A person sifting tapioca flour.
Extracted from the dried roots of the cassava plant, tapioca flour is white in color, generally slightly sweet in flavor, and very rich in starch. Tapioca flour is used throughout the world as a thickening agent. This type of flour is also popular as a grain- and gluten-free baking ingredient.
Tapioca flour is most commonly used as a thickening agent in sauces or desserts or as a component in baking. The flour itself is a superior binder and on its own has a fairly mild, neutral flavor. It is often substituted for cornstarch or arrowroot starch, although each of these starches affects cooking differently. Tapioca flour is particularly sticky and becomes translucent and shiny when cooked.
Tapioca flour comes from dried cassava roots.
When baking, tapioca flour should not be directly replaced with wheat flour. If tapioca is desired as a gluten-free flour substitute, it is usually combined with potato starch, xanthan gum, and then an additional gluten-free flour, such as rice flour. This combination is necessary to obtain all of the desired textural elements of most baked goods.
Tapioca flour has a slightly sweet flavor and is rich in food starch.
Nutritionally, tapioca flour is predominantly starch. It is relatively low in calories, but also low in essential vitamins and minerals. The limited nutritional profile of tapioca flour explains its use only as a thickener in much of the developed world.
The mother plant of tapioca is cassava or Manihot esculenta. Also sometimes called yucca or cassava, cassava is native to South America. Although still eaten by people in South America, cassava is now grown in tropical and subtropical areas around the world and has been for many hundreds of years. In fact, cassava roots remain a staple food for millions of people.
The cassava tuber is not consumed much beyond the tropics and subtropics. Tapioca, however, appears in many cuisines around the world. Common dishes made from tapioca include puddings, tapioca pearls, potato chips, flatbread, and fufu.
The yucca plant is native to South America and is still widely cultivated on the continent.
Cassava roots contain chemical components called cyanogenic glycosides. When eaten, these chemicals interact with an enzyme also present in cassava that releases hydrogen cyanide. Cassava farmers around the world have developed traditional methods of preparing cassava roots that eliminate the danger of cyanide poisoning. The sweeter varieties of cassava, which are typically used to make tapioca flour, contain smaller amounts of the dangerous cyanogenic glycosides. The process of extracting cassava starch to produce flour eliminates the rest of these toxic compounds.