Acorn Bread

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup acorn meal
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 eggs, beaten or 1 egg substitute
• 1 cup milk (i use soy or rice milk- works fine)
• 3 tablespoons oil

Recipe

• 1 heat oven to 400 degrees.
• 2 grease a loaf pan.
• 3 sift together dry ingredients in a bowl.
• 4 in a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil.
• 5 combine dry and liquid ingredients.
• 6 stir just enough to moisten dry ingredients.
• 7 batter will be a bit lumpy.
• 8 pour into a greased pan, bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
• 9 acorns are very easy to use, similar to chestnuts.
• 10 first examine the acorns as you pick/gather them.
• 11 throw away any that are wormy/moldy/cracked/etc.
• 12 next, shell them.
• 13 early in the season (august-september) the shell is usually soft enough to cut through.
• 14 later in the season acorns may require a nut cracker, though many times the shells are rather thin and brittle.
• 15 taste the raw acorns- if they are bitter, they need to be boiled.
• 16 tannic acid causes the bitterness, and is easily leached out by boiling the acorns in successive pots of water.
• 17 when the water no longer turns brown (looks a lot like tea), the acorns are ready.
• 18 the next step is to roast the acorns slightly.
• 19 use a warm oven, no more than 250 degrees.
• 20 acorns that have not been boiled will take 60 minutes or so, boiled acorns will take longer.
• 21 once they're roasted, the acorns can be used in place of nuts in most recipes, although they are less oily than most nuts.
• 22 they can be glazed like chestnuts, simmered in a soup, ground and used as a flour extender.