Tempura is one of the most well-known Japanese cuisine, and it’s crispy, savory, and super delicious!
Have you thought about making it at home?
It’s actually easy if you get some tips to make tempura batter, and here I want to introduce 8 ways to make tempura flour at home.
Although there is powder made exclusively for tempura named “tempura flour”, you can substitute many other materials for it.
What Is Tempura Flour (Batter)?
Tempura flour is made from wheat flour, starch, egg powder, and baking powder. You can easily make tempura batters just by dissolving it in water.
It makes your cooking much easier that you don’t need to worry about what to prepare for making the batter, and how to mix them together.
In order to make tempura nice and really crispy, gluten is often removed from tempura flour. So, even beginners can make crispy delicious tempura quickly!
Details of tempura flour is here:
What Is Tempura Flour and Why Should You Use It?
Good Substitutes for Tempura Flour
It’s always helpful to have such a convenient flour like “tempura flour”. But what if you don’t have one or can’t find any of those at stores…
Don’t worry, there are several ways you can do to make wonderful tempura batter so easy at home! Please refer to the followings.
1. Flour
Since most of the raw materials in tempura flour is wheat flour, flour can be good substitute for it.
Ingredients
・1.7 oz (50 g) of Flour
・2 – 2.5 oz (60 – 70 g) of Water
Tips
・You should use cold water so that gluten does not come out, and tempura will be crispy and nice.
・Don’t stir the batter too much, otherwise tempura could become a little chewy not crispy.
・If you have a egg, you can add it in the batter, so that the tempura will be beautiful and even more crispy.
2. Potato Starch
By adding a little potato starch to flour, the tempura batter become crispy and so delicious! It’s because potato starch can work the same as the baking powder in tempura flour.
You should mix flour and potato starch at a ratio of 7: 3. Then, add the same amount or slightly more water than the amount of flour+potato starch, and mix well.
If you want to make very crispy tempura, please add little more potato starch.
When you don’t have any flour at your home, you can make tempura batter with only potato starch and water. Maybe it makes the texture of tempura kind of hard. At that time, you should add 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise to avoid too hard texture.
3. Corn Starch
As most of you already know, corn starch can be substitute for potato starch. So, you can also make tempura batter with it too.
Ingredients
・3 tablespoons of Corn starch
・1.4 oz (40 g) of Flour
・2.8 oz (80 g) of Water
・Half an egg white
By using egg white, you can make not too hard, but crispy and fluffy delicious tempura!
4. Rice Flour
Unlike flour containing gluten, you can easily make not sticky but crispy tempura by using gluten-free rice flour.
Rice flour absorbs less oil than wheat flour, so it does not feel sticky when cooled. Also, you can reduce calories and oil content. It’s very attractive material when making tempura, isn’t it?
5. Mayonnaise
You can actually make tempura flour by mixing mayonnaise with wheat flour.
Ingredients
・1.4 oz (40 g) Mayonnaise
・3.5 oz (100 g) of Flour
・7 oz (200 g) of Water
The main raw materials of mayonnaise are vinegar, egg, and oil. Those materials contain ingredients that can be fried crispy. That is why batter with mayonnaise will be able to make more crispy tempura than the one with only water.
The unique smell of mayonnaise will almost disappear after heating, so people may not be aware of that the tempura is made with mayonnaise.
6. Beer
I think a lot of people have surprised like “Beer for making tempura!?”
Yes, you can drink beer when cooking, and then just pour your beer into the batter! haha
Beer containing alcohol, which is more volatile than water actually make tempura really crispy and nice.
You can make batter only from flour and beer, but the following recipe is highly recommended.
Ingredients
・3.5 oz (100 g) of Beer
・3.5 oz (100 g) of Flour
・2.8 oz (80 g) of Water
・1 Egg
・1 teaspoon oil
Egg can make it even more crispy and delicious!
The smell of beer will disappear after cooking, so even children can enjoy this tempura.
7. Okonomiyaki Flour
Okonomiyaki flour often contains the baking powder to make okonomiyaki fluffy. That means okonomiyaki flour is almost like tempura flour.
The big deference between the two is that okonomiyaki flour contains the powder of bonito shavings which gives great dashi stock to okonomiyaki.
Dashi stock from bonito shaving powder is even great component for tempura too, I think. You can enjoy new style of tempura with different flavor from normal tempura.
Depending on the manufacturers of okonomiyaki flour, it contains the powder of Chinese yam or something like that. If so, it makes the dish more fluffy and chewy. Maybe you should check the lists of ingredients of the package before cooking.
8. Takoyaki Flour
Just like the okonomiyaki flour above, the most of raw materials of takoyaki flour are the same as tempura flour.
Okonomiyaki flour and takoyaki flour is very similar too. So, if you have leftover either one of the two, you should try to make tempura with it!
Due to the baking powder in takoyaki flour, you can make crispy and fluffy tempura indeed.
Conclusion
How was the 8 substitutes for tempura flour?
It’s even fun to make various type of tempura using different kinds of batter, I guess.
Please try them and find your favorite way!
Click here to see tips for making delicious tempura
7 Secrets To Perfect Tempura
What Temperature Do You Cook Tempura?
