Cassava Flour
Cassava flour is the whole root, simply peeled, dried and ground. This means it has more dietary fiber than tapioca flour and allows to make cassava flour tortillas, which would not be possible with tapioca flour.
Cassava is a starchy tuber, you would expect it to have a high carbohydrate profile. But it’s higher than you most likely imagined. For instance, per 100 grams, cassava has double the calories and carbohydrates as sweet potato. This makes it a valuable and relied upon food source for millions of native people.
This is the holy grail characteristic of cassava flour. Unlike other gluten-free flours such as almond or coconut flour, cassava flour is very mild and neutral in flavor. It’s also not grainy or gritty in texture – rather, it’s soft and powdery.
These qualities, along with the fact that it can be replaced on a 1:1 basis with wheat flour in many recipes, make it a preferred flour for gluten-free, grain-free baking and cooking.
Cassava Flour is not the entire Cassava plant ground up, which results in Tapioca Flour. It is made from just the root of the Cassava plant. Essentially it is a fiber, and provides an even thicker texture in baking, which means, you can use less gums or other thickeners when baking with Cassava.
It is a staple ingredient Brazil, Portugal, and many other countries outside of the United States. Cassava Flour can be used in gluten-free baking. Cassava flour is very mild and neutral in flavor. It’s also not grainy or gritty in texture but rather, it’s soft and powdery.
Cassava Flour is also known as Polvilho and can be either sour or sweet.
Cassava is also called Manioc or Yucca in some languages.
