This may come as somewhat of a suprise, but rice flour is made from:  fine ground rice!

Rice flour can be used in a lot of the same ways you would use wheat flour.  It is used in noodles, it can be used as a thickener in sauces, as a breading for fried dishes, and is the base for various baked goods.

Rice flour is completely gluten free.  So people who are gluten-intolerant can use it as an alternative to wheat flour.

Different types of Rice Flour

Rice flour can be made from white rice or brown rice.  Both types of work very similarly when cooking with them, but have slightly different flavors and colorings.  Also, some things made with brown rice flour can take longer to cook, since brown rice naturally takes longer to cook.

There are also several different types of rice flour, that differ in the way it is made.  The most common are:

• sweet rice flour - comes from 'sticky' rice.
• regular rice flour - is made from short grain rice.  This is used for pastries, cakes, and similar baked goods.
• cooked sweet rice flour - the rice is cooked before it is ground.  This is used to make mochi (rice cakes).