Glutinous rice flour can be used to make many kinds of pastries, one of which is the pumpkin pastry that you just can't stop eating. Have the pumpkin pastries from street stalls left you wanting more and more? If you love them so much, why not make them at home? Making pumpkin pastries isn't too difficult, but the problem is when mixing the dough: the glutinous rice flour isn't sticky at all, it always fails, and it's always sticky to the hands. Can you even make pumpkin pastries successfully? I'm so frustrated, how on earth are you supposed to mix glutinous rice flour dough?
Most people give up at the very first step of making glutinous rice flour pastries, which is mixing the dough. Understanding the properties of glutinous rice flour can help you mix the dough better. One of the most frustrating things about glutinous rice flour is that it doesn't stick together easily, so when you're mixing the dough, it always feels like it's about to fall apart. If you use cold water to mix the dough, failure is inevitable.
The most crucial step in mixing glutinous rice flour dough is the water temperature. You should use warm water to mix the dough. First, stir it with chopsticks, and then knead the dough. If it's still too runny, continue to add more glutinous rice flour until it forms a dough. The reason for using warm water is that glutinous rice flour has poor stickiness, and the warm water helps to "cook" the flour slightly, giving it its sticky texture. That's why when you eat pastries made from glutinous rice flour, they always feel very sticky to your teeth—it's because the glutinous rice flour becomes sticky when heated.