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Wheat has gluten, and oats have avenin (which are similar proteins).
What is different about avenin that you can't substitute oat flour for wheat flour when baking cookies, breads, etc?

Glorfindel
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Regjohn1
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2 Answers2

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I don't know what you mean by avenin being "similar", but it doesn't behave like gluten at all. Oat flour behaves like any other gluten-free flour and is a poor substitute for wheat flour. You can only use it in recipes which are specifically engineered for gluten-free flours. If you try using it in recipes which rely on gluten, you will fail for certain.

It is somewhat interchangeable with some other gluten-free flours like chestnut or sorghum flour (also buckwheat if you don't need the flavor profile), but gluten-free recipes being fickle, you always run a risk of failure, unless you have a pretty forgiving recipe like crepes. It is not a good substitute for nut-based flours, and is a mealy, not waxy starch.

rumtscho
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  • Actually buckwheat can be pretty gluten-ish if you mix your dough and leave it overnight. I no longer need to do gluten-free baking but we still make buckwheat pancakes because we like the taste. – RedSonja Apr 12 '21 at 13:26
  • Yes, buckwheat pancakes are tasty. It turns out that most pancake and crepe recipes are very good with gluten-free flours, and you can mix and match the flour pretty interchangeably. I also have a teff pancake recipe, it is very nice if you are into that nutty flavor. – rumtscho Apr 12 '21 at 13:52
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I use gluten-free oat flour 1:1 with no xanthan gum or anything added and it works perfectly with cookies, brownies, and pancakes. I haven’t tried making bread yet, but chocolate chip cookies with oat flour are actually almost indistinguishable from the best homemade bleached wheat flour ones, and I’m one of the pickiest you’ll find when it comes to cookies. The proof is in the dozens of batches that have come out perfectly. If they’re a little flat, add half an egg and some baking soda.

Don’t believe the “you will fail for certain” douche. Use oat flour! It’s amazing!

Maya
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  • "If they’re a little flat, add half an egg and some baking soda." At this point, it's no longer a 1:1 substitution. You may have noticed that the OP also mentioned bread. So while "actually you can substitute 1:1" is at least a partial answer (to be complete, it'd want some explanation of why people mistakenly think you can't) and thus still all right to post on our Q&A site, it does seem even by your own admission not to be an entirely correct answer. – Cascabel Jun 26 '23 at 17:23