A Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing and Cooking with Acorns
Have you ever wondered if the squirrels might be onto something? In fact, they are! Acorns are incredibly nutritious and readily available in nature, making them a healthy addition to many recipes. Here鈥檚 how to prepare and cook acorns! They are sure to become a fall favorite!
Can You Eat Acorns?
Yes, absolutely! Acorns have been a staple of diets worldwide and across cultures, including among some Native American peoples.
Why acorns? They are incredibly nutritious, offering healthy carbohydrates, protein, and fiber levels. Surprisingly, they are also a good source of Vitamins A and C.
Read Next
Plus, they have a wonderfully rich, nutty taste. Also, why not? It鈥檚 fun to forage and try making something adventurous.
While most folks use acorns to make nutrient-rich, nutty-flavored flour, you can also eat acorns as roasted nuts (they are a lot like chestnuts). See more ideas below!
Where and When to Find Acorns
Acorns come from oak trees, which can be found across North America. Oak trees are easily identifiable鈥攖hey鈥檙e the ones with all the acorns around them! Jokes aside, oaks have fairly distinctive leaves and bark; look up which species of oak trees are common in your area to know exactly what signs to look for.
Acorns are typically harvested between September and November when they fall from the trees and become easily accessible to deer, squirrels, and resourceful humans.
How to Collect Acorns
When gathering acorns, look for brown, fully mature acorns that still have their caps, as those without caps are more susceptible to infestation by worms and other critters.
Green acorns are not yet mature and shouldn鈥檛 be used. If you鈥檙e willing to wait, consider harvesting acorns this year and storing them in a cool, dry place until next fall, when they鈥檒l be thoroughly dried and easier to work with.
How to Wash Acorns
- Give acorns a quick rinse in cool water. Place them in a pot or bowl and fill it with water, then remove and dispose of any floating acorns, as they have likely gone bad.
- Place the acorns in a colander and run them under the tap for a minute or two to dislodge any loose dirt or hitchhiking bugs.
- Set the colander aside to let the acorns air-dry, or dry them by hand with a dish towel.
- Remove the shells and caps from your acorns with a nutcracker (or a hammer, if necessary). Do not eat the raw meat of the acorns yet.
How to Leach Acorns
Acorns contain bitter-tasting tannins, so you must prepare, treat, and cook the nuts before you eat them. It sounds like a pain, but it鈥檚 really not that difficult.
- Start two pots of water boiling. Drop the raw, shell-less acorns into one pot and boil until the water is the color of strong tea. Strain the nuts through a colander and drop the strained nuts into the second pot of boiling water. Discard the dark water from the first pot, then refill it and bring the water to a boil again. Repeat the process without interruption (do not let the acorns cool) until the water boils clear. This may take an hour or more, depending on the variety of acorn.
- Alternatively, you can soak the raw acorns in cold water to leach the tannins out. Change the water when it turns a darker color. This process may take several days, depending on how long it takes for all the tannins to leach out of the acorn meat.
To avoid rotting, it鈥檚 very important that the acorns dry fully. Spread tannin-free acorns to dry on cookie sheets in a warm place. If it is hot out, lay the cookie sheets in the sun. Or, you could put them in an oven set to 鈥渨arm.鈥 You can also put the acorns in a dehydrator set on low heat.
How to Grind Acorns for Flour
When partially dry, coarse grind a few acorns at a time in a blender. Spread the ground acorns to dry on cookie sheets, then grind again in a blender. Repeat until you are left with a flour- or cornmeal-like substance.
You can also freeze your fresh acorn meal. Store dried flour in jars in the fridge.
Eating Roasted Acorns
Making acorn flour isn鈥檛 the only way you can enjoy acorns. Here鈥檚 how to roast the nuts:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the acorns into a single layer on an ungreased, rimmed cookie sheet.
- Cook the nuts for about 60 minutes or until they turn a chocolate brown color.
- Remove the acorns from the oven and let them cool. Salt to taste.
Acorn Recipe Ideas
- Mix up cooked acorns with raisins or other dried fruit to make a trail mix.
