Superfine Vs Regular White Rice Flour? Used Too Much?

[sreese68]

I recently made the tastes-like-saltines recipe in the Easy Gluten Free Baking cookbook. She said to use white rice flour bought from an Asian market and brown rice flour. I used superfine white rice flour and superfine brown rice flour from Authentic Foods. The dough was VERY dry, so I had to add extra water. Then, it rolled out to be MUCH bigger than the recipe suggested. I had a hard time getting the dough thin enough. I was careful to stir the flour in the bag, scoop with a spoon into the measuring cup, and then level with a knife.

Pre-gluten-free days on the rare times I would bake, I used Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipes which use weights to measure baking ingredients. I'm wondering if superfine flour weighs more than regular rice flour, so when I substituted it cup per cup, it was too much superfine flour? I can't find any source that lists the weights for the two. And I only own the flours I bought from Authentic Foods.

And am I correct that when substituting flours by weight, you use equal amounts? So 5oz of rice flour = 5oz of quinoa = 5oz of teff, etc.?

I also bought the Culinary Institute of America's gluten free book which uses weights, which I haven't tried out. I know some websites are beginning to measure this way, but I haven't found any other books which do this. I want to be able to do substitutions by weight later down the road since I can't tolerate brown rice flour. (I made the crackers for my kids.) I think this post has changed topics! Sorry!

[Takala]

Normally I'd say yes, you substitute by weight, but, each of these gluten free substitute flours and meals acts slightly differently when it's mixed with liquids and other ingredients.

The one thing that is interesting to me is that every time I've tried to follow a gluten-free recipe exactly, being very careful, it seldom comes out exactly as promised. For example, a bread which ends up baking 20 minutes longer than the original recipe to get it done in the middle.

Now, I just prepare to play it by improvisation. I seldom add all the liquid at once, rather, just some, and go by how the dough or batter is looking. I've made all sorts of little quick breads and pan flatbreads that came out very well by measuring nothing, just eyeballing the proportions, then adding enough moisture to get the batter the right consistency.

Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl blog bakes by proportions of weights instead of regular measure, and that is a good blog to read.

[sreese68]

Normally I'd say yes, you substitute by weight, but, each of these gluten free substitute flours and meals acts slightly differently when it's mixed with liquids and other ingredients.

Now, I just prepare to play it by improvisation.

Thanks for the info! I haven't figured out all my food intolerances yet, so I haven't played with other flours yet. That's good info to know when I'd ready to do so.

I rarely improvise in the kitchen I have to admit. I have zero natural talent as a cook, so I have to find well-tested recipes that tell me EXACTLY what to do!! It's the only way I've learned to turn out good meals. But I've only been teaching myself to REALLY cook from scratch for a couple of years now, so maybe in another 10