In Japan you can buy rice flour milled specifically for baking bread. Use it and a light, fluffy loaf comes out with very little effort.
That flour is hard to find outside Japan, so this article takes a different route: making the bread from raw rice instead. Why is Japanese rice flour so well suited to bread, and how close can raw rice get to it? That is what we look at here.
For the recipe itself, see the page below. What follows is the background behind it.
Japanese Rice Bread Made From Raw Rice
Table of Contents
Watch the Video
Background
Rice bread has been drawing attention in Japan, mostly among people who eat gluten-free or pay close attention to what they eat. On our Japanese-language channels, rice bread recipes are some of the most popular things we have published, with over a million views in total across social media.
Part of the reason it works so well here is the flour. Japan sells rice flour made specifically for bread, milled from rice grown for that purpose. Mizuhochikara is the best known of these varieties. Bread baked with it comes out light and fluffy, and it tastes good on its own terms.
These flours are also reasonably affordable in Japan, helped by government support for rice flour as a way to raise the country's food self-sufficiency.
Outside Japan, that is not the case. The same flour is either unavailable or, because it has to be imported, expensive. So we set out to see whether the rice bread you get in Japan could be reproduced somewhere else, without rice flour at all. Instead of buying the flour, we soak raw rice in water and grind it into a batter ourselves. Raw rice is far easier to find than Japanese rice flour for bread, wherever you happen to be.
It is worth the attempt. Rice bread is not only gluten-free — it is easier to make than wheat bread, with a single rise and much less to wash up afterwards. It also has a character of its own: a fluffy, moist crumb and a gentle sweetness that you do not get from wheat bread. It is a loaf worth baking at home.
What Makes Good Rice Bread Flour
Rice bread in Japan is normally made with flour milled from rice varieties bred for the purpose. Good rice bread flour is said to need three things.
1. The proportion of amylose in the starch. At 15 to 25 percent, you get rice bread that is both delicious and well-shaped, of the kind eaten in Japan. Too much amylose and the bread turns out dense and dry. Too little and it stays moist but tends to collapse after rising.
2. The amount of damage to the starch. Starch damage means cracks and injuries to the starch granules, which occur during milling. When starch damage is low, the bread rises well. When it is high, the flour absorbs too much water and the bread will not rise properly.
3. How fine the particles are. The finer the particles, the more evenly moisture spreads through the dough, and the finer and more even the crumb. According to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, a larger particle size lowers the specific volume of rice bread — in other words, the loaf does not rise as far.
Starting From Raw Rice Instead
This is where raw rice comes in. Soak it in water until the grains soften, then grind it into a smooth batter yourself. Raw rice is far easier to find than Japanese rice flour for bread, and the batter goes straight into the pan — there is no flour to buy at any point. Grinding it at home will not give you the flour Japan bakes with, but each of the three conditions has something you can do about it in a home kitchen.
Choose short-grain rice. Ordinary Japanese table rice is classified as medium-amylose rice, at roughly 17 to 23 percent. That already sits inside the range suitable for bread. Choosing short-grain rice, and Japanese rice in particular, covers the first condition on its own.
Soak before grinding. Letting the rice absorb enough water softens the grains, so they cushion the impact of the blender blades and the starch takes less damage. The same principle is used in rice flour production in Japan.
Stop as soon as it is smooth. Finer particles are better, but grinding past that point damages the starch. Touch the batter on the spatula, and stop once it feels smooth rather than gritty. Getting that moment right is what balances the second and third conditions against each other.
A home blender will not reach the fineness of Japan's rice flour. It will still give you a loaf with good texture.
Why Potato Starch Is in the Recipe
There is one more decisive difference from wheat bread: there is no gluten.
When water is added to wheat flour and the dough is worked, its proteins bond into gluten. Gluten holds the dough together, traps the gas produced during fermentation, and supports the height of the loaf. Rice has nothing that does this, so bread made from rice alone struggles to rise and collapses easily. One approach often taken in Japan is to add 15 to 20 percent wheat gluten, which allows the dough to be handled much like wheat flour. That, of course, is no longer gluten-free.
This is where potato starch comes in. Heated, its starch gelatinizes and develops a viscosity that holds water. That viscosity binds the batter, supports the bubbles, and helps the loaf keep its shape while it bakes. It also retains moisture, which keeps the crumb soft into the next day.
It has another role that gets less attention. Japanese rice is naturally sticky, so a loaf made from rice alone can turn out too chewy and heavy in the mouth. Adding a starch with different properties balances the spring against the lightness.
What potato starch is not is a substitute for amylose. Amylose belongs to the rice itself, and potato starch is doing a different job — supporting a dough that has no gluten.
Try the Recipe
Everything above is the thinking behind a single loaf. If you would like to bake it, the full recipe is here — a loaf built to come as close as possible, outside Japan, to the bread you get with Japanese rice flour.
Japanese Rice Bread Made From Raw Rice
Sources
- Standards for Rice Flour by Use — Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (in Japanese)
- Uses of Rice Flour — Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (in Japanese)
- Development of Thickener-Free 100% Rice Flour Bread — Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (in Japanese)