Wheat Starch substitute

Best substitute

Tapioca Starch

Use the same amount by weight as the wheat starch you are replacing

Best for banh bot loc

Different texture

Wheat starch is not a thickener in these recipes, it is the structure, which is why swapping in plain flour fails so badly. When boiling water hits it, it gelatinises into a hot dough that is stretchy enough to pleat and turns translucent and tender-crisp when steamed. Tapioca starch is the substitute to use, at 1:1 by weight, giving a chewier and stretchier wrapper with a slightly gummy bite. A blend of 3 parts tapioca starch to 1 part cornstarch is closer still, because the cornstarch cuts the chew. Potato starch works at 1:1 and is the most fragile. Plain flour and self-raising flour do not work at all here, because gluten is exactly what has been removed and what has to stay out.

Other wheat starch substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Tapioca Starch Plus Cornstarch, 3 to 1
Close match
Use the same amount total, mixed 3 parts tapioca to 1 part cornstarch
The closest match to real wheat starch and worth the extra thirty seconds.
What changes
The cornstarch interrupts the long stretchy chew of tapioca and gives a shorter, more tender bite very like a proper crystal dumpling. The wrapper is a touch less transparent than wheat starch, closer to frosted glass than clear glass.
Best for
har gow, banh bot loc, anything where you want tender rather than chewy
Mix the two dry powders thoroughly before adding boiling water, or you get lumps of pure cornstarch that stay raw and grainy.
3Potato Starch
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Makes a very clear, very soft, silky wrapper that is genuinely lovely to eat and genuinely difficult to work with.
What changes
It tears at the pleats and it slumps in the steamer, and it goes claggy if the water was even slightly off the boil. Flavour is neutral and clean, closest of all to wheat starch.
Best for
flat translucent dumplings you do not need to pleat, banh bot loc wrapped in banana leaf, where the leaf supports it, small batches
Use water at a full rolling boil and mix immediately. Potato starch is much less forgiving about temperature than tapioca or wheat starch.
4Cornstarch, Blended With Tapioca
Different texture
1 part cornstarch to 2 parts tapioca starch, used 1:1 for the wheat starch
Cornstarch on its own makes a dough that crumbles and cracks and cannot be pleated, so do not use it alone for a wrapper.
What changes
Blended into tapioca it earns its place, tightening the texture and cutting the stretch. On its own it is fine wherever the wheat starch was only thickening a sauce or lightening a batter.
Best for
blending into tapioca dough, thickening sauces where wheat starch was listed, crisp fried coatings
If your recipe uses wheat starch for a fried coating rather than a wrapper, cornstarch alone at 1:1 is a fine swap and fries slightly crisper.
5Rice Flour Plus Tapioca Starch
Different texture
1 part rice flour to 2 parts tapioca starch, used 1:1
This is the honest compromise rather than a substitute, because rice flour will not go transparent.
What changes
The wrapper comes out opaque white and soft with a pleasant slightly sandy bite, which is a good dumpling but a visibly different dish. Use it when you want something to eat tonight and do not need to see the filling through the skin.
Best for
opaque steamed dumplings, banh it and similar soft wrappers, when tapioca alone is too chewy for you
Use plain rice flour, not glutinous or sweet rice flour, which behaves completely differently and gives a mochi-like wrapper.
6Nothing Works: Plain Flour, Self-Raising Flour or Bread Flour
Taste and texture differ
not recommended
Worth stating plainly because it is the mistake almost everyone makes first.
What changes
Wheat starch is wheat flour with the gluten washed out, so replacing it with flour puts the gluten straight back in. You get an opaque, elastic, bready dough that steams into something like a thick pale noodle. It is edible, it is not a translucent dumpling, and no amount of extra water or kneading will fix it.
Best for
nothing in this category
If tapioca, potato and corn starch are all unavailable, make a different dumpling with a flour dough on purpose rather than trying to force a crystal wrapper.

What is Wheat Starch?

Wheat Starch is Wheat starch, labelled non-glutinous wheat starch, bot mi tinh or tang mien fen, is the pure starch washed out of wheat flour with all of the gluten removed, sold as a very fine chalky white powder.

Cooking tips

The water must be at a hard rolling boil, poured in all at once, and stirred immediately. Anything cooler leaves raw pockets of starch that show up as white chalky spots and split seams in the steamer.
Knead the hot dough while it is still uncomfortably warm, oiling your palms rather than dusting with more starch. Once it cools below hand temperature it stops coming together and starts cracking.
Keep the dough under a damp cloth or an upturned bowl the whole time you are shaping. Starch doughs skin over within about two minutes and a skinned edge will not seal.
Roll or press the wrappers thinner than feels safe, close to the thickness of a coin. Translucency is a function of thinness as much as of which starch you used.
Steam these dumplings only until the wrapper goes clear, usually six to eight minutes, and serve them immediately. All of these starches turn firm and rubbery as they cool, tapioca fastest of all.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use plain flour instead of wheat starch?

No, and this is the single most common failure with these recipes. Wheat starch is plain flour with the gluten removed, so using flour reintroduces exactly the protein the recipe was designed to avoid. The dough turns elastic and opaque and steams into a thick chewy skin. Use tapioca starch instead, which is sold everywhere and behaves correctly.

Is wheat starch the same as cornstarch?

They are both pure starches and they thicken sauces similarly, but they behave differently in a hot-water dough. Wheat starch stays cohesive and pleatable, while cornstarch dough crumbles and cracks. If a recipe uses wheat starch to thicken, cornstarch swaps 1:1. If it uses wheat starch to make a wrapper, cornstarch needs to be blended with tapioca starch to work at all.

Is wheat starch gluten free?

Commercial wheat starch is processed to remove gluten and some grades are certified to gluten-free thresholds, but ordinary wheat starch sold in Asian groceries is not labelled or tested for that, and residual gluten is normal. Anyone with coeliac disease should treat unlabelled wheat starch as containing gluten. Tapioca and potato starch are naturally gluten free and swap in well here.

What does banh bot loc actually use?

Traditional banh bot loc is made with tapioca starch, bot loc, not wheat starch, which is why the wrappers are so chewy and elastic. Some recipes add a little wheat starch to soften that chew. So if you are making banh bot loc and cannot find wheat starch, you are in luck: all-tapioca is the authentic version. Wheat starch matters more in Cantonese crystal dumplings like har gow.

Can I skip the starch and just use rice paper?

For a quick approximation of banh bot loc, softened rice paper wrapped around the filling and steamed briefly does give you a translucent parcel, and people do it. It is thinner, more slippery and less chewy than a starch dough, and it tears easily, so double-wrap. It is a shortcut with a different texture rather than a substitute.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Wheat Starch substitute

Other wheat starch substitutes

2Tapioca Starch Plus Cornstarch, 3 to 1

3Potato Starch

4Cornstarch, Blended With Tapioca

5Rice Flour Plus Tapioca Starch

6Nothing Works: Plain Flour, Self-Raising Flour or Bread Flour