No Adornment Needed

As it was a mast year last year, I processed several cups of acorn flour in the fall. I am starting to get worried that the flour might get rancid, so this morning I decided to finally make acorn pancakes using THIS recipe. 

I used 1/4 cup almond flour and 1/2 cup white flour for the white flour part, and 1/2 cup almond milk with the rest water for the milk part. 

The pancakes turned out so wonderful that they didn’t even need any sort of topping. The sugar in the batter made them sweet enough to leave off any syrup, preserves, or honey and the flavor was rich enough that there was no need for cheese or yogurt sauce. 

Of course I got curious how the batter would react in my waffle maker. The waffle maker did bake a little longer since pancake batter is typically more watery than waffle batter, but the flavor and texture was also outstanding in this format. I do recommend not overfilling the waffle iron so all the batter stays inside of it. 

Finally, nothing says helpful quality control like your cat sitting on the new blanket your are knitting! I’m about 1/3 finished and love how smooshy this blanket is turning out. 

Happy Weekending!

 

New Hobby: Acorn Adventures

Last summer at Deep Creek Lake, I took my five-year-old niece on a little guided nature walk. The guide paper pointed out several oak trees, white and red varieties. It also mentioned that especially the white oak acorns were an important source of carbohydrates for Native Americans. Whoa! This information needed additional investigation!

Sure enough, the Internet (click on link) expanded my knowledge nicely. First, one has to leach the acorns to get rid of the bitter tannins. I used the cold leaching method, which takes several days. After cracking the shells off the acorns and cutting out any bad spots, I ground the nuts in a food processor with a little bit of water. Make sure not to use too much water, as it makes a mess. Also makes sure to grind the acorns as small as possible. The bigger chunks of acorn still had some bitterness after I dried the flour (picture above). I sorted quite a few of them out before grinding but the flavor was still a tiny bit bitter.

I made this acorn cake. It is delicious and was a great treat at the end of The Farmer’s birthday celebration yesterday evening!
Is anyone else feeling squirrel-y?! I’m ready to forage for more acorns!