How to Make Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour? Taste the Homemade Goodness

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By Ashley Woodward • Last Updated: February 16, 2023

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Make Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour

Craving for some authentic Asian cuisine? Discover how to make cooked glutinous rice flour in this new post!

What’s a Glutinous Rice Flour?

You’ve probably heard of glutinous rice flour being used as a thickening agent or binder in sauces or different dishes such as noodles. There are many things you need to know about glutinous rice flour before you proceed to make your own.

For starters, because it is called glutinous many people think this type of rice flour contains gluten. However, the case is completely opposite as glutinous rice flour is completely gluten-free.

The term glutinous only refers to stickiness of the rice, which is why this type of flour is very sticky and does a great job as a thickening agent.

You will probably come across glutinous rice flour as sweet rice flour or sweet rice powder. However, don’t let the word “sweet” fool you because, just like it doesn’t contain gluten, glutinous rice flour doesn’t have a sugary taste even though it is called sweet.

In fact, it has a rather mild flavor, very far from being sweet. Glutinous rice flour is made from short grain rice. This rice becomes moist, firm and very sticky after being cooked because of the waxy starch molecules it contains.

Various Uses

Glutinous rice flour uses

Glutinous rice flour serves as a perfect thickening agent for a variety of dishes and ingredients. You can find it in Chinese cuisines when making various snacks and deserts because the dough made of this flour is much stickier when heated than dough made with regular flour.

2 Main Types

There are two types of glutinous rice flour for different dishes. The first one is rice flour made of milled long grain sweet rice. This type of rice flour is more commonly used for grilling and baking.

On the other hand, the second rice variety is made of short grain milled rice and it is used for a variety of cold deserts, including the popular Japanese Mochi.

The Differences

It is important to know that there are significant differences between these two types of rice flour which is why they are used for different purposes.

Therefore, pay special attention to the packaging when shopping to ensure you’ve got the right type of glutinous rice flour for your dish or desert.

With glutinous rice growing in China for the last 2000 years, it is a perfect ingredient as flour, mainly in deserts and snacks.

This type of flour is also a key ingredient in the traditional sweets of Asia such as Til Pitha and Ghila Pitha.

How to Make Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour?

How to make glutinous rice flour

Even though you can find glutinous rice flour in many local shops, it is always better to make your own, homemade flour as a healthier cooking variety. That is why we are now going to focus on the process of making the cooked glutinous rice flour at home.

This process consists of milling glutinous rice in order to turn it into flour. In Korea, where this process is quite common, there are traditional local mills where you can go to have any grain milled into fine powder.

However, if you’re located in an area where there aren’t such traditional milling sites, you will need to grind the rice yourself.

It is especially important to make your own glutinous rice flour if it is difficult to find it in the area you live. Depending on where you’re from, glutinous rice flour can be a really rare ingredient.

Let’s Start!

It is also common to find glutinous rice flour in frozen packs and, even though it might be convenient, this is not the healthiest choice to make.

If you want fresh and healthy glutinous flour, you will have to make it yourself. Luckily, the process is quite simple so let’s get into it!

  1. For starters, let’s make some glutinous rice flour using two cups of short grain rice. This amount of rice will equal to about four cups of flour. Depending on how much flour you need, you can use a different amount of rice in this process.
  2. The first step towards making your own glutinous rice flour is washing the rice. This includes scrubbing the rice in the water, rinsing it and draining when done.
  3. Repeat this process until the water is completely clear
  4. After washing the rice, soak it overnight in clean water.
  5. The rice should have expanded to about three and a half cups  after 12 hours (if you started with two cups at the beginning).
  6. You will then need to use a coffee grinder or a food processor to mill the soaked rice. Grind the rice until all grains turned into powder. Make sure there are no clumps in the flour and, if there are any, keep milling until the end result is fine powder.
  7. You can then use the flour right away or pack it into bags and freeze it until you need it.

Summary

Making homemade glutinous rice flour is simpler than you would expect. Simply wash the rice thoroughly, soak it until it absorbs plenty of water and then mill it into fine powder.

Best part is, glutinous rice flour doesn’t actually contain any gluten, it only refers to the stickiness of the rice. Freshly made glutinous flour is better than packaged one in so many ways and reasons!

Let us know if you learned something new reading this article! Have you tried making your own cooked glutinous rice? If so, leave a comment below about your experience!

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