Covid 19 coronavirus: How to make your own flour in lockdown

A US mother shared her recipe for flour made from oats. Photo / YouTube

As people all over the world struggle to find essentials during the Covid-19 pandemic, a US mother has revealed how to make an alternative to flour in just minutes.

Blogger and writer Laura Fuentes shared the secret on her recipe blog Momables.

She demonstrated that it takes less than a minute to turn one cup of oats into a cup of flour in a blender or food processor - and it's gluten-free.

"Get some oats, add them into the food processor, and turn it on to blend until you have a fine powder like consistency," she told viewers.

To replace flour, simply process the oats in a blender and use as normal. Photo / YouTube

"The best part is that there's not a lot of conversion needed - if you're using one cup of oats you will get approximately one cup of oat flour.

"To store it, seal it in a zip bag or the flour will go stale pretty fast. It will last you three months in the pantry."

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She revealed that it can be used to make anything from cakes to porridge to bread.

"Typically oat flour can be substituted for regular wheat or flour in a recipe in the same amount, one cup oat flour equals one cup regular wheat flour.

"This is especially true for recipes made for whole-wheat recipes, say, whole-wheat muffins etc."

A Kiwi commenting on her post wrote: "This just dawned on me – I googled making oat flour. Thank you for this information. I am ready to try it, and hoping I can buy more oats if I can't buy flour and bread in the supermarket.

"New Zealand has buyouts of bread and flour too!! If you are not in the shop at the time shelves are filled you need to go back, and who wants to do that just now with Covid 19 around!! keep safe."

Another American commented: "I thought I had a 10 lb bag of flour in the pantry. Walmart doesn't have any left. But I have lots and lots of oats!!! Thank goodness!"

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website