Making homemade almond flour or gluten free oat flour is not only easy, it’s practical. There are some differences in the flours though, so study up on their properties for baking, as they are not simple 1:1 exchanges for wheat flour.
Both of these gluten free flours are higher in fat and protein than starches or even my all purpose flour blend, hence, they become rancid more quickly and should be refrigerated.
Making fresh almond flour or oatmeal flour for your recipes will ensure that you don’t waste flour that you cannot use quickly enough. These flours also tend to be pretty pricey, so I highly recommend making your own for that reason as well!
Almond flour or meal can be ground to different consistencies: flour is the finer ground version of almond meal. I prefer not to use blanched almonds for grinding (blanched almonds have the brown skins removed), since the skins contain a lot of nutrients and their added texture doesn’t bother me. If you want the finest flour you can get though, use blanched almonds as your base.
For gluten free oat flour, just be sure to select certified gluten free purity protocol rolled oats, like those I offer in my on-line store. For more on finding certified oats — as opposed to those oats sold by companies merely claiming to be gluten free — visit my article on shopping for safe gluten free products. Steel cut oats also don’t tend to grind into flour well, but if it’s all you have on hand, you can grind it to a coarse flour that will work in some recipes.
Both almond flour/meal and gluten free oat flour can be used to increase the nutritional value of gluten free baked goods (see my Gluten Free Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe!), and they can even be used with some success as a replacement for milk powder in many recipes.
These gluten free flours do add weight and density to recipes though, so they are not well-suited for delicate baking.
Homemade Almond Flour
Making your own fresh almond flour or meal is easy, economical and prevents waste from spoilage.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole almonds
Instructions
To make 1 Cup Almond Flour/Meal:
Measure out 1 cup of whole, unblanched almonds (may use blanched almonds, but since their skins are removed, they are less nutrient-dense). Place them into a clean coffee grinder, blender or food processor – depending on the size of your machine’s bowl, you may need to divide the almonds into two portions and process separately.
Cover with the lid and pulse, grinding the almonds into meal. (This recipe will work with a fine almond flour or a coarse almond meal). Be careful when grinding almonds or other nuts, as over-processing will quickly take flour/meal to nut butter! Stop processing when the almonds are ground to small chunks but not flour-like if you're making almond meal; keep processing to make almond flour.
Sift the meal to remove larger pieces, allowing the fine particles to settle into a separate bowl. Repeat until all the medium-large pieces are separated and processed until fine.
Measure out 1 cup of almond flour/meal and reserve any extra by placing in a zip-top bag and refrigerating for up to one month for use in another recipe.
Homemade Gluten Free Oat Flour
It couldn't be easier to make your own homemade gluten free oat flour! Choose the right (safe) purity protocol certified gluten free oats, and you're half-way there!
Ingredients
Instructions
To Make 1 Cup Gluten Free Oat Flour:
Measure out 1 cup of certified gluten free purity protocol oats. Place them in a clean coffee grinder, blender or food processor – depending on the size of your machine’s bowl, you may need to divide the oats into two portions and process separately.
Cover with the lid and pulse, grinding into a fine flour. Measure out 1 cup of oat flour and reserve the remaining in a small zip-top bag and refrigerating for up to one month for use in another recipe
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All oats are gluten free
Hi Holly, oats are indeed naturally gluten free, but they have been so contaminated with gluten grains that it’s important that they be grown, harvested, milled, packed, etc. in a dedicated gluten free environment in order to keep them gluten free. Thus, it’s recommended that those with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity only eat purity protocol, certified gluten free oats. I hope that helps!
~jules
Hi! If a recipe calls for oat flour, can you swap it with almond flour evenly? It seems like their weight is about the same…
Hi Melanie, great question! The weights are fairly close, but they absorb moisture at a different rate. Oat flour tends to need a bit more liquid in a recipe than does almond flour, so watch out for that — if you get crumbly recipes you’ll know to add more liquid!
~jules
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about gluten free oats.
Regards
The sticky cinnamon roll recipe calls for almond meal. Can almond flour be used instead? Tring to avoid a trip out before the holidays!
Thank you!
Hi Wendy, yes almond meal or flour would work. Enjoy!
If a recipe calls for almond flour, can Jules Gluten free be used instead? Do the amounts need to be adjusted?
Good question, Tricia! Almond flour is really quite different from regular flour, and usually when a recipe is written for 100% almond flour, there will need to be adjustments if using something else. If a recipe calls for a little bit of almond flour, plus some other flours, and you want to sub for that small amount of almond flour, it will probably work out. Almond flour has higher fat and moisture than does my Jules Flour, so the recipe probably accounted for that in proportions. If you want to use my flour instead, I would start by increasing the fats used and reducing the amount of flour. If you’ve made the recipe before, you may know what to expect as far as the batter or dough, but just know that almond flour tends to make a thicker batter than regular wheat flour or my Jules GF Flour. Hope these tips help!
Hi Jules!
That’s my nickname too.
I’m allergic to almonds. Can I process raw cashews or brazil nuts to substitute?
If not, what else might I sub with?
Thnak you!
I love your site. Just found it thanks to an amazon reviewer. I’m going to make beer burger buns! Maybe make them into onion rolls! yum!
Hi Julie/Jules
So glad you found my site! You can use alternative nuts but be careful because soft nuts like cashews can start turning to “cashew butter” rather quickly – there’s a fine line between well-chopped and butter with those soft, fatty nuts! I’m so glad you’re going to try the beer burger buns, and making them into onion rolls sounds FANTASTIC!!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on gluten free oats.
Regards
what is the differance between using your GF flour and Nearly Normal GF flour
Hi Barbara, in any of my early recipes calling for Nearly Normal Gluten-Free Flour, you can use my Jules Gluten Free Flour. The Jules flour is quite different in terms of ingredients and proportions, and it works wonderfully in all the recipes. Hope that helps!
We stumbled over here from a different web address and thought I
should check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to finding out about your web page yet again.
Do you use raw or roasted almonds to make the flour?
I’ve realized that making gluten free items are better than the packaged stuff. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing! I’ll definitely have to try this one out. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!