How to Make Oat Flour and Oatmeal

Learn how to easily make your own oatmeal from rolled oats. You can use oatmeal in so many different sweet and savory recipes to add nutrition and as a binding agent.

Oat flour and oatmeal are such staples in my house! You can find oatmeal used in several of my sweet and savory recipes. It's super easy to blend your own oats to your desired texture to add nutrition, use as a binding agent, replace all purpose flour, or just make a great breakfast!

What is Oat Flour?

You can make oat flour by blending rolled oats or quick oats into a fine texture. You can also use a food processor if you wish, both will work. When using either method, you want to pulse/blend the oats for a short time, then stir them with a chopstick to help integrate any larger pieces of unblended oats, and blend again.

Substituting with Oat Flour

Oat flour can often replace all purpose flour in recipes. It is a bit lighter and when you add liquid it compresses down more than all white and wheat flour. It's best to measure it by weight to get an equal portion. A good rule of thumb is to substitute 1 cup flour is with 1 ⅓ cup oat flour.

What is Oatmeal?

When making oatmeal you'll use the exact same method as when making oat flour. You can use a food processor or blender, but you won't blend it as fine. I still like to make sure there aren't any large oat flakes, but don't let it get too fine.

What Does 1 Cup Rolled Oats Yield?

1 cup rolled or quick oats is equivalent to about 1 cup oat flour/meal. If a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons oatmeal I would recommend blending at least ½ cup oats. If you have too little of an amount in your equipment it will just fly around, plus it's just not really worth your time and cleanup.

I like to blend about 2 cups of oats at a time to use in multiple recipes for the week.

Storing Blended Oats

Bulk oats stored in an airtight container have quite a long shelf life of about 12-24 months. Oatmeal and oat flour have an equally long shelf life if you continue storing them in a dry and dark place. Storing them in the fridge is a fine option as well, in an airtight container to avoid any moisture build up.

Mason Jars with lids and rings are wonderful options for storing any form of oats!

Recipes that use Blended Oats

• Naturally Sweetened Blueberry Crisp
• Tangy Lemon Bars
• Gluten Free Apple Crisp Naturally Sweetened
• Mung Bean Burgers
• Chard and Zucchini Turkey Burgers