Estimated reading time: 22 minutes
The flour most people use for home baking is usually a flour type derived from wheat. There are variations from bread flour to all-purpose flour to whole wheat flour, but wheat is the common grain or seed that’s used.
Flour made from other types of grains includes rye flour, oat flour and even buckwheat flour and others. An interesting side note is that buckwheat flour is not made from a seed derived from a grass but from the flower of the buckwheat plant.
And that’s where other variations start to emerge including flour made from other types of seeds other than grass seeds like wheat to flour made from nuts and beans.
One of the distinct benefits of making your own flour beyond the cost savings is that whole seeds, nuts and beans have a longer shelf-life than any flour. That way you can store the whole seeds, nuts, and beans for the long-term and grind your flour as needed or store it short term.
If you think about it, all flour is made from seeds but their shapes and sources lead to different variations like nuts and beans and even corn cobs. We’re going to cover a wide variety of beans, nuts and seeds that can be ground into flour; some unique steps needed to make the various flours and a few recipes plus links for how to cook and bake with them.
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Strengths and Limitations of Some Flours
Flours are mostly used for baking although many are used as thickening agents in recipes or are sometimes combined to lend certain characteristics to a recipe. The assumption is that any flour can be made into a bread, but that’s not necessarily the best idea. That’s when alternatives like muffins, cakes, pancakes and flatbreads become a better recipe option.
A good example is almond flour. Most recommendations include the addition of a traditional wheat flour to almond flour if baking a bread or any kind of recipe that includes yeast. If all you have is a flour made from an obscure seed or grain; nut or bean you should think more about muffins and pancakes rather than a few fails at bread making.
Flour Grinding 101
There are a few options for grinding flour. There are mechanical, hand-cranked flour mills, electric powered grain mills and you could even use a food processor, or a coffee grinder for small batches. What’s important to understand is that some seeds, nuts and beans need a bit of prep before grinding.
Nuts in particular can be challenging. Many nuts like almonds and peanuts have a high oil content and instead of flour you could find yourself with a batch of nut butter.
There’s nothing wrong with a nice batch of almond butter but not if you’re trying to make almond flour.
And in the case of beans, some can still contain some level of moisture especially if harvested from your garden and even if they appear to be dry in the bag. Beans stored out of a bag and exposed to open air also have the potential to absorb moisture, so some prep is worth considering if you end up with a bean mush.
There are a few of ways to get around the high natural oil content or moisture in some nuts and beans.
- Using a hand-cranked flour mill reduces the chance of a nut butter forming because of the reduced friction and heat that can release the oils.
- Freezing them overnight can reduce the effect of oils on grinding or milling but if using a food processor you may need to pulse frequently to avoid creating too much friction.
- Roasting some nuts and beans at 170 degrees F. for a couple of hours can also minimize the presence of oils or moisture.
- Dehydrating nuts and beans for a couple of hours can also help.
It’s not necessary to do this with every seed, nut or bean you grind into flour and we’ll identify the best milling approach and prep as we list the possibilities.
From Coarse Grind to a Ground Meal to Flour
The good news is that many seeds can be ground directly into flour in one step. The bad news is that some nuts and especially beans need to be processed in steps.
The first step with some nuts and most beans is to reduce them to a coarse grind. In some instances, particularly with nuts, they can then be ground into flour. Beans require an extra step reducing the coarse grind to a finer grind or meal before reducing to a powdery flour.
We’ll identify which steps are necessary as we cover the seeds, nuts and beans.
Seeds that Can Be Ground into Flour
On a fundamental level, any kind of seed can be ground into a flour but some are better than others. What sets them apart is not only taste and relative safety (some plants and their seeds are toxic), but whether or not it contains gluten. For the most part, nuts and beans are gluten-free but the seeds vary widely. Some are high gluten, other have less gluten and some are gluten-free.