- Substitute acorns for chestnuts in baking recipes.
- Use acorn flour in bread, cake, pancakes, and more! Try this recipe (similar to a tortilla).
- Or, try this , which tastes a little like gingerbread cake.
- The flour also makes an excellent pasta dough when mixed with regular flour.
- How about adding acorn flour to a pancake recipe for that nutty taste and nutrition?
Acorn Pancakes Recipe
This recipe was adapted from Sharon Hendricks. Source:
Ingredients:
- One egg
- 1 tsp. salad oil
- 1 tsp. honey or sugar
- 陆 cup leached and ground acorns
- 陆&苍产蝉辫;肠耻辫&苍产蝉辫;肠辞谤苍尘别补濒
- 陆 cup whole wheat or white flour
- 2 tsp. double action baking powder
- 陆 tsp. salt
- 陆&苍产蝉辫;肠耻辫&苍产蝉辫;尘颈濒办
Instructions:
Break egg into bowl and add all ingredients, beating to create a batter. If batter is too thick, thin with additional milk. Pour batter onto hot, greased griddle and cook slowly until brown. Flip to brown opposite side. Serve with butter and syrup or jam鈥攁nd enjoy!
Have you ever made your own acorn flour? What is your favorite way to cook acorns? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
Catherine Boeckmann
ADVERTISEMENT
Acorns contain a lot of tannin which can cause severe stomach upset. According to Kansas State University, acorns do become safe to eat when they are roasted; the tannin content is reduced considerably by heating. (source: Reference.com)
My first attempt to leach the tannins out of white oak acorns was a disaster because I tried to boil them out. The heat locked the tannins in and I could not get them out afterward.
My second attempt was two days ago with leaching tannins out with cold water. Much better, and made a delicious acorn flour cake with raisins last night. A little astringent flavor did remain, but I only leached the acorn puree for 4 hours. Next time I'll do it for much longer and see how that turns out.
Well, the neighbors are gathering acorns for deer bait, and I was watching the squirls and other animals dance around the hords of large acorns. I thought, what is all the rage aboout? So I cracked and peeled a few while harvesting my own winter stash. I found the drier, larger acorns to have a bit of a sweet taste, but still some tannin. I gathered one bucket of shelled acorns to try these recipes, especialy the Acorn Candy and Flour. Thanks for the correction, I will try the no boil method.
While it's great that The Old Farmers 蜜桃恋人 is promoting acorn consumption, the directions get it completely wrong.
Once you crack and remove the skins from the acorns you should puree them (assuming they're not dried yet--resoak if you dried them earlier or risk destroying your food processor).
Then you should cold leach the acorns: soaking the ground acorns in a large container, changing the water regularly over several days until the acorn flour is no longer bitter to taste (the water will never get clear but it will be very light in color at that point). Boiling the acorns cooks them, making them unsuitable as flour (though fine for adding to soups). Boiling also reduces their nutritional value and uses a lot of energy. If you do boil--you'll still need to grind first, and you'll need to boil multiple times to fully leach the tannins (so you'll need at least two pots of water boiling simultaneously).
Once leached, drain the flour and put it in the fridge and cook with it over the next week or two. You can cook muffins, pancakes, breads, etc. just remember to mix acorn flour with wheat flour for foods you want to rise: for example if a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, use 1.5 cups of wheat and 0.5 cups of acorn flour--with that proportion you won't need to make any other changes to the recipe). At higher proportions you'll need to increase baking powder. Enjoy your acorns! And remember: if you find any acorn weevils, those are edible too!
Once the acorns have been leached and roasted, allow them to air dry thoroughly. Then grind them and mix with honey, hickory nuts, a pinch of salt and spoon them by teaspoon onto a nonstick baking sheet and bake on low until set. Makes a great all natural candy.
The key is to rinse, rinse and rinse. Getting all that tannin out is the most important step.
Everett De Morier
543skills.com
We are going to try this recipe over the weekend. Looks like we'll need to gather quite a few acorns for 7 people!
