This is one of the most highly-requested graphics I’ve put together for you guys! There are soo many types of flour out there, so it can be a bit overwhelming when you’re tasked with choosing.
Looking at the different flours calorically, there are all very similar. 1/4 cup will almost always yield you 100-140 calories. Where you’ll find the biggest differences are in the carbs and fiber. If you’re following a low carb diet or keto diet, almond flour & coconut flour are going to be your best friends.
Eating gluten free used to mean completely giving up baked goods, but almost all of the flours on this list are gluten free! With the obvious exceptions of course being the two wheat flours, everything else here is gluten free. For most of these flours, you can’t substitute 1:1 with wheat flours in recipes due to their nutritional differences and properties (the lack of gluten being a major factor). I’m no expert when it comes to making baking substitutions, so you’ll have to consult someone who is, but I have found the use of oat flour and almond flour to be very useful!
It’s worth noting that different brands will have different macros, and a lot of that is due to the serving size. I used Bob’s Red Mill to be consistent, but if you compare their whole wheat flour to many other brands, you’ll notice the calories are higher. In a lot of cases, 1/4 cup is 100 calories. That’s because Bob’s serving size is 38g (but still 1/4 cup), where most other brands use 30g as a serving. So keep that in mind!
There are even more flours than I was able to list here. Basically if you can grind something up into a powder, you have flour! Green bean flour is even a thing. And cricket flour, believe it or not (really, look it up).
Which flour is your favorite? Or if you’ve come across any other unusual flours, please let me know!
