Grinding brown rice into flour with a coffee mill or blender

home-ground brown rice flour, using my coffee mill

Twenty-five years ago, when my doctor first suggested an elimination diet, you couldn't buy rice flour in a regular grocery store, let alone all the other varieties of non-glutinous grains. You had to go to a specialty health food store to buy these grains, as well as non-dairy milks. And even so, rice flour was packaged in small bags, and very expensive, compared to wheat flour. Almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk and hazel milk were non-existent in the regular grocery store, with the exception of soy-based infant formula.

What was I to do? Well, I went to the local library and found the one and only book about food allergies and intolerances. I poured through the book as quickly as I could. The first half of the book outlined elimination diets, most common allergens, and how to reintroduce foods back into my diet. The second half was what became very valuable to me. It covered how to make your own nut milks and rice flour, in your own kitchen, using basic home-kitchen equipment.

I made my own almond milk and rice flour, using my blender. And this made satisfactory milk and flour. Without an actual grain mill, it's hard to get flour to a fine grind. So my rice flour did have a bit of graininess to it, but really, after what I'd been through for many months of tummy troubles, I was just so glad to be able to eat anything and feel okay.

I have since discovered that I can use my coffee grinder, combined with a sifter, to grind brown rice and millet into flour. It's a little quicker, and maybe slightly less grainy, than the blender. Here's how I make brown rice flour at home. (You can still just use a blender for grinding the rice, if you don't have a coffee grinder.)

In the coffee mill, I grind about 2 tablespoons of brown rice at a time. 

After a minute of running the grinder, I have a product that looks like the above photo. I pour this coarse flour into a bowl as I go, and continue until I have about a cup of flour.

I, then, pass all of the coarse flour through a sifter. The particles that don't go through the sifter get reground in the coffee mill, until all material passes through the fine holes of the sifter. 

What I am left with is an ever-so-slightly grainy, brown rice flour. For texture's sake, I like to combine home-ground rice flour with a commercial millet flour in recipes. This gives me a fairly decent flour blend for home-style muffins, pancakes and cookies. And I save about $1.50 per pound on the rice flour by grinding it myself. If I am wanting a baked product with a less grainy texture (even I get picky at times), then I just splurge and buy the brown rice flour at the bulk bin, health food store.

Initially, I really disliked xanthan gum. I felt it left an off taste and gummy texture to the finished product. Then I discovered that I was using much more than I needed. I began using less than recipes often called for, and still had good results. For quick breads, my ratio of xanthan gum to flour is 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to 1 cup of non-glutinous flour.

I've streamlined my GF baking process a bit, by mixing a batch of flours and gum, and storing in a container ready for baking.

My current flour "recipe" is 1 cup of brown rice flour, 1 cup of millet flour, 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum. I blend this all together with a whisk to insure the gum is well-distributed. I use this, measure for measure, in quick bread recipes. 

If you are serious about a GF, or other food allergy, diet, you should know what xanthan gum is and from what it's derived.Xanthan gum is a fermented product combining a specific bacteria most often with a corn-based product. The bacteria can also be combined with a wheat, dairy or soy product. It's advisable to find out the source of the xanthan gum before using, in case it happens to be on your list of foods to avoid. If you're buying a prepackaged bag of xanthan gum, that info should be on the label. If you are purchasing from a bulk bin, the shop should be able to find out the source for you. If you have a sensitivity to corn, or the source for your xanthan gum is one of the foods on your sensitivity list, then guar gum may be a better binding agent for your GF baking. Guar gum comes from a legume seed. It's often less expensive than xanthan gum, and is used in the same proportions as xanthan gum.

I currently am using xanthan gum as, over the course of 7 or 8 years, I've never had a problem with it, and I happened to still have some in the cupboard for this go round with an elimination diet. I'll give the guar gum a try when I run out of the xanthan gum. Aside from individual sensitivities to these products, some people experience digestive upsets, especially when consumed in large quantities. All the more reason for me to want to use as little as possible in baking. When looking over most GF recipes, I'd say that I use about half the amount of xanthan gum than is called for. And so far, my baked goods, pancakes and waffles all turn out well.

