How to Make Rice Flour at Home? Rice flour (also known as rice powder) is a form of flour made from finely ground raw rice and a staple ingredient in Asian cuisine. Learn how to make rice flour at home in just a few easy steps with this tried and tested detailed recipe with step-by-step photos.
Is Rice Flour Gluten-Free?
Are you looking for a gluten-free substitute to wheat flour for delicious home baking and cooking? Both rice flour and glutinous rice flour (despite its name) are gluten-free. You can use rice flour in place of wheat flour in many baked recipes such as cakes, pancakes, cookies, or other desserts. It is also excellent when used as a crisp coating for fried dishes. Rice flour can be used to thicken sauces and gravies in the same way that you would use all-purpose flour.
What Is Rice Flour?
Rice flour is a fine powder you get from grinding raw rice. There are mainly two types of rice flour according to the grinding method; wet-milled rice flour (the grains are soaked before grinding) and dry-milled rice flour (the grains are unsoaked before grinding). It can be milled at different levels – coarse, semi-coarse, fine, or super fine.
There are several varieties, made with different kinds of rice in different parts of the world, and each has its own distinct characteristics. For example, Thai rice flour, and Japanese glutinous rice flour. Using the wrong rice flour can really mess up a dish.
Types of Rice
As I mentioned earlier, rice flour is made by grinding raw rice, so I guess first we need to know something about rice. There are hundreds of rice varieties, but they generally fall into three categories: Long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain.
Long-Grain Rice -A slim and lengthy type of rice that cooks up fluffy and doesn’t clump. You can use them for making biryani, pilaf, or just as plain cooked rice. A few specific varieties to name, Basmati, Jasmine, and Thai white rice.
Medium-Grain Rice– It cooks up sticky, like short grain, and you can usually substitute one for the other without much consequence. For making risotto or paella, you need medium-grain rice such as Arborio, Valencia, and Bomba.
Short-Grain Rice– It cooks up sticky and clumpy. Japanese rice (or Shushi rice) is short-grain.
Types of Rice Flour
There are mainly two types of rice flour; rice flour and glutinous rice flour. As they are two different flours, you cannot use them interchangeably in recipes.
Regular Rice Flour
Regular type of rice flour is made from ground brown or white rice. Brown rice flour is made from whole grain rice and will have a slightly nutty flavor. White rice flour is made from white rice without the bran. White rice flour is the most common type of rice flour and is a staple in gluten-free baking and cooking.
Glutinous Rice Flour
Glutinous rice flour is made from sticky rice or sweet rice like Japanese mochigome. Mochiko is one of the most common and this type of rice flour creates a chewy texture and is a popular ingredient in desserts such as mochi, and sticky rice desserts.
Why do I make rice flour at home?
Rice flour made from Japanese rice is used for Japanese sweets “Wagashi” and rice crackers “Senbei” for centuries. So, here in Japan, you can easily find both Japanese short-grain rice flour (known as Joshinko) and glutinous rice flour.
However, rice flour made from long-grain white rice is not something easily available in Japan. And I found that store-bought Japanese rice flour is too fine and sticky for making Sri Lankan or Indian-style foods like hoppers, string hoppers, or kokis as it doesn’t give the right texture. So it has become a compulsion for me to make rice flour at home with long-grain white rice for making foods mostly from Sri Lanka and India.
How to Make Rice Flour at Home?
You can easily make rice flour at home with raw rice using a grinder. You can use any quantity of rice. Do it in batches to avoid overloading. Every cup of raw rice will yield almost 1 1/4 to 11/2 cups of sifted Rice Flour.
WHICH RICE IS BEST FOR MAKING FLOUR?
Thai white rice (not Jasmine Rice) is the only option I have, so, I have not tried any other rice variety. However, when it comes to making Indian and Sri Lankan food such as hoppers, string hoppers, pittu, or dosa, I find that Thai white rice is a great option. All of the foods, let’s say hoppers, Indiappa, dosa, and pittu turned out perfect with the prepared rice flour at home.
Equipment
You will need a grinder or powerful blender that is suitable for grinding soaked & dried raw rice into a fine powder. Do it in batches to avoid overloading. Coffee grinders are not made to grind rice, so they can damage your coffee grinder.
How to Store
After making the rice flour, you need to dry them, especially if you are storing it for later. So, make sure no moisture is there in the rice flour. Test for dryness by taking a pinch between your fingers, properly dried flour will not stick together.
Store the homemade rice flour in an airtight container in a cool place. If not used in a few days, then you can refrigerate or freeze rice flour. if the quality of the rice is good and properly dried before storing it, it should stay good for about 6 months fresh.
More recipes to with homemade rice flour
How to Make Rice Flour at Home
Step-by-Step Recipe
Here is how I make rice flour at home.
Prep Time 10 mins
Soaking 2 to 4 hrs
Drying 1 hr
Grinding & Sifting 20 min
Tools needed
Grinder or powerful blender
Fine-mesh strainer
Cotton towels or paper towels
Sifter
Ingredients
250g Thai white Rice, raw
Water, for washing & soaking
Take the required quantity of rice you will need. I used 250g of Thai white rice.
Rinse the rice thoroughly in water a couple of times. Put the rice into a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak for about 2 hours. Soaking helps the rice grains to grind well.
Once done, drain the water completely using a metal strainer.
Spread the soaked rice on a clean towel (or a few layers of paper towels) to dry for 30 min or so in the shade. Do not dry in the sun. All the water should be absorbed by the towel and the rice should be just slightly dry but not wet or completely dry.
Grind the rice into a fine powder using a powerful grinder. Do it in batches to avoid overloading.
Repeat this process until all the rice has been finely ground.
Take the rice flour in a sieve and then sift it. After sieving you will see some rice grains in the sieve. Return them back to the grinder jar, grind, and sift again. Repeat this process to gain rice flour as much as you can. Or you can use rice grains to make any recipe that calls for rice rava or coarsely ground rice.
When used immediately; Spread the rice flour on a clean paper/plate and let it dry in the shade (by covering it with another piece of paper over the flour) for some more time till it’s completely dry. Do not dry in the sun.
Note; You can refrigerate or freeze rice flour in an airtight container. Make sure your rice flour is fully dried before storing it. After grinding, you can also slightly roast the rice flour, till you see some steam coming from it. Don’t let brown when roasting. Test for dryness by taking a pinch between your fingers. Properly dried flour will not stick together.
How to Make Rice Flour at Home
(Printable Recipe)
How to Make Rice Flour at Home
Ingredients
- 250 g Thai white Rice raw
- Water for washing & soaking
Instructions
- Take the required quantity of rice you will need. I used 250g of Thai white rice.
- Rinse the rice thoroughly in water a couple of times. Put the rice into a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak for 2 hours. Soaking helps the rice grains to grind well.
- Once done, drain the water completely using a metal strainer.
- Spread the soaked rice on a clean towel (or a few layers of paper towels) to dry for 30 min or so in the shade. Do not dry in the sun. All the water should be absorbed by the towel and the rice should be just slightly dry but not wet or completely dry.
- Grind the rice into a fine powder using a powerful grinder. Do it in batches to avoid overloading.
- Repeat this process until all the rice has been finely ground.
- Take the rice flour in a sieve and then sift it. After sieving you will see some rice grains in the sieve. Return them back to the grinder jar, grind and sift again. Repeat this process to gain rice flour as much as you can. Or you can use rice grains to make any recipe that calls for rice rava or coarsely ground rice.
- Now spread the rice flour on a clean paper/plate and let it dry in the shade (by covering it with another piece of paper over the flour) for some more time till it’s completely dry. Do not dry in the sun.
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