Oat flour is one of the most popular ingredients in gluten-free baking. Yet, people often correctly wonder, is oat flour gluten-free? This post reviews how to ensure oat flour is certified gluten-free and other important considerations for including oat flour in a gluten free diet.
In this post I’ll break down everything you need to know about using oat flour in gluten free baking. You’ll learn everything from how to ensure you’re purchasing gluten free oat flour, to how use and make your own homemade gluten-free oat flour.
This post provides general information about using oat flour as part of gluten free baking and should not be taken as medical advice.
Is Oat Flour Gluten-Free?
The U. S. Food and Drug Administration considers oats a gluten-free grain, leading to their popularity within gluten-free communities and among people with celiac disease. So why do so many folks with gluten sensitivities avoid oats?
In their purest, uncontaminated form, oats are naturally gluten free. However, there is a substantial risk for agricultural co-mingling with gluten-containing grains and/or cross-contact during or post-processing in restaurants and home kitchens.
Agricultural commingling refers to “the mixing of gluten in non-gluten grains prior to being turned into a finished food product at a processing facility.” This can occur across the growing, harvesting, transportation and storage processes of oats. Cross-contact with gluten can also occur in the processing of oats in manufacturing facilities via shared equipment.
This is why oats without a certified gluten-free label are not considered gluten-free and are unsafe for folks with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. Likewise, oat flour isn’t considered gluten-free unless it’s made from certified gluten free oats.
What Is Oat Flour?
Made from ground oats, oat flour is a delicious alternative to all-purpose wheat flour with a mild, slightly nutty flavor. Unlike many gluten-free flours made from refined grains, oat flour contains the same nutritional makeup of whole grain oats, complete with bran and germ.
As the creator of an online dairy-free and gluten-free baking school, I understand how challenging it is to find delicious gluten-free baked goods that taste as good as their conventional counterparts. This process often requires blending numerous gluten free flours to achieve a desirable texture with a good balance of starch and protein within the grains and/or flours used. For many, this process is labor intensive and costly due to the multiple ingredients necessary.
Whole grain oats have high amount of proteins, dietary fibre and fat, making oat flour an ideal choice for gluten free baking, without the need for other starches or flours to support the texture of the baked good. Due to its high fat content, oat flour adds a great amount of starch to baked goods that results in a soft and moist crumb and that very desirable fluffy texture.
Does Oat Flour Have Gluten In It?
As noted above, oat flour ground from certified gluten free oats is naturally gluten free.
When purchasing oat flour for gluten free baking, it’s essential that the package label states certified gluten-free to ensure that agricultural commingling or cross-contact with gluten free grains hasn’t occurred.
Learn How to Make Oat Flour
Making homemade oat flour is super simple and easy to do in your home kitchen!
- Firstly, ensure you use certified gluten-free oats. It is easiest to use quick oats or rolled oats. Note that steel-cut oats are denser and can create a grittier flour, so will require more blending and sifting than rolled or quick oats.
- Add the oats to a high-powered blender like a Vitamix* and blend until it becomes a smooth, flour-like consistency. Stop the blender occasionally to wipe the sides down with a spatula and stir. Continue blending until the flour is a fine powder.
- Then, sift the blended oats well with a flour sifter. You may need to do this a few times to attain a finely ground flour.
- Lastly, always measure the required amount of oat flour after sifting.
* If you don’t have a high powered blender, you can use a food processor, though the process will take longer and I would recommend using quick oats or rolled oats vs steel cut oats for this machine.
If you’d prefer to purchase oat flour, my go-to brand is Bob’s Red Mills which is certified gluten free and processed, packaged and tested in a dedicated gluten free facility.
Reminder: Whether you purchase oat flour made in a gluten free facility or decide to make your own, if you have gluten products in your home it is important to control for cross-contact with gluten particles. These might be present on shared or porous utensils (e.g. wooden baking spoons), which can be transferred onto the gluten-free oats and/or flour during baking.
How To Use Oat Flour
Here are some tips for using oat flour in gluten free baking:
Choose ingredients to complement its mild and nutty flavors
Oat flour’s mild, slightly earthy and nutty flavor is great in cookies, breads and muffins alike. It’s a wonderful complement to spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and dried fruit like dates and raisins and sweeteners like coconut sugar. It would also pair wonderfully with fruits like apples and bananas. Oat flour is the perfect choice for my favorite gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins or this festive gluten free vegan gingerbread loaf.
Ensure you use fine oat flour in your baking
If you’re making your own oat flour, ensure the oats are finely ground. Always sift your ground flour to achieve the best texture. Sifting the flour is particularly important to achieve a smooth batter and to create an ideal texture for gluten free baked goods. If the flour is too course or gritty, it will affect the texture.
Don’t forget your binder!
Due to the crumbly nature of oat flour, I always recommend using a binder like eggs or egg substitutes. For vegan gluten free baking, some good choices are applesauce, flaxseed meal, banana and/or chia.
Frequently Asked Questions
In combination with appropriate binders and other flours, oat flour is a great replacement for all purpose flour. However, I would not recommend substituting all purpose wheat flour with oat flour in a 1:1 ratio. The two flours have very different properties, with oat flour having a high density which can lead to dense and gummy baked goods if the ratios are off. For the best results, use a recipe that is specifically created for oat flour.
When substituting flours, you want to consider their densities and the ratio of dry to liquid ingredients that the recipe calls for. Oat flour is a medium-density flour similar to sorghum flour, millet flour, buckwheat flour and chickpea flour. Flours like white rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch are much lighter in density and so are not equal replacements for oat flour.
Store oat flour in a sealed air tight jar or container in a pantry or other cool, dry place. The shelf life is about two months. If you plan to store oat flour long term, I recommend storing it in the freezer for optimal freshness.
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