Oat flour is one of my favorite gluten-free flours to use in recipes, because it’s affordable, easily available, and nut-free. Today I’ll show you how to make oat flour in just minutes!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love It
Oat flour is a pantry staple that you can quickly make at home, and it’s definitely cheaper than buying a store-bought bag. If you have oatmeal in your house, you can make oat flour!
Oat flour is:
- Affordable
- Accessible (oatmeal is available in all grocery stores!)
- Nut-free
- Gluten-free (when using certified GF oats)
- Easy to make at home
It gives baked goods a light and tender crumb, and a hint of oatmeal flavor. It’s also a great “introductory flour” if you’re trying to sneak more whole grains into your baking.
How to Make It
How do you make oat flour? All you need is rolled oats and a blender or food processor. Just blend the oats until they look like a finely ground flour.
If you have a high-speed blender, this should take about 30 seconds.
If you use a food processor, you’ll probably need to process the oats for 1-2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides a couple of times, until the flour looks very fine.
When I use a food processor to make oat flour, I like to take the extra step of sifting the flour through a fine mesh sieve, to make sure there aren’t any larger chunks in my homemade oat flour.
This will ensure that you have consistent measurements later.
Oat Flour Recipes to Try
Oat flour works best in recipes that call for it, but you can see my notes about using it as a substitute below.
Here are some oat flour recipes to help you get started:
- Oat Flour Cookies
- Healthy Lactation Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (egg-free)
- Oat Flour Banana Bread
- Vegan Oat Flour Pancakes
Have extra oats you need to use up? You can also use those in recipes, instead of grinding them into flour first.
Here are some of my favorite oatmeal recipes to try:
- Oatmeal Banana Pancakes
- Banana Oatmeal Muffins
- Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
- Zucchini Oatmeal
- Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
- Chocolate Overnight Oats
Using Oat Flour as a Substitute
Can you use oat flour instead of all-purpose flour in recipes? Oat flour can’t be swapped for all-purpose flour using a 1:1 ratio in measuring cups, but typically you can substitute it by weight.
Note: Oat flour weighs less than wheat flour, cup for cup.
- 1 cup oat flour = 123 grams
- 1 cup all-purpose flour = 145 grams
The weights listed above are an average from weighing both flours on my scale at home. The weight of the flour in a cup will vary based on how you measure your flour, so it’s a little different each time.
If you scoop the measuring cup into the bag and swipe the excess off the top for a level measurement, there will be more flour packed into the cup than if you spoon the flour into the cup for a level measurement. If a recipe offers a weight for the flour, always go by that, rather than the cup measurement alone.
How much oat flour do you get from 1 cup of rolled oats? On average, I get slightly over 3/4 cup of oat flour from 1 cup of rolled oats. To make 1 full cup of oat flour, you’ll need to blend about 1 cup + 3 tablespoons of rolled oats.
The easiest way to determine how much oats you need to blend? Use a food scale.
In my kitchen, 1 cup + 3 tablespoons of rolled oats = roughly 125 grams, which is the same weight as 1 cup of oat flour. If you want to blend oats on an as-needed basis for recipes, using a food scale is your best bet.
I try to include weights in my recipes for you already, so you can just measure out the weight of the oats that you need, blend them, then pour it directly into your mixing bowl for a fast flour that’s perfectly measured.
Formula for Replacing Cups of Flour
If you don’t keep a food scale on hand, here’s a formula you can use for replacing a cup of all-purpose flour with a similar weight of oat flour. This is my best guess after using oat flour as a substitute a LOT in recipes!
To replace 1 cup of all-purpose flour, you’ll need to multiply that by 1.4 to get a similar weight of oat flour.
For example, if a cookie recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, you’ll need to multiply that by 1.4 to get the correct amount of oat flour to use.
1.25 cups x 1.4 = 1.75 cups of oat flour
Make sense? I hope so!
You can also take the guess-work out of it by using recipes that already call for oat flour. I’ve been testing quite a few lately, so you’ll get fool-proof results every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Oat flour has more fiber and less carbohydrates than white flour, with a similar protein profile, so I think it’s a great choice for healthier baking. Oats also contain significantly more iron!
Yes, but they aren’t quite as easy to grind into a super-fine flour as rolled oats are. In this case, you really need to use a high-powered blender like a Vitamix, and even then, it’s not quite as fine as using rolled oats. In my experience, 1 cup of steel cut oats makes roughly 1 1/3 cup flour.
Yes, you can use steel cut oats if you have a high-speed blender. I don’t think the food processor works as well with these tough oats. Keep in mind that steel cut oats are denser than rolled oats, so you will get more flour out of the steel cut version, and you may have to blend longer than when you use rolled oats.
How to Make Oat Flour
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (about 200 grams; or quick oats)
Instructions
- Place the oats in a blender or food processor, and process until the oats are finely ground. This takes about 30 secondsin a blender, but could take up to 2 minutes in a food processor. Stop and scrape down the sides, if needed, to make sure everything is processed evenly into a fine flour.
- If you use a food processor, I recommend pouring the flour into a fine mesh strainer and sifting the flour into a large bowl, to make sure you strain out any large pieces that might not have been ground well. This way you'll have consistent measurement with your flour in the future. (This is optional, though. Small pieces of oats in your recipes should also be fine!)
- Store the oat flour in a dry, airtight container for up to 3 months. You can extend the shelf life slightly longer by storing this in the fridge, but if you don't make too much at one time, you should have no problem using your flour that fast!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What will you make with your oat flour? Let me know in the comments below!
I make peanut butter cookies with oat flour. No wheat flour at all. The recipe is from an old Quaker oats recipe book. They are the best peanut butter cookies as the oats have a nutty taste too.
Those sound delicious! I’ll have to see if I can find the recipe.
OH man, please do share this recipe from Quaker Oats. I looked for it on their website but did not see it listed.
Can you use oat flour in place of gluten free flour? Do you still add the xanthum gum? Thanks for this alternative.
I make homemade yeast rolls, will this work?
What about self rising flour? Recommendations?
Good information. Using steel cut oats or oats groats, flaking them before grinding might improve the end result. Also a cofee grinder (the blade type) works well here.
So if 1 cup oat flour = 123 grams and 1 cup all-purpose flour = 145 grams…. when the recipe calls for 1 cup of AP flour I would just weigh the oat flour until I reached 145 grams, right? Maybe 1-1/4ish cups of oat flour?