Baking with Rice Flours

[pbennett]

I'm curious and working on a research project...

If you could bake with 100% rice flour and not have to use a baking mix - and have a very moist cake, would you be interested? No potato starch, no cornstarch...does require Xanthan, though.

pb

[Flygal]

It would depend on the taste. I prefer a mixture of grains with some nutritional value.
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Judy

[cruelshoes]

I'm not sure how you could make very many recipes using solely rice flour that wouldn't turn out to be a crumbly, gritty brick. Adding other flours yields results that are so much better, and more nutritious. Will the rice flour be modified somehow, like Expandex does with tapioca?
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-Colleen

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handcart?

[pbennett]

yes, the rice flour is modified, but not with Expandex or any other product. I'm just in the first round of research. I haven't tried combining this with other flours. Theoretically, I should be able to take this method and apply it to other flours that might have more nutrition, but i haven't gotten that far yet!

I was able to make a 100% rice flour loaf of bread and it was reasonable, but I'm not sure that this method will work well for breads yet. It does work for doughnuts, though!

I've found that it's better to have the finest grind of rice flour possible, but you can still do it with a stone ground rice flour, like from Bob's Mill.

[jeant]

My question is why would I want to do it? I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything, but scooping out a couple of cups of rice flour doesn't take any less time than scooping out a couple of cups of all-purpose GF flour. Rice flour currently is cheaper than a premixed flour blend, so that's a definite bonus--but would it still be cheaper after it's modified? Do you think products will taste better without potato starch or tapioca flour?

Sorry to throw questions back at you, but without knowing the reasoning behind it, I can't decide whether or not I would do it. I'm sure I would try it, since I am always willing to try new ingredients, but I'm not sure about the benefits of doing it.

[cruelshoes]

[pbennett]

nah, I'm enjoying the conversation:-)

This is why I'm asking the question. Is it worth it to save the money and just use rice flour, or does the convenience offset the cost? The only mix I've used recently is the Betty Crocker mix for cakes and it was fine. With this new method, the result I get is a tad more moist, but it was comparable to the Betty Crocker mix. Actually, I did also use the Betty Crocker brownie mix and I definitely liked the new method's taste better.

[HadassahSukkot]

Personally, I get my rice and tapioca in a really fine grind from our local Asian/Indian store. One of the rice packages comes from Thailand and the other from another country out East of us (can't remember if it was Sri Lanka or what right now )

Either way, the red rice flour works best for everything, but it is not as fine a grind as the cheaper quality white rice... and everything is slightly gritty with it.

I make my own mix of flour blend, and prefer it over anything we have here (incl the Hammer Mühle or Schär mixes) - except for Pizza. That's where I break down and pay the extra € for the Hammer Mühle mix.

I'd try it, if I had a recipe, but I cannot import flour from outside the EU to here to try..

Shoot, I tried an adzuki-bean based brownie that had Agave as it's sweetener, just to see if it was anything like described or if I would have a bean-y taste or not -- so yeah I guess I'd try it at least once.
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[pbennett]

I decided to do a limited release of my research so you guys can talk about it. Click the www at the bottom of my post and it should take you to the site. The process is called "hydrating". There's nothing out there in the celiac world like it. It truly does make food moist because you are literally adding water to the recipe. It's an easy process, but it takes a little more time. However, the results are very good, I think. Like I said in my post on the website, it doesn't matter what I think - it only matters what the celiac community thinks! I'm only offering it open to comments for a limited time, but I really would like to hear what you guys think. It might look complicated, but the actual process of hydrating is very easy. It's when you get to modifying recipes that it gets a little more complicated. I haven't released that part of my research yet.

[The Edifying Conscience]

[pbennett]

ugh, I'll check that confirmation. I've tested it quite a lot.

Here's a synopsis:

If you have two cups of rice flour called for in a recipe, you measure out 1/2 that amount (1 cup) of water. I put it in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes to warm it up. It should not be toooo hot! Definitely not boiling. Then I put the flour in the mixer (stand mixer) and very slowly add the water. You only add water until the flour pulls away from the sides of the mixer. You stop exactly when that happens because you don't want the flour too wet. You then wrap the flour in plastic wrap and put it aside in a safe place on your counter (or store in the microwave) for three hours. This hydrates the flour similarly to how they hydrate flour in commercial processing. You have to then adjust your recipe for the moisture, but your cakes and brownies turn out really moist and stay moist!

[The Edifying Conscience]

[pbennett]

hmmm... never heard of doing it with fat!

I bet your link to the website came in your spam box if it didn't come in the inbox...

[Mik]

The chinese have been cooking GF for thousands of years and seem to have the rice flour thing down to a science. The other thing I just recently found out the name of that is super cool is something called Bok tong go. You can look up the recipe on the internet. To get the fluffy consistancy they ferment the rice in water for 2 days. then they whip it up in a blender add the other fairly standard cake ingredients and steamthe cake to cook it. Works out to be beautiful and fluffy.
I have only ever eaten this at a bakery but I AM going to try to make it myself. I just know that if I can make this stuff I will die happy and fat.

The Chinese make the GF thing like poetry. They are just so awesome because they are not trying to imitate something they tasted that was wheat. They are just making a beautiful thing with rice. If you want to learn to cook with rice seriously, look up Chinese rice desserts on the internet. I have dreams about the Chinese bakeries in NYC...about once a week I am dreaming of going there to get my desserts...Maybe its a good thing I dont live closer.

[pbennett]

well, I'm glad other people are waking up to the fact that rice flour can be moist and fluffy. i've been trying to tell people for months and months! I'll be posting a youtube about it soon.