The Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Center (JFOODO) has released two gluten-free recipes using Japanese rice flour. These recipes, Cheesy Rice Bread and Apple Fritters, were developed by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). JFOODO will be reaching out to bakeries to promote these signature recipes with the goal of popularizing the Japanese rice flour in the US.

For this project, CIA Consulting chefs developed recipes that played on familiar foods, such as apple fritters and pao de queijo, a Brazilian cheese bread, using rice flour in place of fermented tapioca flour, substituting rice flour for other types of flour. In the apple fritters, rice flour replaced wheat flour, resulting in a fluffier, softer pastry.

“I was honestly surprised to find that the apple fritter tasted good with rice flour, as it was fluffier and softer,” says Chef Dianne Rossomando, the Culinary Institute of America Baking & Pastry Associate Professor who developed the recipes. “After repeated trials, I realized that one of the reasons for the success was that the fine rice flour enhanced the taste of the apple, emphasizing the sweetness and sourness of the apple.”

“In selecting recipes to develop I was intrigued by the idea of substituting rice flour for the fermented tapioca flour in pao de quejo. The two products we worked on are gluten free, but they deserve recognition because they are also delicious,” says David Kamen, Assistant Director of the CIA Consulting.

These new recipes, along with many others, can be found on the Japanese rice flour promotional website.