Gluten has gotten a bad name but it’s actually a protein and it’s the primary thing that causes yeast to rise. We’ll go over both gluten and gluten-free variations and make special note of each as we list them. We’ll also cover some steps and links to help a bread to rise when it’s gluten-free.
The Seeds
Wheat Berries
Wheat berries are grains of wheat and the primary source for most flours and we mention them here because they are a standard choice and way of storing wheat long term. Whole berries keep better than most flours and they’re easily ground into flour.
Wheat berries are generally high in gluten. Wheat berries are also high in carbohydrates. Home milling can be done with any type of flour grinder and it’s usually a one-step process going straight from the wheat grains to flour.
The result is a whole-wheat flour which is excellent for all baking including breads.
Rye Grains
Rye grains lead to rye flour which often leads to rye bread. Rye bread is an
Eastern European invention mostly because of the widespread growth and appearance of rye grass across the region.
Rye flour is also high in gluten which is one of the reasons rye bread is so popular. Rye flour has about the same amount of carbs as wheat flour but it has more fiber which helps to moderate the carb load.
Oat Grains
Oat flour was common during our pioneer days because oat groats could be multi-purposed in so many forms including flour. Oats are gluten-free but very high in carbohydrates so if you’re tracking your carbs it’s not a first choice.
Oat flour is more nutritionally dense than wheat flour but its lack of gluten makes it a poor choice for bread baking unless combined with a flour high in gluten. It’s best used for cookies, pie crusts, muffins and as a thickening agent in soups and stews.
Barley Grains
Barley is another pioneer grain and is high in gluten although it is relatively low in carbs and is high in fiber. It’s nutritionally dense and is often used in breads, muffins, quick-breads and cookies.
Spelt Seeds
Spelt has a very high gluten content and is often used as a flour substitute. However, it is relatively low in carbohydrates and very high in fiber. It is another option for traditional wheat flours and is used for all types of recipes in baking from breads to pancakes.
Amaranth Seeds
Amaranth is another ancient grain and was very popular with Native Americans. It still grows in the wild and the purple or beige seeds show up profusely on drooping spears that top the plants.
Amaranth is also gluten-free but like so many grains, high in carbohydrates. Popular Amaranth recipes include tortillas and other flatbreads, cookies, crackers, pie crusts and when blended with high gluten flours –bread.
Quinoa Seeds
Quinoa is an ancient grain that has emerged as a fad food and that’s a good thing. It’s another gluten-free grain that’s high in protein so it can also make a good gluten-free bread in addition to the standard roll call of cookies, pancakes, flatbreads and muffins. Like many other grains it is high in carbs on a par with white rice.
Speaking of rice…
Rice
Yes, rice is a seed and rice flour is one of the more popular gluten-free flours. It is high carb and white rice is lower in protein than brown rice, but both can be ground into flour to make flatbreads, cookies, muffins and even things like rice noodles.
Rice flour doesn’t make the best bread but they make a surprising variety of recipes possible particularly for Asian cuisines.
Buckwheat Seeds
It may have “wheat” in the name but it has nothing to do with wheat. Buckwheat seeds emerge in the blooms of the buckwheat flower and are another pioneer favorite. Buckwheat is gluten-free but again high in carbs which are also offset but high amounts of fiber.
Buckwheat pancakes and waffles are a traditional favorite in addition to a range of muffins, batter breads and flatbreads.
Flax Seeds
Flax seeds are another high protein choice in the seed category and are not only high in fiber but low in carbs. It has emerged as a nutrient champ in modern diets.
Flaxseed flour is a common substitute for other flours that are either high in gluten or carbs. Surprisingly, flaxseed flour makes a great bread in addition to a range of recipes from pancakes to waffles, flatbreads, muffins and the list goes on.
Millet Seeds
Millet seeds. They’re not just for birds anymore. Millet is another ancient grain and is easy to grow. The seeds are easily made into flour in any type of mill or food processor assuming they’re sufficiently dry.
