[Sca-cooks] Different flours, was Cookie Exchange

[Bill Fisher]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 09:30:18 -0800 (PST), Chris Stanifer
<jugglethis at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> --- kingstaste at mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> > The rice flour also doesn't produce the gluten which makes the long protein
> > strands that help with cohesion.
> 
> Yeah, that explains the fragility of your cookie.  Rice does not have gluten, which is pretty much
> essential for making a decent cookie/cake/etc.  Not too much gluten development, but enough to
> give the item a little body, and bind the ingredients together.
> 
> There is glutinous rice, but I have never seen that commercially milled into flour.  Perhaps it
> could be done at home??
> 
> William de Grandfort
> 
> =====
> Every heart to love will come... but like a refugee.

I don't think glutinous rice actually has gluten in it, Glutinous rice
has a lot more
external starch than non-glutinous rice, which makes it sticky when you cook it.
Glutinous means literally "having the properties of glue". You can use
it to make
cookies but it will still be brittle.  

Rice flour is also fairly sweet/neutral in flavor

Adding some egg whites to the recipe may provide it with some protein to
bind the cookie together better, she didn't list the recipe, so I don't know
otherwise.

You can get Thai style glutinous rice flour online.  But I think it would just
make the cookie batter a sticky mess and the cookies even more 
fragile after the starch dries during baking.

Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat and other grains, rice is a grass.
The protein forms strands that swell and form bubbles when the leavening 
occurs.  It is also what makes bread stretchy.


Cadoc

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