Typically, most flour that we find in the store is made from plants, which includes wheat, rice, and nuts. However, flour does not have to be limited to plant-based ingredients since variations like cricket flour exist.
If you have never tried cricket flour before, you may be wondering what cricket flour is. I looked up the facts, and here is what I found!
What Is Cricket Flour?
Cricket flour is a type of flour made from milled crickets. Typically, reputable suppliers of cricket flours get crickets from cricket farms, making cricket flour perfectly safe to eat. Generally, cricket flour can be used with other types of flour for a protein boost, but cricket flour cannot be a flour substitute by itself.
Do you want to learn how to use cricket flour in your recipe, what cricket flour tastes like, and if cricket flour is better than regular flour? Keep reading!
What Is Cricket Flour Made Of?
Cricket flour is made from ground and milled crickets, but these crickets are specifically taken from cricket farms.
What Is Another Name For Cricket Flour?
Cricket flour may also be called cricket powder since cricket flour looks like a powder, which is why the two terms are fairly interchangeable.
What Do You Use Cricket Flour For?
Typically, cricket flour is supposed to be used in tandem with other types of flour in most recipes.
Cricket flour does not have the same texture or flavor as other kinds of flour, so cricket flour does not make a good substitute for flour on its own.
Normally, you can add a tablespoon of cricket flour into most recipes that have other types of flour in the recipe.
To do so, simply remove one tablespoon of flour from your recipe and replace it with a tablespoon of cricket flour.
If you would like to add more cricket flour to your dish, you can usually replace up to 25% of the flour in your recipe with cricket flour.
However, some manufacturers create specific types of cricket flour that are pre-blended with other kinds of flour.
What Does Cricket Flour Taste Like?
Since cricket flour is often blended with other ingredients like sugar, eggs, and other types of flour, cricket flour does not usually impart a significant taste in most dishes.
However, some people state that cricket flour has a slightly nutty and earthy taste, but the overall flavor that cricket flour offers is more pleasant than you would expect.
How Are Crickets Turned Into Flour?
Normally, crickets are turned into flour by first taking farm-raised crickets and freeze-drying the crickets.
Next, the freeze-dried crickets are baked, cooled, then ground until the crickets turn into a fine dark-brown powder that has a flour-like texture.
Can You Use Cricket Flour For Baking?
Usually, you can add 1-3 tablespoons of cricket flour into your flour mixture before you use cricket flour for baking.
Ideally, it would be best to take out some flour before adding cricket flour. For instance, you would need to remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour from your recipe before adding 2 tablespoons of cricket flour.
Typically, most people can remove up to 25% of the flour from a baking recipe and replace it with cricket flour without compromising the flavor and texture of the baking recipe.
For example, if the recipe calls for 4 cups of all-purpose flour, you may use 3 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of cricket flour.
Of course, some recipes may not have the same texture if you replace some of the flour with cricket flour.
For instance, bread flour may have a slightly softer and lighter texture if you replace 25% of the flour with cricket flour.
Is Cricket Flour Safe To Eat?
Generally, cricket flour is safe to eat because most cricket flour is made from crickets that come from cricket farms.
In these cricket farms, farmers ensure that their crickets do not get sick and that the crickets do not get exposed to pesticides, antibiotics, etc., that would otherwise make the crickets unsafe for consumption.
Therefore, picking cricket flour that is sold by a reputable supplier that sources their crickets from cricket farms is essential.
Can You Replace Flour With Cricket Flour?
You can only replace flour with cricket flour if you have pre-mixed cricket flour that is specifically made for baking.
Pre-mixed cricket flour is often mixed with other types of flour, such as all-purpose flour whereas plain cricket flour cannot hold its own in a baking recipe.
Is Cricket Flour Better Than Regular Flour?
Technically, cricket flour is not better than regular flour because cricket flour is not meant to be a replacement for flour.
Cricket flour is only meant to be a supplementary ingredient to flour for an added boost of protein but cricket flour by itself does not have the properties to substitute flour.
Therefore, cricket flour cannot be better than regular flour since you cannot completely replace regular flour with cricket flour.
What Can I Substitute For Cricket Flour?
It is very unlikely to find a recipe that solely calls for cricket flour, so you can use almost any other flour that the recipe calls for instead of cricket flour.
For instance, some recipes may call for a mixture of bread flour and cricket flour. If you do not have any cricket flour, you can use bread flour alone.
If you want to add protein into your recipe without adding cricket flour, other supplements like protein powder or whey protein can be excellent substitutes.
Take a look at our related articles to learn what cultured wheat flour is, what cupcake flour is, and what custard flour is.
Conclusion
Cricket flour is flour made from freeze-dried and milled crickets, typically made from farm-raised crickets.
Generally, cricket flour cannot completely replace flour since cricket flour is only meant to be used in tandem with other kinds of flour in most baking recipes.