Oat flakes rewards a little know-how: how to choose them, cook them, store them, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 13 recipes to cook with them.

What are oat flakes?

Oat flakes are oat groats that have been steamed soft and pressed flat between rollers, the same product most kitchens call rolled oats or old-fashioned oats. The steaming pre-cooks them, and the rolling gives each flake the broad surface that lets it cook quickly and soak up liquid.

Out of the bag they smell mild and faintly sweet. Cooked, they turn creamy and tender while keeping a little chew, which is why they carry both a breakfast bowl and a tray of cookies.

The flakes vary in thickness, and that thickness is what decides how they behave in a recipe.

How to Use Oat Flakes

For porridge, simmer 1 part flakes to about 2 parts water or milk for 5 minutes, stirring, until creamy. The thinner the flake, the faster and softer it cooks.

In baking they add chew and a nutty, wholesome edge. They are the backbone of cookies like Oatmeal Scotchies and Apricot Raisin Cookies, the crunch in granola such as Jim's Granola, and the streusel-style top on Almond-Peach Crumble.

They also stretch and bind. Stirred into High Fibre Banana-Oat Bread they add fiber and structure, and folded into burgers, meatballs or veggie patties they soak up moisture and hold the mix together.

For a quick breakfast with no cooking, soak the flakes overnight in milk or yogurt to make Bircher muesli or overnight oats.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Oats have a wide circle of friends: brown sugar, honey, maple, cinnamon, banana, apple, raisins, dried cherries, and toasted nuts like almonds and pecans. A pinch of salt wakes all of it up.

The most common baking mistake is swapping flakes for quick oats or instant oats one for one. Quick oats are thinner and absorb more liquid, so cookies spread less and bars turn dense and dry. Reach for old-fashioned flakes when a recipe wants chew.

The second is undersalting porridge. Plain oats taste flat and pasty, and even a small pinch of salt cooked in turns it round and savory-sweet.

What to Use Instead

Quick-cooking oats are the closest swap, just thinner and softer; they work in most recipes but give up some texture, so expect a less chewy result. Steel-cut oats are not interchangeable, since they need far longer cooking and stay firm.

To make oat flour, simply blitz oat flakes in a blender until powdery. For a non-oat stand-in in granola or crumble, flaked barley, rye or spelt give a similar chew, though only oats are reliably gluten-free, and only when the label says so.

Buying and Storing Oat Flakes

Look for them in the cereal or baking aisle as rolled oats or old-fashioned oats; thick or jumbo flakes give the most texture. If you avoid gluten, buy oats marked certified gluten-free, since regular oats are often cross-contaminated with wheat.

Oats hold some natural oil, so they go rancid eventually rather than lasting forever. Keep them in an airtight container somewhere cool and dark, where they stay fresh for several months.

For long storage the freezer extends that well past a year with no loss of quality. If the flakes smell sharp, bitter or like old paint, the oils have turned and they should go.

Quick facts

In Chinese

燕麦片

British (UK) term

Oat flakes

en français

flocons d'avoine

en español

copos de avena

Recipes using oat flakes

There are 13 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 13 recipes