When we first started researching a good flour substitute to use in the bechamel for our sweet potato sformatos, we landed right away on rice flour. But regular rice flour or sweet rice flour? And was there even a difference?
The short answer is yes!
Rice flour is ground from long- or medium-grain rice, the same kind of rice that most of us probably have in our pantries. It has some thickening properties, but is better used in gluten-free flour mixes for baked goods.
Sweet rice flour is ground from short-grain glutinous rice, aka "sticky rice." Don't worry, though; the fact that it's called glutinous rice does not mean that it contains gluten. Rather, this rice has a much higher starch content than other kinds of rice, making it an extremely efficient thickening agent for sauces or binder for things like mochi and noodles.
And don't let the fact that it's called "sweet" rice throw you off either. It's flavor is mild and almost milky, not at all sugary sweet. Look for this flour labeled as mochiko in Asian groceries.
Sweet rice flour ended up working perfectly in our bechamel. How do you use these two flours?
Related: What's the Difference? Soba, Udon, and Rice Noodles
(Images: Amazon.com and Bob's Red Mill)
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THANK YOU!!! I've long wondered a) what sweet rice flour is, and b) what works well for thickening a sauce. Am loving GF week!
Thank you!
I only wish you had posted this BEFORE I tried to make mochi with the regular stuff, which btw doesn't work at all.
I use the sweet rice flour to make sticky rice balls (bilo bilo in the Philippines, tangyuan in China). You can simply boil/fry them and add toppings like coconut, peanuts or sesame seeds. My favorite way to use them is in ginataang (not my recipe, but you get the general idea). This is a Filipino dish, but the sticky rice ball is pretty common in other Asian cuisines.
Hmm, I'm going to make Chinese turnip cake in the next week or two--since we are coming up to Chinese New Year. The recipe just calls for "rice flour" so I'll try that and see how it works. Has anyone made it before?
sarah9876 - yep, just remember that since turnip cakes don't have the same 'chewiness' as mochi, they are made with shredded chinese radishes + plain rice flour, not glutinous/sweet rice flour.