From banana pancakes to blueberry muffins to chocolate chip cookies, oat flour can be a delicious addition to your baking repertoire. This whole grain flour adds a sweet, nutty flavor and works as a tasty gluten-free substitute. While you might be able to find oat flour at your local grocery store, it's also super simple and convenient to make at home. If you're not sure how to make oat flour, keep reading to find our tips and tricks for blending your own homemade oat flour.

What Is Oat Flour?
How to Make Oat Flour
Tips for Baking With Oat Flour

What Is Oat Flour?

Oat flour is a type of whole grain flour made from finely ground oats. It's packed with fiber, protein, and nutrients like zinc, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, thiamine, and vitamin B1.

Oat flour also adds a soft, tender texture and a subtle nutty flavor to any baked good. It retains liquids, which helps baked goods stay moist, and it has a soft, toasted flavor that pairs well with nuts, fruits, vanilla, and spices,

It can work as an excellent gluten-free alternative to all-purpose or whole wheat flour when you make the oat flour with gluten-free oats. Just make sure to check if the oats are certified gluten-free to guarantee that there wasn't any cross-contamination during the milling process.

How to Make Oat Flour

Though you can find oat flour on the shelves at the store, it's incredibly easy to DIY. All you'll need are oats and a blender. You can use old-fashioned oats, quick oats, or steel-cut oats, and a blender or a food processor will do the trick.

Step 1: Add the Oats

Pour the oats into a high-speed blender or food processor. As a rule of thumb, 1 cup of old-fashioned or quick oats will yield about 3/4 cup of oat flour.

Step 2: Blend

Blend the oats on high for 30 seconds. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and blend again for 15 seconds, or until the oats are a fine powder.

Step 3: Store the Oats

Pour the oat flour into an airtight container. Homemade oat flour can be stored in an airtight container for up to two months. If you'd like to store oat flour for longer than this, you can stash it in the refrigerator for up to six months or in the freezer for up to a year.

Tips for Baking With Oat Flour

Because oat flour doesn't always behave like wheat flour, here are a few tips for baking with your homemade oat flour.

1. Opt for Recipes With Binders

When substituting all-purpose or whole wheat flour for oat flour, look for recipes that contain ingredients that help bind your batter together, like eggs. Eggs will help hold your oat flour mixture together and add the structure that gluten often provides. You can also use egg alternatives like chia seeds, aquafaba, or flax eggs to bind the ingredients.

2. Measure by Weight

It's also best to measure by weight rather than volume, since oat flour is much lighter than all-purpose or whole wheat flour. For example, if you're replacing one cup of all-purpose flour with one cup of oat flour, you might end up with a batch of baked goods that didn't rise properly because the ratio is off. Instead, measuring your oat flour on a scale by weight can help you reach a more accurate recipe ratio.

3. Try a Blend

Oat flour can be a fantastic staple for tackling your favorite recipes, but it also works well in tandem with other types of flour. Combinations of oat flour and rice flour or almond flour and oat flour can come together to create delicious, well-balanced baked goods.

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