If brown rice flour has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 15 recipes to try it in.

What is brown rice flour?

Brown rice flour is whole-grain brown rice ground to a powder, bran and germ included. That is the one real difference from white rice flour, and it changes everything about how the flour tastes and keeps.

The intact bran gives it a nutty, faintly earthy flavor and more fiber, plus a slightly coarser, sandier feel. Like all rice flour it is gluten-free, so it builds no structure on its own and needs a binder or a blend to behave in baking.

See the flour hub for how this fits among other flours.

Baking With Brown Rice Flour

Brown rice flour is a workhorse in gluten-free baking, valued as the bulk flour in a blend rather than the whole recipe. Its mild nuttiness suits hearty muffins, quick breads, and pancakes.

It does best in tender, moist bakes where its flavor reads as a feature. Try it in gluten free casein free chocolate avocado muffins or these gluten-free chocolate chip zucchini brownies, where moisture from the fruit or vegetable hides any grain.

For yeast loaves, pair it with a binder. A batter bread like this all time favourite rice batter bread leans on the structure a thicker batter and added egg or gum can give.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

The nutty bran flavor loves chocolate, banana, peanut butter, and brown sugar. It does less well in delicate things like a pale sponge or a light shortbread, where the bran taste and grit show.

The biggest mistake is grit. Coarse brown rice flour stays sandy in the mouth no matter how long it sits, so buy a finely milled brand or hydrate the batter and rest it 20 to 30 minutes before baking to soften the bran.

Do not expect it to behave like wheat flour. With no gluten it will not stretch or hold a loaf together by itself.

What to Use Instead

White rice flour is the closest swap, near one for one, but it is milder and lower in fiber, so you lose the nutty edge.

For a smoother result, replace part of it with tapioca or potato starch, which lightens the crumb and cuts grit. A commercial gluten-free all-purpose blend already balances rice flour with starches and gum, so it drops in more reliably than brown rice flour alone.

Sorghum or oat flour can stand in for the whole-grain character if you want a different but similarly hearty flavor.

Buying and Storing Brown Rice Flour

Check the bag for "stone ground" or "finely milled" and pick the finest you can find.

Because the bran and germ are still present, brown rice flour carries oils that go rancid, so it does not keep like white rice flour. Store it airtight in the fridge, where it stays fresh for about three months, or freeze it for up to six.

Smell before using. A sharp, paint-like odor means it has turned and should be tossed.

Quick facts

In Chinese

糙米粉

British (UK) term

Brown rice flour

en français

farine de riz brun

en español

harina de arroz integral

Recipes using brown rice flour

There are 15 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 15 recipes