Recipe: Homemade Oat Flour and Pancakes

I'm not gluten intolerant (as far as I know) but I do have an intolerance to both wheat and corn. When I was first diagnosed, back in grade school, my parents cut them both out of my diet. Over time, we phased them back in (on the advice of my allergist) and things seemed fine.

Recently, though, I've started having allergy problems again, so I'm cutting wheat and corn back out of my diet. As I start to explore wheat-alternative recipes and foods, I'd like to share my findings with you. Many of these will be gluten-free and safe for people with celiac disease. Others won't. Remember, wheat-free and gluten-free are not the same.

What can I do with these delicious looking things?

The process for making oat flour is extremely simple (which is probably why about a million other people came up with it before I did). Go to the store and pick up some rolled oats. I bought mine from the bulk bins at Whole Foods for about $1.35/lb.

If you are gluten intolerant, please be aware that while oats do not contain gluten, they can sometimes be cross-contaminated with gluten from nearby wheat or rye crops. If you are hyper-sensitive to even small amounts of gluten, be sure to purchase certified gluten-free oats.

Next, get out your food processor. If you don't have one, a blender should work as well. I actually used a coffee grinder for my first test batch because I didn't feel like dragging the food processor out. Those things are heavy!

Ok, are you following? Alright. Put the oats in the food processor/blender/coffee grinder and process/blend/grind them. My coffee grinder batch took about 30 seconds. You'll know it's done when your oatmeal has turned into flour.

Annnnnd... done! Homemade wheat-free, gluten-free flour.


Now, if you're like me, you're probably anxious to try this stuff out and see how it is. Am I right?

Wheat-Free Oat Pancakes

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1  tablespoon milk, plus more if needed
• 1/3 cup oat flour
• Dash of salt

 Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Break egg into dry ingredients and immediately add milk as well. Mix thoroughly and quickly with a fork (do not over-mix). Oat flour can absorb a lot more liquid than wheat flour can, so it may be necessary to add extra milk to get the right consistency. Pancake batter should be smooth, creamy, thick, and liquid enough to pour out of the bowl but not watery.

On a hot pan or griddle, melt a little butter. Pour pancake batter into pan. Unlike wheat pancakes, oat pancakes won't necessarily bubble up in the middle when they're ready to flip, so check them frequently.

Flip when browned on one side, brown evenly on the other side, and serve immediately with a little maple syrup.

I found the texture of these pancakes to be very similar to the ones I used to make from wheat flour. The oat flour, being a whole-grain flour, was slightly grittier to the touch, which does come through a little bit in the pancake, but not much. The flavor was very slightly nuttier, but was surprisingly close to the flavor of a wheat pancake. I ground the flour fresh in our coffee grinder so I wouldn't have any extra to have to store later.