Gluten-free oat flour works well in many recipes, but it’s so expensive. In this article, I’ll show you how to save money by making your own gluten-free oat flour at home. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosures.
Oat flour is a wonderful flour to bake with it. It’s a whole grain flour packed with fiber, which can help you feel full longer.
Oats, in general, have been connected to many heart-healthy benefits. On top of that, oat flour has a light texture and mild taste, giving gluten-free baked goods a wonderful texture and mild taste.
The perfect texture is why I use oat flour to make silky smooth gluten-free cookie dough balls and my popular gluten-free challah every Friday night.
That said, gluten-free oat flour can be expensive, especially if you’re on a tight budget. Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oat flour costs $5.99 for a small 18-ounce bag. If you bake a lot, you know 18 ounces doesn’t go very far.
On top of that, a lot of my readers say they can’t find gluten-free oat flour at their local grocery stores. Obviously you can order oat flour online, but then you also have to pay shipping fees, making gluten-free oat flour cost even more.
There is a better way to get gluten-free oat flour, and that is to make oat flour at home using gluten-free rolled oats.
Gluten-free oats are much easier to find at your local grocery store and they cost much less per ounce too. Plus, you save money by processing the oats into oat flour yourself.
Be sure to only use gluten-free oats at all times. Oats, while naturally gluten free, are notoriously cross contaminated with wheat (gluten) during the growing, harvesting and manufacturing processes.
You can read more about oats and why they’re only sometimes considered gluten free in this article, Are Oats Gluten Free? Putting Bob’s Red Mill, Quaker Oats and Cheerios to the Test.
I also tested several brands of oats for hidden gluten using my Nima Sensor, a portable gluten-detecting device, so don’t miss this article!
The three brands of gluten-free oats that I’ve used include Bob’s Red Mill, Quaker Oats, and Trader Joe’s. Bob’s Red Mill and Quaker Oats use commodity oats, and Trader Joe’s uses purity protocol oats (for a definition of commodity vs. purity protocol oats, please read my article about oats).
I recommend using rolled oats, although quick-cook oats will work well too. Avoid steel cut oats when making oat flour at home.
The cheapest gluten-free oats I’ve seen is from Trader Joe’s. For $3.99, you can enjoy a huge 32-ounce bag of rolled gluten-free oats.
The next price point is $6.99 for a large 32-ounce bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Rolled Oats.
Finally, the most expensive gluten-free oats I’ve found come from Quaker Oats. A container of 18-ounces of gluten-free rolled oats will cost $4.79. This is half the amount of oats you’ll get from Trader Joe’s and Bob’s Red Mill.
Regardless of what oats you choose, the process to make oat flour at home is the same, and will save you money in the long run.
How to Make Oat Flour at Home
The process to make oat flour at home is quite simple. All you’ll need is rolled (or quick-cook) gluten-free oats and a food processor fitted with a steel blade or high-speed blender.
You’ll want to work the oats in small batches to avoid overcrowding the oats in the food processor. I usually process about two cups of rolled oats at a time to make oat flour.
Process the oats for about 1-2 minutes, scraping the sides and mixing the flour mid-way through to ensure it all gets evenly blended.
You can watch this video to see me process oats into oat flour.
If you want the oat flour to be super fine, you can run the flour through a strainer or sifter. Any large, unprocessed bits can be run through the food processor for a second time to ensure a fine, flour-like texture.
Store the newly blended gluten-free oat flour in a sealed container in your pantry for up to three months or until you’re ready to use it.
A Few Tips
Measuring Oat Flour vs. Oats. It’s essential to measure the oat flour, not the oats, when baking with oat flour. For example, if your recipe calls for one cup of oat flour, measure one cup of oat flour, not one cup of rolled oats prior to processing. One cup of rolled oats will equal less than one cup of oat flour.
Can Oat Flour be Swapped for Regular Flour? No. Oat flour is a more absorbent flour than other flour (similar absorbency to coconut flour), so you’ll need to watch your ratio of liquid to flour when baking with it. This is why it cannot be used as a cup for cup swap with regular flour.
Just Want to Buy Oat Flour? Don’t want to go through the trouble of making your own oat flour at home? It’s perfectly okay to buy it. I recommend this brand.
Additional Articles
Your Guide to Gluten-Free Flour Mixes and Blends
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