What Is Glutinous Rice Flour?

After a delicious meal at a Thai, Japanese or other Asian cuisine restaurant, there is nothing better than some sweet sticky rice for dessert. Of course, sticky rice can be used in savory dishes as well, and it is the type of rice used to make glutinous rice flour.

Glutinous rice is also called sweet rice or sticky rice because the amount of starches in this type of rice causes it to become stickier than other types of rice when it is cooked. As a result, it has a chewy texture. It can come with short-grain or long-grain rice.

The sweet rice flour is made by first cooking and then dehydrating the sticky rice. It is then milled and ground up into flour.

Several companies make glutinous flour, including Bob's Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour and Blue Star Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour. If you don't find it on the shelves of your local store, you can check a nearby Asian grocery store or order the flour online, such as from Amazon.

Glutinous flour may be confused with regular rice flour. Rice flour is made in much the same way as glutinous rice flour, but it is created from a different rice cultivar. If you are looking for a substitute for all-purpose flour or almond flour, regular rice flour is a better option.

Corn starch can be used as a regular rice flour substitute for its light and crispy texture. As the name implies, it is made by extracting the starches from corn kernels. If you need an alternative to rice flour for a thickening agent, potato starch is a good option.

Tapioca starch or flour is made from the cassava root. It can be used as a substitute thickening agent for glutinous sweet white rice flour, as it is slightly sweet.

Glutinous rice is often used in desserts. It can help to bind and create a stickier texture when you make ice cream with a lactose-free dairy product. It is also used to make the Japanese rice cakes called mochi as well as the balls in your boba drink.

It can also be used in savory dishes. It is a key ingredient in many dumpling recipes. It can also be used as a thickening agent in soups, stews, gravies and other recipes.

Despite the implications of the name, glutinous rice flour is, in fact, gluten-free and safe to use in place of all-purpose or wheat flour for all of your gluten-free baking. The flour is easy to digest for most people, which makes it a good choice when making dishes for those with a sensitive digestive tract.

It may be gluten-free, but it is not carb-free. In fact, glutinous rice flour is primarily carbohydrates. For example, 1/4 cup of Bob's Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour contains 34 grams of carbs. Only 1 of those grams is dietary fiber. It also contains 3 grams of protein and 48 milligrams of potassium. Check the nutrition label of the brand you purchase for specific nutritional details.