Brown rice flour -- use up or give away?
I have posted re my attempt to use up the several pounds of brown rice flour I was given. Thanks to the folks here, I tweaked my sourdough recipe to replace one cup of bread flour with a cup of rice flour plus some vital wheat gluten.
The bread turned out fine, but with just me eating bread (and giving away a few loaves) it is going to take months to use up the flour. That's too long! I want the refrigerator space back. I live in Honolulu, in the tropics, and keep flour in the fridge or freezer unless I am using it up quickly.
I thought I might use it to make mochi, but I need glutinous rice flour (mochiko) for that, not plain rice flour. Also, I should not be making sweets. I'm trying to lose weight. Heck, I probably shouldn't even be baking bread.
Unless y'all have some useful suggestions, I'm thinking I might freecycle the flour. Someone who is doing gluten-free baking could use it.
Suggestions?
If kept refrigerated or frozen, your brown rice flour should stay good plenty long enough for you to use it up.
http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18184
But I need the space in the refrigerator and freezer. I'm already storing cornmeal, almond meal, mochiko, cake flour, rye flour, and pastry flour in the freezer. (I use up the bread flour and ww flour fast enough that I can leave it out.) The rest of the freezer compartment is filled with frozen vegs and homemade frozen meals. The brown rice is taking up a whole shelf in the refrigerator.
If I had a big house with a standalone freezer, there would be no problem.
Sometimes that is the best solution. You will feel fine as long as you know that it will not be wasted. Post to Craigslist,put a note on a local healthfood store board,talk to neighbors and friends. That will be a fine thing to do.
Sounds like you've done what you could. clazar's suggestions all sound like good ways to find it a new home.
By the way, did you successfully use up the other smaller things of flour you got, too?
But the other bags were small enough (Bob's Red Mill) that they fit in the freezer door :)