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Rice Flour is a delicate neutral tasting gluten-free flour which can be used to great effect in gluten-free baking. It is also excellent when used as a crisp coating to pan-fried dishes or in pancakes. Here's all the information you need to use rice flour in your kitchen.
Table of contents
Is rice flour gluten-free?
Yes it is and often one of the main flours included in gluten-free flour blends.
What is rice flour?
Rice Flour is the easiest alternative flour to get hold of (in the UK at least) besides the catch-all gluten-free plain flour blends. You can find it at most large supermarkets in their gluten-free section.
It is also the flour that, if you are a keen cook, you might already have stashed away in your larder, irrespective of its gluten-free properties. Rice flour is used in traditional shortbread recipes alongside plain wheat flour to give a bit of crunch to the proceedings, which tells you a little bit about the texture profile of this flour.
What are the types of rice flour?
There are three different types of rice flour:
- White rice flour is milled from grinding raw long or medium rice grains where the bran is removed before grinding. The courseness of the rice flour depends on which brand you buy.
- Brown rice flour is often considered the health food option. The bran is not removed before grinding and it is not milled as finely as white rice flour meaning it is slightly heavier with a nuttier taste. Due to its courser nature baked goods using brown rice flour have a more noticeable texture and taste. For certain recipes though I find this an endearing quality. Brown flour can be interchangeable with white rice flour in recipes if you want a bolder earthier flavour.
- Sweet Rice Flour is a different beast entirely as it is a starchy flour milled from short grain glutinous rice. It has a unique texture and flavour and is not a suitable substitute for regular rice flour.
READ MORE >>> The Ultimate Guide to Sweet Rice Flour
Can I substitute rice flour for regular flour?
You cannot use rice flour as a 1:1 substitution for regular flour. Rice flour contains no gluten and as it is a much harder grain than wheat it does not absorb liquid as well.
If you swap rice flour 1:1 in your cooking or baking then the results will be gritty, perhaps a little greasy and often with a gummy mouthfeel. However rice flour is a wonderful flour with many versatile uses, you just have to know how and when to use it.
Advantages of rice flour
- It is a very economical flour since it is made from one of the world’s greatest staple grains. No-one said that gluten-free baking was cheap but since rice flour is easily available and plentiful then if you choose this flour for your main ingredient in your flour blend then you certainly won’t be breaking the bank.
Which leads me to one of the best qualities about rice flour and the reason it is so often used.
- It has an incredibly subtle taste. So if you want the butter or spices or other flavourings to shine in your bakes then rice flour is an excellent choice.
However, like most gluten-free flours it does a much better job if paired with other gluten-free flours to give a more rounded bake.
Disadvantages of rice flour
- Overuse - Not only is rice flour the most widely available alternative flour but it is also the flour which most commercial brands use as their main ingredient in their gluten-free flour blends. In fact our tendency to rely on rice flour for gluten-free baking is one of the reasons why Alanna Taylor-Tobin in her excellent gluten-free baking book called Alternative Baker
chooses not to include any recipes with rice flour as she feels that its tendency to dominate the gluten-free field can lead to a mono diet.
- Difficult to absorb liquid - as discussed above rice flour is also a bit of a tricky beast as it can turn bakes dry and crumbly due to this issue.
For this reason rice flour should always be used judiciously as this flour is probably the reason why most people judge gluten-free baking as gritty but with a gummy mouthfeel. It works very well blended with other flours in baked goods to round out the texture and result in bakes that taste authentically good not just ‘good for gluten-free’.
Rice flour uses
Baking
The best qualities of white rice flour can be exploited if blended with softer wholegrain flours and starchy flours with better binding properties.
Try using rice flour blends like these in bakes like:
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Espresso Cake - rice flour, oat flour and tapioca starch
- Golden Beetroot Carrot Cake - rice flour and oat flour
- Courgette Oatmeal Cake - rice flour and oat flour
- Vegan Chocolate Coconut Banana Bread - rice flour, oat flour and tapioca flour
- Gluten-Free Carrot Cake - brown rice flour and sorghum flour
Read here to learn more about blending flours >>> The Ultimate Guide to Alternative & Gluten-Free Flours
However, it is possible to use rice flour as the sole flour in a recipe if paired with ground nuts as the added protein will give your bake stability and moisture to counteract any dry or grittiness.