I still bake all the regular breads and desserts for our family. But I also bake up a small stash of things that I can eat, and keep most of them in the freezer. This week I've made myself some banana muffins, biscuits and brownies. Banana breads/muffins do particularly well with gluten-free baking, as the fruit gives moisture which binds the dry ingredients together. And I really like my brownie bites -- individual, dark chocolate brownies, baked in a mini muffin tin. I'll post my recipe for GF Brownie Bites tomorrow. Right now, I've got to run and get my daughters from school.

This is a huge week in the life of our family. It's not just the end of the school year for us. But my 2 babies graduate from high school on Friday night. Saturday, they have their last 2 performances with their high school dance groups. And Sunday, we're driving north to visit my kids' 91 year old grandpa, for Father's Day.

I have mixed feelings about my daughters growing up. On the one hand, I'm excited for them, for new opportunities in their futures. But also, this is the end of a phase of my life. I won't be driving any of my kids to and from school any more. I'll miss our daily conversations. Car time means I have a captive audience. We've discussed fashion, international conflicts, boys, elections, walks with God, menu planning, career planning, allowance (and how to earn more, always a popular subject), friendships, family joys and sorrows, hobbies, music, art, dance and much more. I'm not sure what the future holds for me. But I know that it's just around the corner.

Till next time, have a great day!

The gluten-free life and breakfast

A couple of weeks ago, when I said I hadn't been feeling well, it was food allergy, intolerance, and/or sensitivity-related, and had just gotten the best of me. I had a whopper of a reaction that left me sick for almost a week. I'm still working out what I can and can not eat. 

For the time being, I'm dairy and gluten-free. The dairy part I'm very used to. I've been unable to eat dairy for 25 years. The gluten is a little more difficult. I've been on and off gluten over the years. The western diet is very heavy in foods containing wheat -- pizza, pasta, burritos, cookies, cakes -- all some of my favorite foods. I am hopeful, that at some time, I can re-introduce some of the foods I can't have right now, on a rotation schedule (once every 2 or 3 days).


So, what can you eat when you're dairy and gluten-free? 

I have chosen not to eat all those packaged "gluten-free" products, instead preferring a whole foods diet, for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, many of the packaged gluten-free specialty foods are lacking in nutrients. In place of wheat flour, many use potato starch, tapioca flour, white rice flour and added sugar, to achieve the desired texture of their wheat-based counterparts. It's important to remember that gluten-free does not necessarily mean healthy. I had a sample of a gluten-free, dairy-free Oreo-type cookie yesterday, at the organic/health-foods store. Sure it won't cause a reaction in my body, but it won't add any nutrients, either.

With a whole foods approach, I can look at a sweet potato and see for myself that there is no lurking ingredient that will do me in. And with home-baking, I know exactly what goes into every item I bake.

Also, eating a lot of packaged gluten-free foods pushes a lot of healthier foods out of the diet. I think I've had a tendency to eat too many grain-based foods in the past, when I could use a larger variety of foods in my diet. I find that I am much more likely to put together a healthy and balanced snack when I don't have the manufactured g-free products in the kitchen.

Some of the gluten-free replacement foods are just awful. I've tried the g-free spaghetti and didn't like the ball of glue it cooked into. The rice flour tortillas were horrible. I'd hate to spend $6 on a loaf of g-free bread only to discover it was just as bad.

And if those reasons weren't enough for me, gluten-free manufactured foods are very expensive. $6 for 4 hamburger buns, or a small loaf of bread. $6 for a box of gluten-free brownie mix. $3 for a 6-count package of some of the worst rice flour tortillas I've ever tasted (yes, I caved and bought a package. I wanted a burrito. These were terrible. I'll stick to corn tortillas from now on.) $5 for 2 cupcakes. $4.50 for a smallish package of gluten-free Oreo-type cookies. I can see buying the burger buns, for a special cook-out. But if we're doing burgers, I think I can also just eat mine animal-style (In-n-Out Burger -- burger and all the fixings wrapped in a lettuce leaf). Otherwise, I'm a good baker, and there are lots of gluten-free recipes online.

Breakfasts on a gluten-free diet

Of the meals in the western diet, breakfast seems to be the one that centers most around either wheat or oats. We're often in a hurry in the mornings, and breakfasts of cold cereal, toast, and pastries are quick to grab and go. The newly gluten-free faces the shelves at the organic/health foods store and is stunned by the prices on those small boxes of g-free cereal and 2-count packages of g-free muffins.

