Are you tired of eating porridge every morning for breakfast and want to learn how to use oats in a more creative and delicious way? Are you intolerant to gluten? Are you looking for a way to use the stock of oats you have in the pantry? Try turning it into flour. This is a simple process, so don't waste more money than you should buy oatmeal at health food stores. All you need is a blender (or a food processor) and a single ingredient, oats, to obtain a healthy and very versatile flour.
Ingrediants
- Oat flakes
- Blender or food processor
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Prepare the Oatmeal
Step 1. Portion the oats
Traditionally, rolled oats are used to make oatmeal, which are cheap, but not always readily available in supermarkets. Alternatively, you can use instant or quick-cook oats (the kernels of which are peeled and coarsely ground). The main difference is in the size of the beans, which does not affect the result as you will have to grind them.
- Make sure the oat flakes are natural and that there are no added ingredients or flavors that could affect the taste of the flour.
- If you plan to use oatmeal right away and use spoons or cups to portion it instead of weighing it, grind more flakes than the recipe indicates. You have to keep in mind that, when grinding, oats will lose about a quarter of their initial volume.
Step 2. Grind the oats in short intervals
You can use the blender, the food processor or any type of electric mixer (for example the "Magic Bullet"). In the absence of anything else you can also use the coffee grinder: the important thing is to clean it well before use to prevent the flour from absorbing the taste of the coffee. Grind the oats every 30 seconds until you get a fine powder. It must have a consistency very similar to that of 00 flour.
- Don't have a blender? There are many ways to obtain flour manually, but you have to take into account that it will take a little longer. You can try the following methods:
- It shreds flakes using the sharpest knife you have available. To make it quicker, place a handful of rolled oats on the cutting board and swing the blade back and forth. The flour will have a coarser consistency than normal, but will still be fine.
- Beat up the flakes in the mortar until you have reduced them to powder.
- Shatters the flakes by hand, crushing them as if you were washing clothes after having closed them in a food bag. This method takes time and elbow grease, so it's best to try the others first.
Step 3. Stir to loosen the grains stuck to the sides of the blender, then start blending again
It's not easy to tell if there are still whole flakes hidden in the flour, so remove the lid from the blender and mix it several times. Detach the beans still stuck to the walls, then turn the blender back on briefly.
Step 4. Use or store oatmeal
At this point the flour is ready to use and you can use it roughly as you would with ordinary oatmeal. If you need to keep some of it, use the same precautions you take with regular flour: put it in an airtight container and store it in a cool, dry place. Homemade oatmeal will last about 3 months if you keep it in the pantry. If you put it in the freezer instead, it will last up to 6 months.
- The duration is only estimated; you have to consider that oatmeal tends to go bad faster than whole flakes. The best thing to do is to grind only a small amount and use the flour within a few weeks.
- Heat and humidity shorten the shelf life of oatmeal. If you want it to last as long as possible, keep it in a cool, dry place.
Part 2 of 2: Using Oatmeal
Step 1. Use it for its mild taste
00 flour and oat flour have a similar taste; oatmeal has a very delicate toasted hazelnut aftertaste, so using oatmeal as a substitute for 00 in your recipes you won't notice a big difference in terms of flavor. In terms of texture, oatmeal makes baked goods slightly more chewy. These characteristics make it perfect for certain preparations and, in particular, for baked products that contain both sweet and savory notes.
- The classic example is oatmeal and raisin cookies that become truly irresistible when prepared with oatmeal.
- In most recipes, you will need to reduce the amount of flour by about ¼ if you decide to use oat flour instead of 00 flour. For example, if your favorite cookie recipe says to use 400 g of 00 flour, you will need to use 300 g. of oatmeal. This rule does not apply to leavened bread: gluten is necessary to give structure to the dough.
- If in doubt, you can mix the two flours. For example, instead of using 200 g of 00 flour, try using 3/4 of oat flour and 1/4 of 00 flour to ensure the benefits of gluten without consuming too much.
Step 2. Use oatmeal to reduce the amount of gluten in recipes
Nowadays, oatmeal is mainly used as a gluten-free alternative to ordinary flour. Since gluten is a naturally occurring protein in wheat, using oat flour instead of 00 generally eliminates the amount of gluten present in baked goods.
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Note:
the oat flakes that you can find on the market are not necessarily 100% gluten-free. In some cases, there may be small quantities of wheat inside the package (often because the same machinery is used to process both cereals). For people suffering from celiac disease or gluten intolerance it can be a danger, so check that the oat flakes have obtained the "gluten-free" product certification to protect people with celiac disease.
Step 3. Use oatmeal to give a softer texture to baked goods
Compared to 00 flour, the one obtained from oats is slightly less dense, so baked goods are a little softer than normal. You can use this feature to make extraordinarily soft muffins and cookies, but also to give a unique texture to products that are traditionally very compact, such as scones or soda bread.
- It is not necessary to completely replace the flour to achieve the desired effect. To make baked goods lighter without sacrificing the taste or texture typical of 00 flour, adopt a ratio of 1: 1, for example 100 g of oat flour and 100 g of 00 flour.
- Try using oatmeal when making scones for a fluffier version of these delicious buns that are perfect for serving for breakfast.
Step 4. Use it to flour food
Like ordinary flour, oatmeal can also be used to bread a wide variety of ingredients for frying. For example, if you want to bread meat, you can coat it with oatmeal before dipping it in egg and then in breadcrumbs. Also try sprinkling the bread with oatmeal before baking it, after letting it rise, so that a crunchy and appetizing crust forms during baking.
Another excellent idea is to use oatmeal when kneading bread dough to prevent it from sticking to your work surface. Thanks to its light consistency, you won't risk the dough hardening if you add too much
Step 5. Use oatmeal for its nutritional benefits
Oats are naturally high in protein, fiber, and help the body burn fat, so it's a healthy food not just for those who are gluten intolerant. Plus, it's lower in carbohydrates than most grains and helps you fight bad cholesterol, albeit marginally. Oatmeal is therefore an excellent choice that you can use in many recipes even if you are not intolerant to gluten.
Oatmeal is rich in magnesium, therefore it is a valuable aid for women in menopause and during the menstrual cycle. Magnesium deficiency is a common cause of heavy menstrual flow
Step 6. Finished
Advice
- In addition to the classic flour (00), there are many other specific ones for the different categories of recipes, for example flour for cakes, cakes and biscuits and that for bread or pizza. The main difference is the degree of strength of the flour and the amount of gluten it develops.
- Gluten is the protein that allows the dough of bread and baked goods to swell, becoming soft and elastic. Since oats do not contain gluten, if you use oat flour as a substitute for 00 flour, the dough will have a different texture than usual.
- A small percentage of celiac patients may develop a negative reaction to oats, even if it does not contain gluten. The reason is that during processing it may have been contaminated by other flours. This is why it is always better to check that it is a product with certification certifying the absence of gluten.
