Yes, for a mochi recipe you should only use a true 'sweet rice flour.' You'll probably have to go to an Asian market to find it, and that's how it's labeled. It's very inexpensive.
Lately it has been showing up in recipes for gluten-free baking, to take advantage of the 'sticky' characteristic. It's called 'glutinous' rice, but that does not refer to the gluten proteins to be avoided by celiacs and others -- it's glutinous in the sense of gooey.
I often use sweet rice flour in conjunction with regular rice flours or other gluten-free flours in my gluten-free baking. Its stickiness, when moderated with other flours, helps to hold things together without any needed gluten. See this recipe for Coconut Macaroons:
http://beyondcelery.blogspot.com/2011/05/coconut-macaroons.html
No, unfortunately regular rice flour is something completely different and you will not get the same results, even if you add sweetener. Sweet rice flour is glutinous rice flour and it yields a more jello-like squishy consistency (like in mochi) whereas regular rice flour is used in conventional baking and yields a completely different consistency, like for bread or cake.
Sweet rice flour is the same as sticky rice flour. It's not rice with sugar added. But it's possible that what you're thinking of as just "rice flour" is actually the same thing. What else is on the label?
Good question. Read the contents label. I've never heard of sweet rice flour, but if it were rice flower with some sort of sweetener added, I would guess it would probably be called *sweetened*.
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Lately it has been showing up in recipes for gluten-free baking, to take advantage of the 'sticky' characteristic. It's called 'glutinous' rice, but that does not refer to the gluten proteins to be avoided by celiacs and others -- it's glutinous in the sense of gooey.
http://beyondcelery.blogspot.com/2011/05/coconut-macaroons.html
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