How to Make Oat Flour in a Blender

Learn how to use your blender to make oat flour at home. Ready in 3 minutes, this homemade gluten-free flour is great for making muffins, pancakes, tortillas, and more.

Why to make your oat flour?

• Cost efficiency: For reference, one cup of oats makes 1 cup of flour. One cup of flour costs 73 cents, while one cup of oats costs 38 cents. And it's even cheaper if you buy oats in bulk. 
• Freshness: once you open store-bought oat flour, it lasts only for about 2 months before it gets stale. Oats stay fresh for about 9 months after opening and can be turned into fresh flour at any time. 
• No contamination: it is more likely that oat flour can be contaminated with other ingredients during the grinding process. At home, you know for sure what it is made of. 
• Nutritious: oat flour is rich in dietary fiber, phosphorus, thiamine, magnesium, and zinc. For example, waffles and pancakes will have more fiber and nutrients if you make them with oat flour. 

What oats are the best to grind into the flour?

You will need old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats. I find that old-fashioned oats flour works better in baked goods. 

You can also use steel cuts oats (not recommended), but you will need a special grains dry container to make it. 

The choice of blender

You will need a high-powered blender to use to make the flour. Most good quality blenders, such as Vitamix, Ninja, or NutriBullet can handle grinding nuts and grains. 

I used my Vitamix blender and it's a regular container. If you have, you can use a grains dry container. 

Rolled oats are quite soft and wet container blades grind rolled oats in fine flour with no problem. 

You can also use a food processor to make oat flour. 

Recommendations how to substitute oat flour for all-purpose flour

Unless the recipe was developed to be made with only oat flour (like our oat flour waffles), it is not recommended to fully substitute oat flour for all-purpose one when making cakes, cookies, muffins, and other baked goods. 

Instead, do a combination of both: 3 parts of wheat flour and 1 part of oat flour. 

Oat flour by itself will not raise well and result in a dense texture if you use it to make a cake

You can have the best results, by fully substituting oat flour for all-purpose one when making pancakes, waffles, and cookies. Start with one for one ratio and if the batter is too thin, add one Tablespoon of oat flour at a time until the right consistency is reached. 

How to make oat flour in a blender

It will take only 2 steps and a few minutes to grind the oats into flour. I used my Vitamix blender with its regular pitcher. 

Step 1. Measure one cup of oats and pour it into the blender container. You can add as many oats as your blender allows. 

Note: one cup of oats makes about 1 cup of oat flour.  

Step 2. Start the blender on low and quickly switch it to high for about 30 seconds. Stop the blender and shake the container a few times to make sure all the oats are getting blended evenly. Blend for another 15-30 seconds or until the oats turn into fine flour. 

Best ways to use oat flour

• Baked goods: use a specifically developed recipe or you can use 1 part of oat flour and 3 parts of wheat flour. 
• Breakfast staples: you can easily use oat flour to make waffles, pancakes, baked oats, and breakfast bars.
• Breading: use oat flour instead of wheat to make chicken tenders or fried fish. 
• Thickening: add a few tablespoons of oat flour to thicken stews and soups. 

Tips

• Use a high-powered blender.
• Old-fashioned or quick oats will work the best.
• Make sure the blender is completely dry before adding the oats.
• Add at least one cup of oats, or enough to cover the blender blades.
• Sift the flour after grinding. You can regrind the coarse particles left in a sifter.
• Make sure the oats are gluten-free certified if you are avoiding gluten.

Storage

Transfer the fresh flour to an air-tight container, jar, or food storage bag. I recommend labeling the container with the date and content. Store the oat flour in a cool dry place. 

Home-made oat flour will stay fresh for up to 2 months when stored properly. 

Frequently asked questions