Green Tips How to Make Oat Flour and Save Money – GWC Mag gwcmagJanuary 31, 2024064 views Jump to Recipe If you keep oats in the pantry, with a decent blender or a food processor, you can also have oat flour on hand in less than five minutes. Buy one fewer staple at the store! Save money! Oat flour (left) and rolled oats (right) An oat-piphany Usually when I make nutloaf, I add breadcrumbs for a bit of filler. But the last time I made this dish, not until I had started cooking did I realize I had run out of breadcrumbs. I also didn’t have bread on hand to make breadcrumbs. As someone who avoids running to the store for one ingredient—especially when I need a mere cup of it—I looked around the pantry for something to use instead. And I found oats! Problem solved. I whirred up oat flour in less than five minutes, used that in place of breadcrumbs and from now on, I will always cook our nutloaf this way. It tasted great! (This is the nutloaf recipe my family loves. We don’t usually have cheese on hand and omit it.) Save money Food processing accounts for nearly 25 percent of the cost of food. Processing food at home (i.e., cooking) can save a bundle. That doesn’t mean I make everything myself. I don’t churn butter. Time considerations aside, with the price of cream, I doubt I’d save much money. I do save on oat flour though. Here’s the math: A 32-ounce plastic bag of Bob’s Red Mill old fashioned rolled oats costs $7.79 at a store near me (24 cents per ounce). At the same store, a small 18-ounce bag of Bob’s oat flour costs $6.99 (39 cents per ounce), or 63 percent more! For a few minutes work! Unless you earn a societally destabilizing amount of money, making this yourself might be worth your while. Economical rolled oats in the cup of a Magic Bullet Oat flour storage Upon grinding, oats release oil that can turn the resulting flour rancid quickly. Because I prefer to wash as few dishes as possible, I grind a bunch of flour up at once and refrigerate or freeze the excess (which compartment the flour occupies depends on the amount of available real estate). Surprisingly—to me at least—oats contain more fat than wheat berries. And I always, always, always chill excess freshly ground wheat flour. How to cook with oat flour Use it as a filler for nutloaf, veggie and non-veggie burgers, meatballs and breading. Substitute up to 20 percent of wheat flour by weight with oat flour in many baked recipes. Because a cup of oat flour weighs only 92 grams, whereas a cup of all-purpose flour weighs 120 grams, a scale will yield more accurate results. Swap out the flour in this apple crumble. You’ll need about ⅔ cup oat flour, compared to the ½ cup all-purpose the recipe calls for. (Or use a scale and measure out 60 grams of oat flour.) Experiment! It makes cooking more fun. Oat Flour Make oat flour at home in mere minutes! Servings: 1 cup Calories: 307kcal Place rolled oats in a high speed blender or food processor. Grind for a few minutes until fine. If making a large amount, process in batches, filling the blender or food processor only half way each time. Store in the refrigerator for three months or in the freezer for at least six months. Substitute up to 20 percent of wheat flour by weight with oat flour in many baked recipes. Because a cup of oat flour weighs only 92 grams, whereas a cup of all-purpose flour weighs 120 grams, a scale will yield more accurate results. To replace one cup of all-purpose flour in a recipe, you’ll need 120 grams of oat flour. For certified gluten-free oat flour, buy certified gluten-free oats. Calories: 307kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 5mg | Potassium: 294mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 1g | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 3mg These types of substitutions save time and money. Food isn’t the only precious resource worth conserving! Check out my award-winning book! Related