake pies or prepare cream, other methods will do.
How to replace starch in baking
Starch is used in recipes for pies, biscuits, casseroles and cookies. It makes the dough more elastic, removes excess moisture and makes it light.
Substitution options for the test:
- in many recipes, such as sweet casseroles, you don’t have to put it in at all;
- if you sift the pie dough twice, the flour, saturated with oxygen, will rise perfectly and the finished product will be fluffy;
- If the goal is to add airiness, add baking powder and baking soda to the dough.
Sometimes starch is used in the fillings of sweet pies. It is necessary to create viscosity, resulting in a pleasant sweet center that does not leak out. How to replace starch in the filling? Try using coconut flakes. Grind it in a coffee grinder or blender and mix it with food.
For thickening custard You can take regular white flour and yolk. They will give the dessert the desired consistency.
How to replace starch in cutlets, sauces and soups
Thick sauces and puree soups are prepared with the addition of starch, but not everyone likes its taste and smell. Instead of the usual potato, you can take corn, it is more neutral and is practically not felt in ready dish. The only downside is that you will need a little more product.
If you are on a low-carb diet and want to make a thick creamy soup or a delicate sauce for meat, then use thick heavy cream. They will add not only thickness, but also the necessary calories.
