Potato Flour

Potato Flour is made from potatoes, including their skins. The potatoes are cooked, skins on, then dried and ground finely. It can be used as a thickener to some degree (though it does not thicken as well as Potato Starch, however) and in some baked goods, as it retains moisture.

Potato Starch is often also called Potato Flour. Don't confuse the two, however, as right now somewhere in the world some poor soul is staring at a disaster on the stove owing to the confusion.

Potato Flour is heavier in weight than Potato Starch;
Potato Flour has a potato flavour to it; Potato Starch has no discernible flavour;
Potato Starch can thicken a greater amount of liquid than Potato Flour can; if you try to use Potato Flour instead to thicken an identical amount of liquid, you'd end up with a gloopy mess.
Substitutes for Potato Flour
If a recipe calls for Potato Flour and you don't have any, leave out anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the total flour in the recipe (if the recipe uses less than 2 cups of flour, leave out 1/4 cup; over 2 cups, leave out 1/2 cup of flour) and swap in for that amount of flour left the same amount of instant mashed potato flakes.
Nutrition for Potato Flour
Potato Flour is gluten free. It has a protein content similar to rice, but a lower protein content than cornmeal or wheat flour.
Equivalents for Potato Flour
1 cup =8 oz / 225g

Storage Hints for Potato Flour

Store Potato Flour in the refrigerator or in the freezer.

History Notes for Potato Flour

The French at first didn't know how to use potatoes. In the mid 1700s, when wheat flour was expensive and scarce, the French peasants made flour out of potatoes and tried to make bread out of that flour. You can imagine what a loaf of bread made entirely out of gluten-free flour made from a root vegetable would have turned out like.

The original recipe for Krispy Kreme doughnuts, reputedly acquired from a New Orleans chef named Joe LeBeau, contained some Potato Flour. It no longer does; they use soy flour instead, along with other flours.

Also called:

Fécule (French); Farina di patate (Italian); Harina de patata (Spanish); Farinha de batata (Portuguese)

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Potato Flour

Substitutes for Potato Flour

Nutrition for Potato Flour

Equivalents for Potato Flour

Storage Hints for Potato Flour

History Notes for Potato Flour