Not Your Mom's Oatmeal

• Oat flour differs from whole-grain oats used for oatmeal because it has been ground into a finer substance than the original grain. Among its advantages, oat flour has a fairly high protein content of 17 percent, making it one of the most nutritious of grain flours. Baked goods made with oat flour are more moist and chewy, but also more crumbly. For all its delicate nature, oat flour combines well with fruits, nuts and chocolate in quick breads and cookies, but still only as part of the recipe.

No Gluten Here

• Oat flour differs most from wheat flour in its gluten content -- it has none. For all its high-protein content, oat flour lacks the necessary proteins that wheat has to make gluten. This is why oat flour can't be used alone, even when making "oat bread," because it doesn't have the necessary building block to create structure in dough or batter. Instead, oat flour can be substituted for no more than one-third of wheat flour in baked goods. Without essential gluten, a baked good made with oat flour alone would be mushy and inedible.

A Balancing Act

• Oat flour's lack of gluten becomes critical when making bread. Some recipes suggest replacing no more than a quarter of the wheat flour in yeast bread with oat flour, and then increasing the amount of yeast to spur the wheat to make more gluten. These substitutions can take a few tries to get the right balance of oat to wheat and yeast.

Gluten Contamination

• Despite its lack of gluten, oat flour ironically has been controversial as a food for gluten-free diets. Cross-contamination with gluten from wheat has been found in more tradition oat products such as oatmeal cereal. In response, producers have separated their oat production from wheat production to assure that oat flour is truly gluten-free and safe for eating by people with gluten sensitivities such as celiac disease. Baking only with "certified gluten free" oat flour can reduce the likelihood of allergic reactions in those with sensitivities.