Oat flour are a substitute for all-purpose flour and can be use in many different baking recipe. You can use oat flour as a replacement for all-purpose flour if you dont have access to all-purpose flour. However, in order to use oat flour in place of all-purpose flour, you must understand the difference between the two and how they interacts with recipes.
Oat flour is more lighter than all-purpose flour. Therefore, one cup of oat flour do not weigh the same as one cup of all-purpose flour. In order to ensure that the ingredient listed in your recipe are weighed correctly, you should use a kitchen scale to weigh out the required amount of oat flour.
Using Oat Flour Instead of All-Purpose Flour
Because oat flour does not contain gluten, it does not have the same ability as all-purpose flour to retain air and stretch. Baked goods that contain oat flour will have a soft texture than those that use all-purpose flour. This soft texture can be beneficial in baked goods such as muffin but can pose a problem for other types of baked goods.
For cookies, the ratio of oat flour to all-purpose flour is 1:1 by weight. Additionally, you must add an extra egg yolk to the cookie dough. The fat and lecithin in the egg yolk help to mimic the effect of gluten.
For muffin recipes, not only must you increase the amount of milk in the recipe and add an additional egg to the batter, but the batter must rest for approximately thirty minute. This resting period allow the oats in the batter to hydrate completely. If the oats are not hydrate when baking, the muffins may contain dry spots or gummy portions.
Therefore, allowing the batter to rest is a necessary step in the baking process. Baked goods such as banana bread or zucchini bread can use a mixture of oat flour and all-purpose flour. Baking recipes that use both flours blend three-quarters of a cup of oat flour with one-quarter of a cup of all-purpose flour.
Additionally, you can add yogurt as an ingredient for moisture, as well as xanthan gum to act as a binder in the recipe. Xanthan gum will bind the ingredients together since oat flour do not contain gluten. For brownies, there is no need to add extra liquid if oat flour is use in the mixture.
However, adding an extra egg yolk and allowing the batter to rest is beneficial for those baking with oat flour. For both scone and biscuits, using oat flour can be problematic. Therefore, partial substitution of oat flour and all-purpose flour is the best choice.
Additionally, you can add cream or buttermilk to the dough because oat flour absorb liquids slowly. Oat flour contains soluble fiber, which help with sugar spike in the body and adds moisture to baked goods. To make your own oat flour, place rolled oats into a blender.
Blend the rolled oats until they become a fine powder. Sifting the oat flour will ensure that there are no large chunk of oats in the flour. Store oat flour in the refrigerator because oat flour contains natural oils that can become rancid if stored in warm location.
Baked goods that contain oat flour are not suitable for items like yeast bread or laminated pastry. These baked goods contain yeast that require the elasticity provided by gluten in all-purpose flour. Without the gluten in oat flour, these baked goods will be dense and flat when baked.
Therefore, baked goods that require elasticity should not use oat flour. Additionally, if you use oat flour, you may want to consider add ingredients like butter to the recipe. The fat in the butter will coat the oat flour particle so that they do not absorb too much of the liquid in the recipe.
In order to use oat flour successfuly, you must make three main adjustment to the recipe. First, you must add binder to replace the gluten content of all-purpose flour. Second, you must adjust the liquid level in the recipe because oat flour absorb liquid different than all-purpose flour.
Third, the batter must rest so that the oats in the recipe can be properly hydrate. If you do not use a kitchen scale to weigh the oat flour, you may add too much or to little of the ingredient to the recipe. This can alter the hydration process needed for the recipe.
Additionally, if you do not allow the batter to rest, the baked goods may be dry on the top but warm and moist on the middle portion of the baked good.