One of my goals lately has been to make my gluten free baked goods healthier by using healthier gluten free flours.
One of the ways I have been doing this is by cooking more with brown rice flour. My family however does not like the grainy texture that you often get from brown rice flour.
One solution to this problem is to use a superfine brown rice flour. I have never tried it, but my sister has and loves it.
I have not tried the superfine rice flours mainly because of the cost. They are more expensive than regular brown rice flour. I have not been able to find it anywhere locally, so I would have to order it online. I just could not justify buying it with the added cost of shipping.
However, I was intrigued by the idea of a superfine flour and wondered if it would make a difference in my baked goods.
After thinking about it for some time, I realized that really the only difference in regular brown rice flour and the superfine brown rice flour was the texture. The superfine rice flour had been ground finer.
I started to think how I could recreate this fine texture at home. The answer was actually quite easy, I could use my blender. It would easily grind it finer. I gave it a try and loved it.
Now, I have not used super fine brown rice flour that companies sell, so I can’t say how it compares exactly, but I can say that the blender does get the brown rice flour finer than it normally is.
And because it is finer, it greatly improves the texture of my baked goods. It works so well, that I think I am going to try doing it to my white rice flour as well and see if we like the texture of that better also.
Has anyone else tried making superfine rice flours at home?
I think you would have to have a fancy blender, my sub $100 one would never get it superfine. You are using a vitamix right? I think those things could make anything superfine 🙂
I do have a vitamix, but I think a regular blender would still get brown rice finer than it normally is. I have made homemade powdered sugar before in a blender and it is the same basic concept. A regular blender or food processor grinds sugar fine, so I think it would also grind brown rice flour finer. It may not be quite the same as buying the superfine flour, but it is finer than it comes. https://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-powdered-sugar-88812
I’m glad you found a way to make brown rice flour palatable to your family! I make my own white/brown rice flour straight from the white/brown rice itself. I have the dry container of the Vitamix so the result is very fine and I’m not sure if you could make rice flour directly from the rice with the Vitamix’s wet container. I also use the dry container to make my own millet, quinoa, amaranth, and teff flours from grains bought in bulk at a natural foods market. Those grains are even better for you than brown rice flour. Thanks for posting about your GF journey. I’ve only been GF for 1 1/2 years so far and just started cooking from scratch then too so blogs like yours have been a life-saver. I made your GF chocolate chip cookies the other day and my gluten-eating husband loved them!
I am glad to hear that the vitamix works so well for that. I have thought about getting the dry container, but have not purchased it yet. One of my goals is to try some of the more healthy grains. I have had trouble finding some of the healthier flours like quinoa at the stores near me, so I might have to considering grinding them at home. I am so glad that you and your husband enjoyed the cookies. My goal is to make desserts that no one can really tell are gluten free. Those cookies are one of my favorite desserts to make and share, because gf and non gf people love them.
Hi Carey! I just got my 5200 vitamix 2day. Is there some sort of recipe that u can send me 2 grind my own gluten free flours? All I could find on the vitamix website & in the grain cookbook was how to make rice flour. I would like 2 try healthier flours but we can’t afford 2 go and buy them. Making it at home is a much better option. Can’t wait 2 hear from u!! Thanks 4 ur time.
Jennifer, I have never made the flours from rice, I have only made them finer with my vitamix, but I have heard many people say you can. I have called vitamix customer service several times now asking about what I can do in my vitamix, and they have always been very helpful. So if you can not find the information you need from others, I think vitamix customer service would be worth trying. Hopefully some of my readers will also be able to help you out.
Jennifer,
Congrats on the Vitamix. I love mine! You can use the dry container to make almost any kind of gluten free flour. You just need to buy the grains whole (quinoa, millet, buckwheat groats, brown rice, and teff are all ones that I have done). You could also try almond flour but you would have to blanch the almonds first. I usually just grind up 2 cups of whole grain at a time in the dry container. I start on the Variable setting and increase from 1 to 10 quickly and then up it to High. The important thing is to not let it run for more than 1 minute because the machine gets too hot. It’s also good to put your whole grains in the freezer for a little bit first because that will also help the Vitamix not get too hot.
I’m not sure if this is still active or not but worth a shot! I’m curious of the savings in grinding your own flours! What does it cost to make 1.0 Lb of brown rice flour…or any of the others, for example?! I’d greatly appreciate the info.
I that that depends on what you can get in your area. In some areas gluten free flours are really hard to find, so this is a good option. I also know that you can often buy brown rice in bulk and that makes it cheaper long term because 20lbs of rice would be cheaper than buying 1 lb bags are your grocery store. So, I think it depends on your area and what you can buy if it saves money. I hope that helps.
Now that idea makes sense! I’ll be trying it soon, even though I only have a lowly blender. If it works, I’ll let you know.
Pat, there are two websites to buy cheap gluten-free flours and products. They are IHerb.com and VitaCost.com. Have you heard of them? IHerb.com is the cheapest for shipping.. I buy from them all the time.
Patti 🙂
I have been thinking about buying a coffee grinder as I have read that you can grind grain into flour with one. Simply Sugar and Gluten Free has a post about making the superfine flour out of regular rice flour. I’ll have to go back and look it up. Check out her blog for how to do it.
I grind flour out of some grains in my coffee grinder on a weekly basis, it works wonderfully. I use it most often for oats, but I’ve used it for quinoa and buckwheat as well. 🙂
I guess that will be my next purchase! Thanks.
I’ve tried the same thing in my food processor (Cuisinart) with white rice flour. Though it improved it somewhat, it still was a bit grainy. Off to go buy some superfine white and brown rice flour! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi Lynn. Great idea, I should start using my Vitamix to make some alternative flours. Like you I have used it to make powdered sugar. I wasn’t trying to make superfine sugar, just to make powder sugar from coconut sugar. It did turn out superfine, I have no doubt the grain could too.
I went to the internet to try and find super-fine brown rice flour to make graham crackers…(to substitute whole grain wheat flour with the brown rice to be Gluten-free). The cost + shipping is a problem…. So, like others, I got creative …. I don’t have a fancy hi powered blender; so, I pulled out my trusty ole electric Coffee Grinder, which I use to make powdered sugar, …..fine as powder. IT worked perfect with the Brown Rice flour — Just like powder Super, Super fine. the grinder I have, only makes one cup at a time, but thats ok ’cause it only takes about 10 second surgers, a couple of times for making 1 cup. Then just repeat, for as many cups as you need.
You might find a coffee grinder that makes more than 1 cup at a time; but It is no problem to make a dozen cups in just a few minutes,even with the one cup grinder. Good Luck!.
I have found finely ground white rice flour, at a very good price, at the local Asian Market. Unfortunately, they do not have the finely ground brown rice flour at this time. I used this finely ground white rice flour in my regular gluten free bread recipe and my family loved it. The texture was so much better than usual!!!!!
I own a small mill and grind my rice flour. I find that if I run it through twice it’s extra fine and works well in any baking recipe. I haven’t tried the blender, but I think I’ll put some in the magic bullet and try that. I use that to powder the xylitol to get it to dissolve fast, so it might do an excellent job of powdering the rice flour.