Cheap Whole-Grain Flour for Bakers

I love to bake.  And I love whole grain flour.  But, I'm tired of paying $5.00 plus for a healthy product.  So, I decided to make my own flour, and I thought I'd share.

Oatmeal is a cheap grain.  I can buy a 2.5 lb tub of oatmeal for less than $2.00. So, I used my coffee grinder to grind it up, and it turned out as fine as the flour I'd been paying a lot more for!  (I could have used my food processor as well, but I was too lazy to get it out).  I'm making pizza dough right now.

If any other bakers have some thrifty ideas, I'd love to hear them!

That sounds like a good idea, but you should be sure to pay attention to the gluten content of the grain you're grinding! Oatmeal is gluten free, so if you're not mixing that with something like wheat, or adding gluten, you're going to run into trouble ;)

whole grain has very little gluten also, so it has to be mixed to get a good dough out of it. I have been mixing my bread flour with AP and whole wheat, so i get some of everything lol... n then i add a bit of wheat grearm or ground oatmeal to it to get the added fiber and taste/texture... its been comming out really good!... oh n cornmeal is fabulous in breads!

i did this on my own a few weeks ago... but i split the oatmeal flour 50/50 with the white flour i already had... and it turned out fabulous.   i like making breads and have found that i can chop various nuts up finly in the grinder and that is a great additif too