Today we are going to talk about rolled oats. Even though I prefer oat bran over rolled oats; I know many of you have a cardboard container full of rolled oats. We use a lot of oats in this house so I usually but them in bulk, and I’m not talking about the bags you fill up at the grocery store in the bulk section. We buy a big 25 pound bag full of oats. They are not just for oatmeal or porridge. Rolled oats are very versatile when it comes to cooking, you can use them in savory or sweet treats.
I love turning rolled oats into oat flour; in some cases it makes a great substitute for all-purpose or whole wheat flour. Oat flour is perfect for those on a low calorie or low-fat diet. If you’re looking to get rid of bloat and flatten your tummy, you will defiantly want to give oat flour a try.
I know others will try to tell you to substitute oat flour for regular flour when baking. I don’t agree with that for numerous of reasons, but I will keep it pretty simple today. Oats are full of fiber, when added to anything wet they will soak up the moisture; when oats do this they swell up pretty quickly. If you’re using oat flour in a recipe it will do the exact same thing. This will leave you with a thick and lumpy batter vs. the smooth batter you would have when using regular flour. Oat flour needs a bit more moisture, but not too much or you can end up with a mushy recipe, especially if you’re making pancakes.
Oat flour can get pretty expensive in the grocery store, so I prefer to make my own! It’s pretty simple and all you need is a blender or food processor and some oats! 1-2 cups will do!! Oh and be careful: ½ cup of rolled oats may be 150 calories, but once blended up into oat flour it becomes about 3- tbsps.- ¼ cup of oat flour. It will still be 150 calories just less oats.
What you will need:
Rolled Oats
Food Processor or Blender
Add rolled oats to the food processor and pulse until they become a fine powder. If there are bits of oats that won’t grind you can either sift it through a strainer or keep them in the flour.
Once done store in air tight container. I like to keep mine in the fridge but the cupboard is fine.
Awesome post Shundara! I recently started making oat flour too but haven’t tried baking with it yet – can’t wait to try some of your oat flour recipes:)
I haven’t made my own oat flour (and I have the WORST luck with food processors – I break them). Sounds delicious and intriguing.
I bought a Cuisinart food processor! After the ninja and the one from Walmart failed; I decided to invest in a good one and have not had a problem since!! You could use a blender if a food processor is to expensive 🙂
I love making my own oat flour. Such a great sub for regular flour 🙂
Especially with all the gluten in regular flour! It tastes much better then whole wheat flour as well 🙂
Ooooh, I do have rolled oats in my pantry and was wondering what to do with them except for making GF cookies! I wonder if this will work in my Vitamix blender – I just started using it this week and my food processor broke ;( I must try this to make gluten-free baked goods! Bookmarking this 😉
I’ve found the dry blade for the Vitamix works great for this. 🙂
I wish I could afford one, it’s such a wonderful machine 🙂
So when I use oat flour as a substitute for regular flour, what is a good rule of thumb for how much to use? Do I use just slightly less oat flour? Half as much? Where do I start?
I actually get this question a lot and will be doing a video on it soon, but I do have plenty of recipes using oat flour..