READ MORE >>> Rice Flour Madeira Cake
Rice Flour Baking Tip
Allow your cake batter to rest for at least 10-15 minutes before placing in the oven. The finely ground rice will soften slightly leading to better absorption of liquids which will help with any potential grittiness.
Frying
The granular texture of rice flour which can be a hindrance in your baking can be a real boon in your everyday cooking. Using rice flour as a coating for frying adds more crunch than regular wheat flour and is a lot lighter.
Pancakes
As rice flour is so delicate and light it creates the most beautifully lacy crisp pancakes.
Try using it in these recipes:
- Gluten-Free English Pancakes
- Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Savoury Pancakes)
Batters
Rice flour gives an excellent crunch, so as you can imagine it is a great flour when you are making a batter. Since it is also neutral in flavour it doesn't overpower the main ingredients of a recipe. Try using it in the gluten-free versions of these classic recipes and the crust of your batter will be light and crisp:
Where to buy rice flour
There are various brands of rice flour and the texture can be quite different across the board. Make sure you are using a very finely ground rice flour which won’t impede your recipe and will allow for better incorporation with the other ingredients. Courser rice flours will mean the liquid in your recipe is not absorbed as well which can lead to flatter and greasy bakes. I recommend Doves Farm Gluten Free Rice Flour which is ground beautifully. For US based readers then Bob’s Red Mill is also brilliant but more difficult to get hold of for us UK based bakers.
How to store it
Rice flour keeps very well if stored in an airtight container in a cool dark place like a larder or pantry. Once opened, if tightly sealed, it can keep for up to a year.
I wrote that comment in 2021, in August, right before I learned that I had arsenic poisoning, from rice. I haven't been eating anything with rice since right after that. I just was tested again and my arsenic level was way down, from 47% to 7%. Thank goodness! So no more rice for me, in any form. I miss baking with rice flour so much! However, here and there, I have had some success with blends without rice. It is a struggle. Love your recipes without rice flour! They have saved me.
I find both rice flours, brown and white, very gritty. I don't find it when I use finely ground rice flour. Can brown and white flour finely ground be easily substituted in recipes for the regular grind? Will it affect the baking product? Thank you!
They can taste gritty if they overwhelm a flour blend. Brands of rice flour will differ on how finely ground they are so if you find a rice flour you get on well with in recipes then that is great - you can use any brand. (just checking you are not referring to sweet rice flour/glutinous rice flour which is a totally different texture and cannot be substituted for rice flour in a recipe without changing the recipe outcome).
Hi I was wondering what the ratio of rice flour to AP flour is?
I'm afraid I can't give a ratio as you cannot do a straight swap from AP flour to rice flour. Rice flour doesn't have the gluten or any properties that mimic gluten so any recipe (whether they are cakes, cookies, sauces or batters) will not hold together, they will be very dry as rice flour doesn't absorb liquid very well and will crumble apart. You will need to blend your rice flour with flours with a high protein content like a nut flour or even with starchy flours like sweet rice flour, tapioca flour in order to achieve similar results to AP flour. This post gives much more information on the subject >>> Ultimate Guide to Gluten-Free & Alternative Flours
I am gluten free dairy free with a long list of allergies. Short end is I am not able to eat processed foods. What recipes can white flour be used in? I am not able to have almond flour, coconut flour, oat or wheat flour.
Hi Rita, I use rice flour in so many recipes from cakes to pancakes to savoury dishes. This Rice Flour Madeira Cake is lovely - you can sub in sunflower seed flour for the almond flour. There are also lots of other examples within this post of recipes which can use this flour.
Thank you for this in depth explanation of the wheat free flours. Just new to this type of cooking as I have MCS and other chronic illnesses. Recently some diabetes medication poisoned me. I had to go off all dairy and wheat to try and fix it. I have used oatflour now in scottish oat scones but they came out a bit dry and not so nice. In Australia not all flours are available. I use coconut flour and oat flour together. Havent tried rice flour yet. I want to make cakes, cupcakes and biscuits as its nearing christmas, but not sure how. Also not sure what ratios of flours to mix and how much baking powder and baking soda to use.
Hi Suzy, it can be difficult when you can't get hold of the flours you want but you should be able to work with whatever you have. There are lots of options for coconut flour and oat flour. I would suggest you experiment even with flourless bakes - have a look at this post for some ideas on cookies and cakes. If you're stuck on ratios of flours then have you read my Ultimate Guide to Alternative and Gluten-Free flours which gives you the ratio of flours to use in a blend. I hope that helps get you started.
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