Make Your Own Oat Flour
In my quest to eat more plant-based meals, I’ve also been trying to add more whole grains to our diet. This has meant making some switches like trying to use more brown rice instead of white rice, eating oatmeal in the mornings, and replacing regular white flour with white whole wheat flour (also known as whole wheat pastry flour). One of my favorites is Trader Joe’s White Whole Wheat Flour which has a great price too.
But I recently discovered I could easily make another kind of whole grain flour – homemade oat flour!
Homemade oat flour is simply a matter of whirring some oats around in your food processor. It’s probably true that the better your processor, the finer your flour will be. And of course if you want to invest in a grain mill or a Vitamix you could grind up all sorts of harder items too like wheat berries or almonds into your own homemade flours. However oats are a soft enough item that you can still make a homemade whole grain flour even if all you have is just a basic food processor.
I’ve found that the amount of oats you start with is also about how much flour you’ll end up with. So if you blend a cup of oats, you’ll get about a cup of oat flour when you’re done. This makes it easy to make as much or as little as you need at any given time.
I grind my oats in the food processor on high speed for about 20 seconds. After that time the oats have been reduced to a powdery mixture that you can now use in recipes calling for oat flour. I’ve gotten the same results whether I start with quick oats or the old fashioned oats so either one can be used. However I would not recommend using steel cut oats as they are a smaller harder grain that would give you different results.
So if you’ve ever looked at those tiny bags of oat flour in the store and were a little put off by the higher price, this is a very handy way to just make your own instead. Oats are cheap and it only takes a tiny bit of your time to make your own oat flour. If you’re not happy with the results, you really haven’t lost much time or money in giving it a try. And if you do like it, you’ll find it to be a quick and convenient DIY strategy for adding another whole grain option to your resources at home.
Once again, here’s how to do it:
How To Make Homemade Oat Flour
You will need:
- Oats (Either Quick or Old Fashioned will work)
- Food Processor
Place the oats in the food processor. Process on high for about 20 seconds until the oats are a powdery consistency. That’s all it takes to make your own oat flour!
You should find that the amount of oats you start with is about equal to the amount of oat flour you end up with (for instance a cup of oats will equal about a cup of oat flour).
Store your oat flour in a covered container.
I’ve been using my homemade oat flour in a DIY pancake mix and you can find that recipe here – – > Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix
Related Reading:
- How I Cook Brown Rice
- Healthier Homemade Muffins
- How To Make A Flax Seed Egg Replacement
- How To Make Bread Flour From All Purpose Flour
