Oat Lover
Alright, I’m obsessed. It started with the oatmeal cookies. Then I got into it with the granola, every Monday fiddling around with oats and a bunch of other stuff to try and concoct the perfect crunchy combination. Then, on the quest for alternative flours, I was stopped in the aisle by an unassuming bag of oat flour.
Oat flour, sometimes called oat “flakes,” is simply ground up rolled oats. In fact, you can make your own oat flour by grinding rolled oats in a blender or food processor to a fine meal. Oat flour has all the same life-saving properties as the whole oat. High in soluble fiber and gluten-free, it is a terrific alternative to wheat flour and can almost always be substituted for regular flour in breads, pancakes, biscuits, scones and other baked goods. Plus, since we can grind our own, it won’t mean an extra trip to the market.
Baking with oat flour is also a great way to get some oats into the oatmeal-haters in your life, unknowing fellows who know not the pleasure of a steamy, filling bowl on that coldest of winter mornings. Now we can offer these fried chicken-n-biscuit types something good, and good for them, and they’ll never know the difference.
Saving lives, one alternative-flour laden baked good at a time.
Oat Flour Biscuits
2 cups oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/3 cup shortening (preferably a non-hydrogenated brand like Spectrum)
1/4 cup milk or soy milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, work the shortening through the dry mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. Slowly stir in the milk until you have a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a disc, about a half-inch thick. Using a two-inch circle cutter, cut out biscuits and transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gather up the leftover dough, working it as little as possible, and cut out as many more biscuits as you can. Bake about 15 minutes until golden. Serve warm. Makes 8-10 biscuits.
