Fabulous Food Finds: Oat Flour

Since I have started trying to make more gluten-free recipes, namely baked goods, I thought I was doomed to need to use commercial gluten-free baking mixes that have all kinds of additives yet were devoid of whole grains and fiber. That was until I discovered oat flour. Bob’s Red Mill has a gluten-free variety (or you can make your own by grinding up oats in the food processor). 1/3 cup has 160 calories, 3 grams of (mostly unsaturated healthy) fat, NO sodium, 26 grams of whole grain carb, 4 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein. I was impressed by these stats so I thought I’d give it a try, while hoping the taste of my recipes would not suffer. The results? Surprisingly successful! I have actually read that oat flour can replace all purpose flour 1:1 in some recipes and I have had success in sub-ing it in for whole wheat flour in my Autumn Apple Cake, Ginger Pear Cake and Apple Crumble recipes. I have also used it in my Pumpkin Spice Cake, Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies, Carrot Cake Macaroon and White Chocolate Walnut Cookies recipes with a great result as well. Still wanting to try working with coconut flour and almond meal too so if and when I do I’ll be sure to post any good recipes I come up with!