Nah--- I used to make cookies all the time without grain-based flours.  Unless you're doing it soy, milk and egg free, too, you haven't even entered unlimited class yet-- merely super-modified. 

Unlimited class:

I used quinoa and buckwheat with a dash of potato starch to make gingerbread (apple/prune baby fruit to sub for the egg and milk, olive oil for the fat),

and for 'standard' sugar-cookies, LOTS of vanilla and a very ripe banana with rice flour and a bit of tapioca starch, olive oil again for the fat source.

The trick with "rolled" cookies like these is to roll them on a COLD-COLD-COLD surface (like marble or granite) and to lift them with a super-thin, flexible spatula.  Personally, I preferred to do gingerbread because then I could use a "cookie stamp" on them instead of rolling them flat.

Quote from: twinturbo on November 26, 2013, 10:39:14 AM
For making traditional cakes, bread, etc., or starch replacement? With potato and tapioca starch there's quite a variety of dumplings and savory 'cakes' you could make. Dim sum type snacks.

Yes, I think we are thinking along those lines. Just realizing cookies are really out for us now  . I really mean something that would lend the texture that almond flour gives recipes. It tends to be sweet and crunch up well for cookie and bars and pie crusts but that might just be out for now.

Quote from: YouKnowWho on November 26, 2013, 08:57:55 AM
Keep in mind that when Bob says tree nut contamination, they usually mean almond.

Yes, I heard that before on here. I have been fine so far, knock on wood.

For making traditional cakes, bread, etc., or starch replacement? With potato and tapioca starch there's quite a variety of dumplings and savory 'cakes' you could make. Dim sum type snacks.

Keep in mind that when Bob says tree nut contamination, they usually mean almond.

I think I am going to try chickpeas. Our go-to's right now - potato and tapioca - can't make crumbly or crispy for pies or cookies. The local grocery store got bought out and has a full line of Bob's Red Mill so lots of exotic flours are suddenly at my disposal.

In the past, I have not done great with grains or pseudograins like quinoa, but buckwheat and chickpeas have always been OK for me. And Bob's has been fine so far, even though there is shared equipment.

I often found that a blend of flours worked better than a one-to-one replacement, but NO non-nut flours are really going to have the amounts of oiliness that almond does.

Seed or legume flours will be a good substitute, though, if you also up the oil concentration elsewhere.

Garbanzo (if you can find it uncontaminated-- or buy a cheap coffee grinder if you can't, which is what we have done.)

Quinoa

teff-- though we joke that teff flour is the most expensive DIRT on earth.  That's what it tastes like to me, anyway... mmmmm-- dirt...

I rather like buckwheat flour, myself. 

Wild rice is also a grass seed, and I've made flour from it-- it's a lot like buckwheat in flavor and behavior.

Teff or quinoa. We also use buckwheat, but it's got a rather strong flavor.  Of course, teff does, too.

Coconut isn't really a good replacement for almond, anyhow.  It's much thirstier and really works best with a ton of eggs.  It's just different from the other meals and flours.

Oh, and define "grain".

Teff is a grass seed.

Quinoa is a chenopod seed.  Buckwheat is a legume.

So, apparently my five year love affair with cheap and abundant low carb almond flour has come to a screeching adrenaline-infused [literally] end.

I am not versed in cooking with coconut flour and I'm not sure how easy it is to find some that is not cross-contaminated. Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative to coconut that would make a good replacement for almond? Right now we're working with tapioca and potato flour because we are completely grain-free. Are there are other kinds of flours out there that are not so common that are more protein-based and less starch-based?