March 20, 2022 - 11:05am
steamed flour
Yesterday I was prowling little markets on Parliament St. in TO and came across a shop with a bunch of Sri Lankan stuff. They had bags of steamed rice flour, amongst many other things.
I did a little digging but didn't find much about it. I guess steaming kills microbes and denatures enzymes but I saw other claims about reducing clumping and increasing viscosity in batters... I guess steamed flour might be used to make coatings. There are some youtube vids on how to do it, and some claims I thought were a bit silly.
Thought I would mention it here and see what people knew about steamed flours.
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Interesting. I tried googling. I only found some recipes (like Puttu) that mix rice flour and other ingredients and then steam.
I did found "steamed wheat flour", or "steamed flour" in the category of atta (wheat) flour.
This one claimed:
I have never heard of "steamed flour" as such, but from your description it sounds much like Wondra Flour which has been available here in the States since the Sixties as I recall. I've never used it myself, but my grandmother did. It's basically a cooked wheat flour or "pregelatinized" as I think they described it. It mixes very well into liquids, particularly hot liquids, to make gravies and sauces without clumping. I believe it is used in coatings as well. I suspect both the precooked rice and wheat flours would behave much the same way.
I've been using Wondra since the 60's only for certain things. It's a superfine flour and I am always happy the way things turn out using it. Mostly use it for making a lemon sauce for fish.
is used to make "cloud cake (starting at 1:33)" in our culture.
Homemade version
Yippee
Thanks everyone! Helpful info and interesting vids.
After reading about Wondra, now I'm thinking about precooking floor to make better coatings :)
It is used for making sweets and snacks. Steamed flour can get mixed without forming lumps.