The Best Cornstarch Substitutes, According to the Pros

Wondering about other types of flour? Whole wheat flour works well as a cornstarch substitute, but may give your food a malty flavor. Bread flour contains less starch than all-purpose flour, so it won’t be as effective as a thickener. On the other hand, cake flour has more starch, so you can use less to achieve your desired results.

Gluten-free flours can be hit or miss as a thickener, and as with whole wheat flour, they may affect the taste of your dish. The good news is that there are a few other gluten-free alternatives on this list, including potato starch, rice flour, and tapioca starch.

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Rice flour—not to be confused with rice starch—is another cornstarch alternative. It’s made from finely milled rice and is naturally gluten-free. “I do like rice flour for certain crispy moments, like in fried chicken batter or to coat tofu cubes,” Kendra says. It can also be used as a thickener for soup, sauce, or gravy, but you’ll likely need to use twice as much rice flour as you would cornstarch.

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If you don’t have a bag of rice flour in your pantry, you can make it at home by grinding up white rice in a food processor or spice mill. You can make rice flour using brown rice; but be sure to grind it into a fine powder and sift it using a fine-mesh sieve for the best results in cooking and baking.

Another expert-approved substitution for cornstarch is tapioca starch, which is the same thing as tapioca flour. This is a neutral-flavored powder made from cassava root. It’s best used in baking recipes (like thickening the filling of a fruit pie). “I have used tapioca flour in place of cornstarch for crisps, pie fillings, and cobblers,” Guas says. “The rough substitution is 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour for 1 tablespoon cornstarch.”

Another significant benefit of tapioca is that it freezes well, keeping your baked goods the perfect consistency. However, you’ll want to avoid using tapioca starch in any recipe that requires boiling—the high heat will make your sauce stringy.

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An all-purpose thickening agent similar to cornstarch, kuzu starch (a.k.a. kudzu starch) is a popular ingredient in East Asian cuisine. “Kuzu is derived from the roots of the kuzu plant, which is a type of vine native to Japan and China,” says Atsuko Ikeda, author of Atsuko’s Japanese Kitchen. “Kuzu is a raw ingredient that needs to be cooked—the longer the cooking time, the firmer the texture becomes.” Ikeda uses kuzu starch as a setting agent in her recipe for Vegan Panna Cotta—it gives the dessert a bouncy texture that fans of mochi will love.

Kuzu starch can be used as a 1:1 substitute for cornstarch to thicken sauces, soups, and desserts.

Arrowroot powder (a.k.a. arrowroot flour and arrowroot starch) delivers thickening results that are very similar to what cornstarch offers. Arrowroot makes a beautifully shiny sauce, and you can use the same amount of arrowroot that you would cornstarch.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
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