How to Make Oat Flour

Learn How to Make Oat Flour at home with rolled oats or steel cut oats, and a blender or food processor. This easy homemade oat flour recipe can save your baking in a pinch.

If you cook with gluten-free flour on regular basis, here is quick tutorial how to make almond flour.

Today we will chat about how to make your own oat flour at home, as well as share recipes to use this versatile flour.

If you are here, chances are either you need a solution for gluten intolerance, oatmeal flour became a recent trend or you just happened to taste it and love it!

That’s what happened to me. I tested oat flour chocolate chip cookies and immediately fell in love with this whole grain flour.

What Is Oat Flour?

Oat flour is made from ground oats. That’s it, just one simple ingredient. Short and sweet.

It can be used in a variety of recipes, from sweet desserts to savory recipes. However, you need to keep in mind oatmeal flour doesn’t contain gluten, so it doesn’t behave exactly like all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour.

Types of Oats You Can Use

Now let’s look at kinds of oats you can use to make the flour:

• Old fashioned oats or rolled oats – my preferred choice
• Quick oats or quick-cooking oats or instant oats
• Steel cut oats

Any of these oats can become an oat flour depending on the appliance you use to blend them. Keep on reading.

Is Oat Flour Gluten Free?

“Is oat flour gluten-free?” is a very good question. Naturally oats are whole grain that is gluten-free. However, very often oats are processed on the same equipment as wheat, that’s why they may contain traces of gluten.

To avoid cross contamination issues, if you are cooking for someone with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, it is best to buy Certified gluten-free oats. Just read the package carefully and look for this label.

Or maybe making oat flour at home is the way to go for you. 100% gluten-free!

How to Make Oat Flour

Making your own homemade oat flour recipe requires 1 ingredient, a small kitchen appliance and 2 minutes of your time. Before you begin, you need to make sure you have the following tools:

• Food processor or high-speed blender like Vitamix, Ninja or Blendtec (what I have)
• Medium size fine mesh sieve

Here is how to make oat flour in a food processor:

1. Add oats to a bowl of food processor with an S shape blade attachment.
2. Process on high speed until finely ground oats appear, about 2 minutes.

Here is how to make oat flour in a high-speed blender:

Before you begin, I would like to mention that regular blender will not work to make oat flour. In that case, I recommend to use a food processor.

1. Add oats to the blender jug. I am using my Blendtec.
2. Blend for 50 seconds, then shake ground oats in the jug, and blend for another 50 seconds.

You Must Sift It

Sifting your DIY oat flour is a must-do! If you do not, your cookies and pancakes will not turn out. Why? Because homemade ground oats contain small pieces of whole oats that do not absorb well. Therefore, you will end up with baked goods that are more floppy and runny, and recipes will fail.

To sift oat flour, simply place it in a medium fine mesh sieve and sift above large bowl. Sift until no more flour is falling through the mesh, and you see fine powder is in the bowl and only larger pieces of whole oats are left in a strainer.

If your hands get tired, you can also rub ground oats with small rubber spatula on a mesh, while stirring.

You can either discard larger pieces of oats leftovers or add them to your overnight oats next time.

How Much Do You Get?

A million dollar question is “How much oat flour does 1 cup of oats make?”. Before we talk whether it’s worth to make it at home, let’s talk about how much of it do you get.

Old fashioned rolled oats:

• 1 cup rolled oats weighs 3 ounces or 88 grams
• 1 cup rolled oats yields 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of oat flour weighs 2.8 ounces or 80 grams

Steel cut oats:

• 1 cup steel cut oats weighs 5 ounces or 145 grams
• 1 cup steel cut oats yields 1 1/2 cups of flour

Is It Cheaper to Make at Home?

So, is it worth it to make your own oatmeal flour at home vs. buying it at the grocery store or online? It depends how much do oats cost in your area or online at time of reading this post. Also depends how much free time you have to make, sift and store it.

Let do simple math with the most affordable flour and oats I found online today:

• This oat flour costs $0.30 per ounce, or $0.90 per 1 cup (3 ounces)
• These rolled oats cost $0.15 per ounce, or $0.45 per 1 cup (3 ounces).
• You will need 1 cup of oats to make 1 cup of oat flour.
• $0.90 ÷ $0.45 = 2. Therefore, it is twice cheaper to make grind your own oats into flour.

Can I Substitute Oat Flour for All-Purpose Flour?

Yes but with one rule in mind! You must substitute gluten-free oat flour for all-purpose flour by weight and not volume. It means, for example, if recipe calls for 1 cup of regular flour (scooped and leveled), you can’t use 1 cup of oatmeal flour instead.

Instead, know that 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4.5 ounces or 120 grams. Get your kitchen scale out and weigh 120 grams of oat flour, which will be approximately 1 1/4 cups.

How to Store

Make a large batch of oat flour and store in an airtight container, well sealed bag or Tupperware in a cool dry place like pantry for up to 3 months. With such long shelf life it can become a pantry staple.

After that, I recommend to transfer it to a freezer and freeze for up to 6 months. Because whole grains contain natural oils, wholegrain flour doesn’t last as long as refined flour.

Favorite Recipes That Use Oat Flour

Oat flour has fluffy texture and mild flavor. I have used it in many baking recipes like cookies, waffles and quick breads with great results. Kids have never complained they can taste a difference, so I assume it passes the picky eater test.

Here are some of delicious oat flour recipes we managed to whip up so far.

• Banana oat flour bread
• Oat flour brownies
• Banana oatmeal cookies
• Protein waffles
• Healthy oatmeal muffins
• Oat flour banana muffins
• Oat flour pancakes

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