Rice Flour

Rice flour is a common base for many gluten free flour blends because it’s naturally gluten free, cheap, and mild in flavor. The main varieties are white rice flour, brown rice flour, and sweet rice flour. Each of flour offers a different nutrient profile, texture, and flavor. Below, you’ll find a guide to each type of rice flour, with recipes and product links.

Table of Contents

• White Rice Flour
• Brown Rice Flour
• Sweet Rice Flour

White Rice Flour

White rice flour is cheap and has a neutral, sweet taste, making it very multipurpose. It has similar properties to wheat flour, but cannot exactly be used 1:1 as a substitute. This flour doesn’t offer much in the way of nutrition because it is made from refined long grain rice that’s had the hull, bran, and cereal germ removed.

White rice flour is probably the most common flour used in baking mixes for gluten free goods. It’s also used to make things like dosa, certain types of pupusas, khanom krok, garaetteok (Korean rice cakes), and packaged gluten free breads. It also makes a perfectly light batter for tempura.

Buy Gluten Free White Rice Flour

Three Elephants brand can be found at a cheaper price from a local Asian grocery store, and is a very finely milled white rice flour. Variations in milling between brands will change the texture of the baked goods you make. You could also make rice flour yourself, if you have a grain mill.

• Thai Rice Flour - Three Elephants (Erawan)

• Superfine White Rice Flour - Authentic Foods

• Ultra Fine White Rice Flour - Viddie’s Bakery

• White Rice Flour - Bob’s Red Mill

Recipes That Use White Rice Flour

• Gluten free tempura from Just One Cookbook

• Gluten free shortbread from Gluten Free Baking

• Gluten free Japanese souffle pancakes from Miklia

Brown Rice Flour

Brown rice flour is the most nutritious form of rice flour because it’s made from long grain rice that includes the rice germ. This flour has a more wholemeal, nutty taste but is still very light and neutral for flour blends. It contains less protein and fiber than wheat flour, so blending brown rice flour with other nutritious gluten free flours, like almond flour, is a good idea.

This whole grain flour is used in gluten free baking mixes to increase crispiness and fiber content. It’s a common choice to use in batters for hearty fried foods and as a base flour for gluten free sourdough. It can also be mixed with vermiculite and used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

Buy Gluten Free Brown Rice Flour

• Organic Brown Rice Flour - Yupik

• Superfine Brown Rice Flour - Authentic Foods

• Brown Rice Flour - Bob’s Red Mill

• Brown Rice Flour - Anthony’s

Recipes That Use Brown Rice Flour

• Gluten free sourdough starter from Aran Goyoaga

• Lime crusted salmon from Minimalist Baker

• Gluten free gingerbread cookies from Science and Crumbs

Sweet Rice Flour

Sweet rice flour is also often labeled as glutinous or sticky rice flour. Glutinous rice is gluten free. Sweet rice flour cannot be used to replace white or brown rice flour in most cases, because it is much stickier, and the outcome of the baked good will be chewy instead of fluffy. But including a small amount of sweet rice flour in gluten free recipes can add a bit of sweetness and help balance the graininess of other flours.

Sweet rice flour is used to make things like mochi, kakanin, and wedang ronde (rice balls in syrup).

Buy Gluten Free Sweet Rice Flour

The green rice flour is the one you want if you’re buying the Three Elephants brand glutinous rice flour at an Asian store. Mochiko is much courser in texture than Three Elephants, so you’ll decide which type to purchase based on your recipe.

• Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour - Koda Farms

• Water Milled Glutinous Rice Flour - Three Elephants (Erawan)

• Sweet White Rice Flour - Bob’s Red Mill

• Sweet White Rice Flour - Anthony’s

Recipes That Use Sweet Rice Flour

• Scones from Bojon Gourmet

• Jian dui (crispy sesame balls) from Wooheng Chia

• Tang Yuan from Honest Food Talks