Oat flour is an excellent substitute for traditional flour in a lot of recipes. Many professionals say that oat flour can help you feel fuller for longer, lower your risk of heart disease, and help stabilize your blood pressure.
If you’ve ever been browsing the flour aisle in the grocery store, you may have noticed that the price of oat flour is much pricier than purchasing a container of old-fashioned oats.
If you buy a container of oats, it’s straightforward to make oat flour at home. Your coffee grinder does a stand-up job at grinding your coffee beans into a fine powder, so can it grind oats the same way?
You Can Make Oat Flour With Your Coffee Grinder
You can use your coffee grinder to make oat flour at home, as long as you have the right kind of coffee grinder. Most coffee grinders use burrs rather than blades to grind the coffee beans.
If you have a coffee grinder with blades, it can be an easy tool to make oat flour at home. Now, if your coffee grinder has burrs, you probably still can grind oats in the coffee grinder, but it’s not as easy and may have a negative effect on the burrs at some point.
How Will Grinding Oats Affect the Coffee Grinder?
Grinding oats in a coffee grinder shouldn’t have a negative effect on the grinder. Many people use blenders or food processors to make oat flour at home, so if you’re using a coffee grinder with a blade, you shouldn’t have any issues.
Some people have reported that grinding oats in their coffee grinder that has burrs has damaged the burrs. It doesn’t mean this will happen right away or at all, but there is the possibility.
Will it Affect the Taste of the Coffee if Used to Grind Coffee Beans Later on?
Dried oats don’t have a strong flavor, unlike when they’re made into oatmeal. They do have a subtle flavor, but coffee beans are more robust.
If you spend some time grinding oats in your coffee grinder and then grind coffee beans right after, your coffee will more than likely taste exactly like coffee.
To avoid any potential flavor contamination, it’s best to clean out your coffee grinder when switching between ingredients. The best way to clean your coffee grinder is to put a quarter cup of rice in the grinder and grind it up.
Once the rice has been ground, remove all the rice powder. The rice will absorb any oils or flavors that the oats may have left behind.
How to Grind Oats in a Coffee Grinder
So how do you grind oats in your coffee grinder? The good news is that it’s relatively easy to do. When you’re making oat flour with a coffee grinder, the main thing to remember is that you don’t want to overload the grinder.
The best thing you can do is to start with a half cup of old-fashioned oats or steel-rolled oats. Once you’ve measured out a half cup, add the oats to your grinder. All you have to do after that is to start grinding. You’ll want to keep grinding the oats until the consistency is very fine, like flour.
You may be able to use other types of oats in your coffee grinder, but old-fashioned and steel-cut are going to be your best bet.
Pros to Grinding Oats in a Coffee Grinder
One of the most significant benefits of using your coffee grinder to grind oats is that you’ll save a lot of money buying oat flour. Depending on the coffee grinder that you own, it may even be faster to grind the oats in your coffee grinder than a food processor or blender.
Another benefit of using your coffee grinder is that you can use your beloved grinder for more than just coffee.
Cons to Grinding Oats in a Coffee Grinder
If you have a burr coffee grinder, grinding oats may not be the best idea. As we’ve mentioned before, the only way to prevent any flavor contamination is to wash the grinder after switching between ingredients.
For those of you who aren’t interested in cleaning your grinder as often, you may not like using your coffee grinder for anything but coffee beans.
Possible Alternatives
If you don’t want to bother attempting to grind your oats in a coffee grinder, there are other options you can consider.
Use a Food Processor
A coffee grinder will do in a pinch to grind your oats into flour, but this may be easier if you have a food processor at home. You can grind a lot more oats at once, and it may even take less time than if you used a coffee grinder.
If you don’t have one on hand, these kitchen tools are relatively cheap in most stores and online. One thing you’ll want to keep in mind if you’re using a food processor to grind oats is that you may have to sift the flour a few times to remove any larger pieces that aren’t grinding as well.
Purchase Oat Flour From Your Local Store
While it’s more than likely cheaper to grind your own oat flour at home, an alternative to putting them in your coffee grinder is to purchase oat flour from the store. It may not be an ideal alternative, but when you need oat flour quickly and don’t want to use your coffee grinder, it’s a solid choice.
Use a High-Speed Blender
Another fantastic appliance that can grind oats for you is a high-speed blender. You can grind a lot more oats in a blender than you can in a coffee grinder. You’ll also be able to monitor the consistency better since the blender’s body is see-through. Using a blender to grind oats is similar to grinding them in a food processor because you may want to sift the flour a bit to make sure all the larger chunks are taken out.
