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Oat flour is an amazing and versatile naturally gluten-free flour. While it is readily accessible to buy in the store, it’s even easier to make at home! We’re sharing our best tips for making Homemade Oat Flour in less than 3 minutes!
Homemade Oat Flour
We are BIG oat flour fans. Our very first recipe using oat flour were these Banana Chocolate Chip Oat Muffins and they are ridiculously good. While there was a bit of a learning curve working with oat flour to ensure the texture of the final product is good, it was worth it. Oat flour is one of our favorite naturally gluten-free flours that derives from a whole food.
Oat Flour is made up of whole oats of course! Originally when we started making oat flour recipes, we recommend you buy the oat flour pre-made instead of making it at home. We noticed a very slight difference with our muffins when made using homemade oat flour. Homemade oat flour is just slightly more coarse than store-bought (see more on this below). This reflected in the muffins we were making. But over time, so many of you made our oat flour muffins with homemade oats and you loved the result. So we no longer suggest only making them with store-bought oat flour. The difference was negligible to our readers, and we were so happy to hear it. That means you don’t need to buy oat flour and oats, you can just make your own!
What is Oat Flour Good For?
Oat flour is a great naturally gluten-free flour. However, you can’t swap it in 1-1 for regular all-purpose flour. We like to use oat flour in combination with other gluten-free flours, to get just the right texture. We recommend following a recipe specifically for the use of oat flour to get the best results.
Is Homemade Oat Flour the Same as Store-Bought?
So let’s be clear about one thing: store-bought oat flour is made from oats that are milled in a special machine (also known as a grain mill), much the same way wheat is milled and turned into flour. That means that the store-bought oat flour is going to have a very fine texture.
Homemade oat flour is made from oats that are broken down in a blender or food processor. Even with the best blender or food processor out there, you cannot make your homemade oat flour as fine as oats milled with a flour mill.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, know that homemade oat flour is very similar to store-bought. If you blend it fine enough, and strain it as we suggest in the recipe, it’s a close second to store-bought.
What Type of Oats
You can use two types of oats to make oat flour:
- Old-Fashioned or Rolled Oats
- Quick Oats
You do not recommend using steel-cut oats to make oat flour, because they will not break down the same way rolled oats do.
How to Make Oat Flour
Oat flour is easy to make at home. Simple add all ingredients to your blender or food processor, and process it until it is finely broken down. Then, sift it. Though this is optional.
Here are some helpful hints:
You need to blend at least 2 cups of oats to get enough traction in most food processors or blenders.
Straining the oats in a fine-mesh strainer is helpful. You can either return any large pieces of oats to the blender and try to blend it some more. Or you can put the strained oats back in the oats container and use them for other oat recipes.
Once oats are made into flour, they have more surface area exposed, and can spoil more quickly. Store oat flour in a cool dark place to extend the shelf life.
Is Oat Flour Really Gluten-Free?
Yes, and no. Oats are naturally gluten-free. However, sometimes oats are processed in a facility with gluten, which means there can be some cross-contamination.
If you have a gluten allergy or intolerance, be sure to look for oats that are labeled as gluten-free, which means they were processed in a gluten-free facility.
Recipes that use Oat Flour
- Healthy Carrot Muffins (Gluten-Free and Nut-Free)
- Gluten Free Banana Bread
- Gluten Free Apple Muffins
- Cranberry Pumpkin Crumble Muffins
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake
- Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin
- Easy Gluten-Free and Nut-Free Rolls
- How to Make a Gluten-Free Pie Crust
Watch the video here:
How to Make Oat Flour
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats
Instructions
- Add oats to a blender or food processor. Process until the oats are broken down. If the blender is having trouble gaining traction, you can add more oats.
- Once the oats are a powder substance, sift the oats. Return any oats too large back to the blender to try to blend finer, or save them for another use (I just return mine back to the whole oats container).
- Store oat flour in a cool dark place. Oat flour will last up to 3 months, depending on how old the oats were to start.
Notes
Straining the oats in a fine-mesh strainer is helpful. You can either return any large pieces of oats to the blender and try to blend it some more. Or you can put the strained oats back in the oats container and use them for other oat recipes. Once oats are made into flour, they have more surface area exposed and can spoil more quickly. Storage oat flour in a cool dark place to extend the shelf life.
