Rice Flours in Baking

Abstract

There are two types of commercial rice flour available in the United States (Hogan 1977). The first is produced from waxy or glutinous rice, which is grown in limited quantities in California. The waxy rice flour has superior qualities for use as a thickening agent for white sauces, gravies, and puddings and in oriental snack foods. It can prevent liquid separation (syneresis) when these products are frozen, stored, and subsequently thawed. A characteristic of waxy flour is that it has little or no amylose. Since the waxy rice starch is essentially amylopectin, flour prepared from it has this unique food use property. The other type of rice flour is prepared from broken grains of ordinary raw or parboiled rice. The flour prepared from parboiled rice is essentially a precooked flour. It differs from wheat flour in baking properties because it does not contain gluten, and its doughs do not readily retain gases generated during baking. There is, however, a steady basic demand for rice flours for use in baby foods, breakfast cereals, and snack foods; for separating powders for refrigerated, preformed, unbaked biscuits, dusting powders, and breading mixes; and for formulations for pancakes and waffles (Luh and Liu 1980; Bean and Nishita 1985). These uses are sufficient to sustain a market for rice-flour production.