Acorn Bread - acorn meal

Method

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Grease a loaf pan.
• Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil.
• Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
• Stir just enough to moisten dry ingredients.
• Batter will be a bit lumpy.
• Pour into a greased pan, bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Acorns are very easy to use, similar to chestnuts.
• First examine the acorns as you pick/gather them.
• Throw away any that are wormy/moldy/cracked/etc.
• Next, shell them.
• Early in the season (August-September) the shell is usually soft enough to cut through.
• Later in the season acorns may require a nut cracker, though many times the shells are rather thin and brittle.
• Taste the raw acorns- if they are bitter, they need to be boiled.
• Tannic acid causes the bitterness, and is easily leached out by boiling the acorns in successive pots of water.
• When the water no longer turns brown (looks a lot like tea), the acorns are ready.
• The next step is to roast the acorns slightly.
• Use a warm oven, no more than 250 degrees.
• Acorns that have not been boiled will take 60 minutes or so, boiled acorns will take longer.
• Once they're roasted, the acorns can be used in place of nuts in most recipes, although they are less oily than most nuts.
• They can be glazed like chestnuts, simmered in a soup, ground and used as a flour extender.