Millet is gluten-free and very low in carbohydrates. Millet flour is most commonly used for making muffins, pancakes and waffles, pie crusts and other baked recipes that don’t require rising from yeast like traditional breads. There are also batter bread recipes using millet flour.
Corn
Finally there’s corn to round out the seed category. Corn is indigenous to the Americas and has been used for centuries to make corn meal (polenta) and corn flour (masa harina). It’s milled with a two step process that first involves cracking the corn to a coarse grind and then reducing it to a meal (which is often used in recipes), before proceeding to the final step to reduce the meal to a flour.
The recipes are broad across a wide range from cornbreads to cornpone, Johnny cakes, corn tortillas, as a thickener for soups and stews, breading and pie crusts.
Nuts that Can Be Ground into Flour
You can buy many nut flours at the store or online but it’s easy and less expensive to make your own. It’s also worth noting that all nuts are gluten-free so any flour made from nuts is best used for recipes that don’t require rising with yeast.
Baking powder and/or baking soda are the most common leavening agents used to help muffins, cakes, batter breads and other recipes rise while baking, and is a standard recipe ingredient with most nut flour recipes.
The big caution when making a nut flour is to avoid turning the nuts into a nut butter. One way to do this is to use a hand-cranked mill or electric mill on a low speed. The friction from any blades or surfaces is what causes the oils in nuts to bind into a nut butter rather than breaking into a nut flour.
Another way to avoid a nut butter is to roast or dry the nuts before processing. A dehydrator, oven or even the sun can be used to dry out the nuts. This is usually done with very oily nuts like almonds, peanuts and cashews although all nuts have a certain percentage of natural oils.
And finally, freezing nuts before grinding or milling can help reduce the potential release of oils from friction and heat especially when using a food processor or coffee mill for processing.
A two step process also helps with the first step dedicated to reducing the nuts to a coarse grind or even to a meal, with the final step reducing the coarse grind or nut meal to a flour. What’s important is to work slowly and create as little friction as possible. If all you have for flour milling is a food processor, pulsing dehydrated, frozen or roasted nuts is a good idea. A blender can also work.
The Nuts
Just about all nuts can be milled into flour from pine nuts to filberts, hazelnuts and macadamias. They are all gluten-free and even though somewhat high in carbs, their high fiber content compensate making them a low carb option.
Nuts are also very high in protein and that’s one of the reasons nut flours are so popular. Here are the most popular nuts turned into nut flour and some notes and recipe uses for each one.
Almonds
Almond flour is one of the most commonly used nut flours. Almond nuts need to be either dehydrated a bit, roasted or frozen, or all of the above to contain the oils and get a finely ground flour.
Almond flour can be used in all types of baking recipes although it’s generally recommended that a flour with gluten be added to any bread recipe if making a yeast bread.
Cashews
Cashew flour doesn’t show up as much as almond flour in stores but can also make an excellent flour for baking. Cashews are very high in oils so some level of dehydrating, roasting and freezing is a wise move when making cashew flour.
Cashew flour shows up mostly in recipes for cookies, cakes, muffins, pancakes and waffles. It is also added as an ingredient to some yeast bread recipes and can be used alone for a batter bread.
Walnuts
Walnuts are very high in protein and also high in oils so they should be prepped either through dehydrating, roasting or freezing. Walnut flour is often used for cakes, muffins, cookies and as an added ingredient to traditional flours for yeast breads.
Pecans
Pecans are very similar to walnuts in terms of all characteristics and the flour is used for the same range of recipes mostly in the cookie, cake, and batter bread category.
Coconut
Coconut flour is another popular flour you can find in stores and online. The white pulp or meat of the coconut is used and coconuts are both very moist and oily so they need to be prepped before milling. It’s a bit complex so here’s a link with photos and videos that shows you the process: How to Make Coconut Flour.
Coconut flour is also gluten-free and although high in carbs they are complex carbs also offset by significant amounts of fiber. Coconut flour is not surprisingly used in many dessert recipes from cookies to cakes to batter breads.
