Rice Flour Poundcake

Recipe from Zachary Golper

Adapted by Melissa Clark

Published April 15, 2020

Rice Flour Poundcake
Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling)
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
4(795)
Comments
Read comments

Rice flour makes this poundcake melt-in-your-mouth tender, and gives it a mild and delicate flavor that’s spiced with a touch of black pepper. It keeps well, so feel free to bake it a day or two ahead of serving, or eat any leftovers for breakfast. This recipe was created by Zachary Golper of Bien Cuit bakery in Brooklyn, who prefers Japanese rice flour for its consistently fine particle size, but any white rice flour will work. (Note: If you don't have an 8-inch loaf pan, you can use a 9-inch pan but the baking time will be about 5 to 10 minutes shorter, and the loaf will be flatter in appearance.) —Melissa Clark

Featured in: You Don’t Need All-Purpose Flour for This Poundcake

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone
    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.
    Subscribe

  • Print Options

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:1 (8-inch) loaf
  • 4tablespoons/55 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing
  • 4tablespoons/60 milliliters coconut oil
  • 1½cups/200 grams white rice flour (not sweet rice flour)
  • ¼teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ¼teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
  • 1cup plus 1 tablespoon/225 grams granulated sugar
  • 2large eggs, at room temperature
  • ⅓cup/80 milliliters sour cream
  • ⅔cup/160 milliliters unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1teaspoon mezcal or tequila, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Cooking Newsletter illustration

Opt out or contact us anytime. See our Privacy Policy.

Opt out or contact us anytime. See our Privacy Policy.

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. Melt coconut oil in small saucepan over low heat. Bring oil back to room temperature before baking. In a medium mixing bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper, if using.

  2. Step 2

    Using an electric mixer, whisk together coconut oil, butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. With the motor still running, add eggs and combine until creamed and very fluffy. Reduce to low speed and whisk in a third of the flour mixture. Once combined, add sour cream. Whisk in another third of the dry ingredients, then half of the coconut milk. Add the remaining flour mixture. At a medium speed, whisk in the rest of the coconut milk, and mezcal, until smooth and completely combined.

  3. Step 3

    Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Bake until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn on a wire rack to cool completely.

Ratings

4 out of 5
795 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Comments

Mark Chais

My family is vegan. If I cut out the dairy and just used coconut oil and coconut milk, how would the results differ?

Ellen Tabor

Mykonos brand vegan butter is outstanding. I've made the best pie crusts of my life with it. Nobody could tell it hadn't been made with butter. It will probably work in this recipe as well: it melts smoothly, spreads fairly smoothly when soft and tastes more like butter than other vegan butters. Give it a try!

Tom

I made this rice flour pound cake recipe yesterday, and it looks nothing like the picture. I followed every step and used all of the ingredients listed. It was not tasty and did not look aesthetically pleasing. FYI: I've been a professional baker for years.

MG

Would this make it gluten free?

Henry R

I have been making this cake for years and swear by it. As a celiac my options are limited so this is a go-to. Here are my adjustments: substitute the last 1/4 cup for GF flour (I use Bob Red Mill’s 1 to 1), liquid mix: 1/3 c sour cream, 1/3 buttermilk, 1/3 milk, cut the sugar to 3/4 cup, up the salt to 1 tsp, reduce to 1 tsp vanilla. All else is the same. Cake doesn’t cave in. It’s solid. Every time.

marie

Quite delicious for a rice flour cake. I followed a lot of comments. Made rice flour from basmati rice in grinder. Used only two tbs of coconut oil, and a pinch of ground cardamom. Was still a bit oily but tasty.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Credits

Adapted from Zachary Golper, Bien Cuit, New York

Recipe Tags

Advertisement

or to save this recipe.