Easy Homemade Oat Flour

Homemade oat flour is easy to make, less expensive than buying the store-bought version, and it's just as healthy. Oat flour can be made easily using a blender in less than 2 minutes. See just how easy it is in the instructions below.

Homemade Oat Flour

Did you know that you can make your own flour using a variety of whole grains? Once you do this it's a total game-changer.

Truthfully, I only discovered how to make my own flours a few years ago. But once I did I never looked back. Making homemade flour is more nutritious (you're using the entire grain and not a refined version) and it will save you money so it's definitely worth it. Today I'm sharing how to make oat flour - one of the easiest flours you can make.

What Is Oat Flour?

Oat flour is a whole grain flour made from old-fashioned rolled oats or steel cut oats. It is gluten-free and has the same nutritional benefits you would get from eating a bowl of oatmeal. The truth is, you can buy oat flour at many supermarkets and online. But it usually comes at a higher price than if you were to buy the whole grain oats and make it yourself at home.

But, if you're in a pinch for time and would prefer to just buy it, Bob's Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills both make great organic oat flours.

What Can You Use Homemade Oat Flour For?

Oat flour can give your baking a fluffier texture and an extra nutrition boost that refined flours cannot. Sometimes I use only oat flour in a recipe (like I did with banana oatmeal muffins), and other times I like to combine it with a different type of flour (coconut flour, chickpea flour, spelt flour etc). You can use oat flour to make pancakes, scones, cupcakes, cakes and baked donuts. It's also great for using as a thickener in sauces, soups and stews. The options are endless as it truly is a versatile flour!

How Much Oat Flour Should You Make?

You might be wondering, "Should I make a big batch of oat flour and save some for later?" The answer depends...

Personally, I like to make my oat flour in small batches, usually when I'm making a recipe that calls for it. It's easy for me to add the oats to a blender and then dump that oat flour to a bowl and measure what I need for the recipe.

But you can also make a bigger batch of oat flour and then store it in an air-tight container in the fridge or freezer to preserve freshness.

Here's the conversion ratio:

1 ¼ cups old-fashioned rolled oats = 1 cup oat flour.

When you're making oat flour, 1 ¼ cups of rolled oats will make about 1 cup of oat flour. The same will apply for steel cut oats.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Oat Flour

• THE OATS YOU'LL NEED: The process of making oat flour is incredibly simple. First, you'll need either steel cut oats or old-fashioned rolled oats. I prefer to use old-fashioned rolled oats. I don't recommend that you use quick oats because those have been overprocessed during manufacturing and have lost some of their overall nutrition.
• BLENDER: Next, you'll need a high-speed blender or a food processor. The blender will give you a fine powder texture. The food processor won't blend as smooth and will leave a few larger pieces. Both are great for different things - I use each for a variety of recipes. For example, I made the oat flour for carrot cake energy balls in my food processor, and nut butter oat brownies with my blender.
• EASY INSTRUCTIONS: To make homemade oat flour, add the whole rolled oats to the blender or food processor and blend until everything turns into a flour-like consistency. It will only take about 1-2 minutes to blend into flour. You might need to stop the blender and give it a shake halfway to make sure everything is mixing smoothly.

Below is an image of what your oat flour will look like. As I said, the process is so incredibly easy that you'll wonder why anyone would ever buy oat flour in the first place, especially when it tends to be more expensive.

Oat Flour In A Blender

The blender will create a fine powder oat flour. It's quick and easy and will take only 30 seconds. I tend to use this method the most because it's easier clean up.

Oat Flour In A Food Processor

The oat flour I make in a food processor tends to be bigger pieces. This still works great for a variety of recipes. I tend to use this method when I'm already using the food processor. For example, my carrot cake energy bites (which are so good) and require the food processor for the whole recipe. This method takes 30-60 seconds.

How To Store Homemade Oat Flour

The truth is that whole grain flours tend to spoil quicker than refined flours do mostly because they don't have any added preservatives. This is why I like to keep my whole grain flour in the fridge or freezer. This will help them last longer and stay fresh.

• FRIDGE: Oat flour can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
• FREEZER: Oat flour can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Recipes To Make With Oat Flour

Now that you know just how easy it is to make your own oat flour, here are a variety of recipes that I've made with it:

• Carrot Cake Bites - This recipe smells incredibly delicious and tastes just like real carrot cake! 
• Baked Chickpea Nuggets (with hidden veggies) - These are a meatless nugget made with chickpeas and oat flour. Serve them with your favorite dipping sauce, or add them to a salad.
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp - One of the easiest desserts made with delicious fresh rhubarb, strawberries, rolled oats, and sweetened with coconut sugar.
• Banana Oatmeal Muffins - A healthy breakfast muffin filled with delicious gluten-free rolled oats and sweetened with maple syrup and ripe bananas. 
• Zucchini Orange Oat Muffins - These are a wonderful way to use zucchini in your baking. They have a hint of orange as well.
• Nut Butter Oat Brownies - A healthier alternative to regular brownies, but still have the same great taste you'd expect.
• Homemade Chocolate Cereal - This fun cereal is made from scratch using oat flour as the base and made with no refined sugar and no preservatives.