Beans that Can Be Ground into Flour
Beans have really emerged as a wheat flour substitute with the advent of the Keto and Vegan diets. They are low to no carb and very high in protein. Better yet, many of them easily turn to flour and the recipes using bean flour range from bread to muffins, doughnuts and especially as a thickener for soups and stews. (Although any flour can be used as a thickener).
Chickpea flour (garbanzo beans) is probably the most widely sold and used bean flour but a surprising number of other beans can be milled into flour.
Once again, there are some preliminary steps before flour grinding. If you picked the beans from your garden you may want to put them into your food dehydrator or a 170 degree oven for 3 to 4 hours. The key is to drive out the moisture so you get a dry, powdery flour.
Beans bought from the store in bags are usually sufficiently dry for flour milling, but there’s another preliminary step –coarse grinding.
Coarse grinding breaks the beans down into small chunks just above the definition of a “meal” texture. This bean meal can now easily be ground into flour either a grain mill or food processor. If you notice the bean meal clumping that’s a good sign that there’s excess moisture in the bean and an hour or two on a tray in the oven or dehydrator should sufficiently dry them.
The Beans
We’re assuming all beans are sufficiently dry. In terms of quantity you can figure you’ll get more than a cup of bean flour from one cup of beans. Typically you’ll yield 1/3 to 1/4 cup more from one cup of beans. So if you’re grinding and milling navy beans figure a cup of dried navy beans will give you 1 ¼ cups of navy bean flour from that 1 cup of navy beans.
All beans are naturally gluten-free, usually very high in protein and typically high in carbohydrates especially chickpeas. The good news is they are also high in fiber which offsets the carbs to a large degree.
Black Beans
Black beans are a protein champ and recipes range from savory options like black bean flour tortillas and snack chips to sweet possibilities like black bean flour brownies, muffins and cookies.
Garbanzo Beans (chickpea)
Chickpeas are made into the most common bean flour you can find in stores and online. It’s another protein champ and is often used in recipes for fritters, pizza crust, crepes and pancakes, batter breads and as a breading to add a protein component to fried vegetables.
Pinto Beans
Pinto beans tend to be one of the least expensive beans and can be used for any type of bean flour recipe.
Peas
Pea flour is often used as a base ingredient for pea soups but also shows up in cookie and muffin recipes but typically favors more savory recipes like frittatas, pea flour tortillas and even pea flour waffles.
Packaging and Storing Your Homemade Flours
Freshly ground flours sometimes have relatively short shelf-lives measured in weeks to a couple of months. If you want to store any type of flour long-term it’s best to store the whole seeds (wheat berries), the whole nuts or whole, dried beans and grind or mill them into flour as needed.
They are also best if refrigerated or even frozen. That’s particularly true for nut flours that may still retain some degree of natural oils and can turn rancid over time if not kept cold.
Pantry storage is always a possibility but make sure you date any package or container and keep an eye on the dates. If your homemade flour looks bad, smells bad or tastes bad –toss it.
Seed, nut and bean flours can be vacuum sealed, stored in zip-lock freezer or storage bags, or kept in containers. Large Mason jars are another option especially if you’re storing your flour in a cool, dark pantry.
Recipe Concepts and Links
Here are more links to a lot of basic information about making flour from seeds, nuts and beans and how to use it in recipes.
- How to Make Homemade Flour (3 Steps)
- How to Make Your Own Flour in a Blender
- How To Make Nut Flour [Almond, Cashew + Hazelnut Flour]
- Making Homemade Bean Flour: Plus Recipes Using It
- Homemade Almond Flour in the Food Processor!
- How to Make Almond Flour in the Blender
Experiment
The more you make your own flour the better you’ll understand the nuances of how to process different types of seeds, nuts and beans into flour. You could even try blending multiple seeds, nuts and beans to make a blended flour specific to recipes or your diet. It’s a great way to save money and gives you a great skill for long-term preparedness and self-reliance.
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