Saturday, November 27, 2010

Brown Rice Flax Tortillas (Xanthan Gum-Free, Vegan, GF)

Ok, this is a BIG DEAL. We successfully made xantham-gum free, gluten-free tortillas! But, since there's no "glueing agent' you can't toss them around every which way like a regular bread dough, in other words it's very delicate work. But, unlike wheat dough, the more you play with it, the stronger and more malleable it gets :) So if you mess up while rolling, just form it back into a ball and start over. I was reading the ingredients for brown rice pasta and noticed that it included rice bran, so I thought to include it in tortillas and it worked like a charm. Rice bran is known to be one of the most nutrient dense foods on earth and might I add, is ridiculously cheap! I got a 2 pound bag of it for about $2.



1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1/4 cup rice bran
2 tbsp finely ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tbsp agave, or honey

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine warm water and honey/agave in a measuring cup and add to dry mixture. You may need to add more sweet rice flour, use your judgement but also remember that it will absorb flour while rolling.
2. Heat a skillet to medium and add oil, distribute evenly with a spatula or heat-proof pastry brush. When oil is hot, turn down heat to low and wait about 7 minutes until the temperature stabilizes. Also have a plate beside the stove (you'll know why later).
3. Sprinkle sweet rice flour over a clean countertop, wet your hands with some warm water, rip off a small piece of the dough and knead it in your hands until it becomes nice and doughy, then form into a disc, sprinkle some more sweet rice flour on top. Roll as thinly as possible. Using a spatula, lift the dough off of the surface CAREFULLY, while also using your hands, put it in skillet.
4. Cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown on the one side. Using spatula, lift off of skillet and put on empty plate. Add more oil and brush with pastry brush to evenly coat. Put tortilla back in pan this time on the other side. Cook until golden brown or when you think it is sufficiently cooked through.
5. This is important: put cooked tortilla immediately into a large ziploc bag (this allows it to steam and become soft), as you make the tortillas add each one to this ziploc bag and this is how you can store them. The tortillas should stay in the bag for at least a few hours so they can really moisten up. You may notice that one side may be crackly, if you are using this for a wrap, roll with this side facing inside. Makes 8 tortillas.

A wrap of avocado and tomato, you can see how flexible the tortillas are, not your ordinary gluten-free wrap!

23 comments:

  1. I am amazed at the flexibility of that! They look delicious.

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  2. Tortilla wrap looks great!!! Love how flexible it is ;) LOVE IT

    ~Lori

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  3. Neat! These tortillas look so golden and yummy! I also just put rice bran on my grocery list;)

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  4. These look awesome! Do you think I could use more brown rice flour in place of the sweet rice flour?

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  5. @ Jess: The sweet rice flour helps it all stick together into a dough. But there's no harm in trying! If you do that maybe add a bit of arrowroot powder or tapioca starch. Let us know if it works!

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  6. This has just jumped onto my "must make soon" list. This could make things so much easier for me....

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  7. I can't wait to make these! I love your site too. I haven't made any of your recipes YET but I use it for inspiration all the time. My classmates at the Natural Gourmet Institute always classified cooking ingredients by sketchy vs non-sketchy!

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  8. Ha! Thats hilarious! That sounds like a fun place to study cooking!

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  9. Could sorghum flour be used in place of the sweet rice flour? Thanks!

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  10. @ Anonymous: hmmm I've never tried that but it might be worth a try! Let us know if it works for you

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  11. Oh good gosh, these look excellent!!!!

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  12. just made these and they don't look like yours. they're tiny and flimsy and i don't even know how to tell that they were cooked through...

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    1. hm, they're tiny? as in thin or tiny in diameter...you can tell they're cooked through by testing a piece, they should taste non-doughy...

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  13. oh, MY! This is another recipe I've been looking for, a homemade non-corn, GF tortilla. I am eager to try these. I know they will go fast!

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  14. I made these tonight and the taste is great! I think I might have made it a little thick though. When it was cooking it started to get cracks in it but doesn't fall apart. Does that mean it's too thick, cook longer or cooked too long? When I went to roll it there was one piece that broke it in half. Also, if you could do a video or post step by step pictures that would be great. I think I have everything right but I am unclear of how thick and how to cook it properly. Thank you!

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  15. oh and have you tried to make gluten free bread this way?! I am wanting to make my own but I don't have any experience in making things from scratch :)

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  16. Is it okay to substitute more brown rice flour for the sweet rice flour? Thanks :)

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    1. the sweet rice flour adds starch which makes it stick together more easily. You could add one more tbsp of flaxseed to make it stick together better.

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  17. Have you tried using ground chia seeds as a binding agent?

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  18. Is there any substitute for the rice bran? I'm in the Bahamas and don't think i can get it here.

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    Replies
    1. you could use wheat bran, oat bran, you could also simply leave it out and it will still work :)

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  19. Hello, and thank you both for posting this, and all your other great recipes. I'll give them a shot this afternoon, however, I'd advise rethinking the rice bran as an ingredient. You probably know the unfortunate revelation that there is a lot of arsenic in rice (often the result of runoff from chicken farms, but that's another topic...). There is less arsenic in white rice vs. brown rice, because it collects... wait for it... in the *bran*. Google this if in doubt.

    Thank you again,

    Rebecca

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