Can quinoa be used instead of flour for cookies?

Question

I use a non-gluten flour combination of:

• 4 cups brown rice flour
• 2/3 cup tapioca flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch

Would it work to use quinoa in this combination as an addition or substitute for all of part of any of the ingredients?

Answer 1

I have used quinoa flour in various recipe and it would have a similar effect as the brown rice flour, though its taste would differ. I would recommend against substituting it (at least not 1:1) for the tapioca flour as that is likely working as a kind of binding agent to some extent. Experimentation may yield different results based on the ratio, but also tapioca has less flavor (which may be ideal as a balance).

Answer 2

I don't know about quinoa, but we have used white beans to bake cookies. Turns out great and tastes delicious.

I am sure you could use beans of any colour, so long as you could mash/grind them into flour after soaking under warmth heat. Warmth heat to facilitate softening the beans but not to cook them.

Also, as +mfg mentions either corn or tapioca flour could be used to stabilise the bean flour by providing the starchiness.

Since both tapioca and beans are kosher for pesach, this is a good way to have passover cookies.