How to Use Oat Flour in Gluten-Free Baking

Using oat flour in gluten-free baking requires knowing how to manage the substitution of gluten-free flour with traditional flour recipes. Substituting oat flour needs to be done properly to make sure you still have tasty recipes. This can be done by following these steps.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Locate a gluten-free cookbook or find recipes on the Internet that have already substituted oat flour with traditional wheat flour. A popular site is Ellen's Kitchen.

2. Study the recipe so you understand what is required of you to pull off a wonderful pastry, bread, biscuit or sponge cake with oat flour.

3. Purchase oat flour as fresh as you can possibly find it. Your favorite health food store carries it. Or, perhaps, your supermarket might carry the product, especially if you shop at a more specialized market or a whole foods market.

4. Realize gluten-free flours on the most part absorb more water than traditional flours and lack the vigor texture of typical gluten counterparts. Have that in mind while you apply oat flour to your recipes.

5. Mix the oat flour to the wet ingredients as gently as possible in the shortest amount of time. You want to take care and not work the carbon dioxide and oxygen from the oat flour.

6. Place the mixed ingredients in the oven as fast as possible, so as to get the most out of the rise in your oat flour.

Tips & Warnings

• To substitute oat flour with wheat flour use 1 to 1/3 cups for every 1 cup. You must experiment and test what works best in the substitution.
• Each flour acts differently in baking. Professional bakers have a recipe to substitute gluten in gluten-free flour. They use guar gum, xanthan gum or pre-gel starch. You can buy these products at your health food store.
• Here is the recipe professional bakers use to create a gluten effect in gluten-free flour: 2 cups oat flour 1/3 cup tapioca flour 2/3 cups potato starch 1 to 2 tsp. of xanthan gum

Resources

• Wheat Free Recipes

[ElbesMama]

on 1/12/2008 Caution: if the oat flour is processed where wheat flour is processed it is contaminated. The only safe oat flour is processed where wheat, rye and barley are not processed. When in doubt, ask.