And for some of us, our bodies have been starving of nutrients, in the weeks leading up to a diagnosis of gluten sensitivity. What we're really needing is for our breakfasts to be fully-loaded with nutrients -- fruits, vegetables, and protein.

Here are some of my favorite dairy-free, gluten-free breakfasts, many of which would also work as paleo breakfasts (you may notice there are no eggs here, I've had to minimize those as well for the time being).

Turkey bacon, grilled apple slices, sauteed carrots -- I use one skillet to prepare everything, simple clean-up for me.

Sausage and sweet potato hash browns -- I cook the whole package of sausage at a time and store in the freezer, taking out just what I need at a time and heat in the microwave. For quick sweet potato hashbrowns, I peel an entire sweet potato, then cut off a chunk as needed for breakfast, wrap the rest of the sweet potato and store in the fridge. I dice the sweet potato, then microwave the dices for 1 minute, to pre-cook. Then I saute the dices in a bit of oil in a skillet. It just takes a few minutes until they're golden.

Tapioca "pudding", not very sweet, made with tapioca pearls, almond milk, 1 stevia packet, 1 teaspoon sugar, vanilla extract -- I make a batch and keep in the fridge. Some mornings I want just a couple of spoonfuls before I head out the door to take my daughters to school. Then when I come back I have a proper breakfast. (This is not a terribly nutrient-dense breakfast. Tapioca is a starch, the root of the cassava plant. But I like keeping some cooked not-too-sweet tapioca on hand, as it is one of the few foods that my stomach can handle on a bad day, even better than rice.)

Leftover brown rice, sauteed in butter, with cinnamon, almond slices and raisins -- this is one of my old favorites. I've been eating this for breakfast for 20 years. It goes together quickly and heats while my coffee is brewing (I add the raisins at the very end, so they don't scorch).

Gluten-free banana muffins -- made with millet flour, brown rice flour and xanthan gum. I'll post the recipe next week, along with my gluten-free dark chocolate brownie bites recipe.

Leftover baked potato, re-warmed, with butter, along with some turkey bacon -- bacon can be cooked ahead and frozen, making this an even quicker breakfast.

Gluten-free pumpkin pancakes -- using brown rice flour, millet flour and xanthan gum, again. Another of my old favorites. 25 years ago I was on an elimination diet to determine allergies. Grocery stores didn't have gluten-free bread products. Rice flour pancakes (made with my home-ground brown rice flour done in the blender) were my staple bread. I had them for breakfast and at lunch with peanut butter. Adding pureed fruit or vegetable helps the texture of non-wheat quick breads.

Buckwheat pancakes -- buckwheat is not a wheat, and so can be eaten by the gluten sensitive.

Puffed rice or puffed millet cereal, with sliced bananas, almond slivers and almond milk -- we had a bag each of rice and millet cereal in the pantry. These are bland at best, on their own, but have taste, texture and added nutrients when fruit and nuts are added. The one redeeming thing about these packaged puffed grain cereals is they are simple. Just the grain, often times the whole grain. No surprises. No weird dough conditioners, preservatives or food colorings. My stomach can't take any more surprises this month.

You may notice that many people with gluten sensitivity also tend to eat more paleo (fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts, eggs and meat), and minimize grains in their diets. Some of us find we actually feel best with fewer grains, even the gluten-free grains. So, many of my breakfasts just don't have grains at all. And I feel better if I don't start in on any grains until lunch or later.


I've now been completely gluten and dairy free for 3 weeks. I feel loads better, and have even had a surprise or two. My belly bloat is totally gone. I no longer look pregnant. And a patch of eczema is showing remarkable improvement. I'll have to see if the eczema continues to improve. Eczema can mysteriously clear up, then reappear. So, I'll wait before any definitive pronouncements on that situation.

Next on The gluten-free life, how I grind my own brown rice flour. I read about this, in the one and only book in the public library on food allergies, 25 years ago. There were not a lot of resources for people with food issues back then. Practically no one had heard of Celiac at the time. Major grocery store chains did not sell almond, hemp, rice or soy milk, except as infant formula. Back then, I made my own almond milk, in the blender. The only kind of gluten-free bread I ever saw was this really awful-looking white rice flour bread, and even that was in a health-food store. A lot has changed. There are many options now. But I still like to make this as affordable as possible.

Have a great weekend!