I think if anyone tasted this out of the blue, the flavor would immediately say: dark chocolate. Even with eyes closed these taste chocolatey. But there's not a drop. It's basically just an ordinary cookie. White and brown sugar, two sticks of butter, cinnamon, vanilla, two eggs, baking powder. Maybe 3 or 4 cups acorn flour. As I've mentioned, we had a bumper crop this year. These are from Victory Park about 100 paces from my house. Just dried and ground in the blender. Needed no leeching. The cookies are SO crunchy. I think cookies need to be, a soft cookie is an abomination in my mind. These might be a little over the top, but they really did turn out lovely. The batch in there now includes the black walnuts I collected a few weeks ago, that took me hours to smash with a hammer on the driveway and pick out of the shells. Talk about slow! At least I didn't pound the acorns by hand this time.
I live in an apartment building that offers no acorn hunting. However, after seeing those cookies, I think I'm just going to order the acorn flour online, so I can try them out.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought the love for soft, raw cookies that's so common with my generation stemmed from growing up with parents too busy to cook them all the way. Can't stand them, myself. These look perfect.
ReplyDeleteYour newly found blog and the set of DVD's of your course with the "Great Courses" are quite interesting and entertaining. I hope the "Great Courses" do one on Spices as they had suggested and you are the instructor :~)
ReplyDeleteThe problem with acorns is that they are so variable in flavour. We have a lot of oak trees (one huge one borders our property and our neighbours) so I am going to have to test the acorns to see if they are worth all of the hassle to make acorn flour with. Cheers for the recipe :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee, I'm hoping to do another Great Courses series on alcohol. Writing and teaching the course right now at Pacific! And Serendipitous, they are variable. But the soaking and rinsing is not such a big deal. Put the flour in a canvas bag and put in a bucket of water and just keep the hose running over it for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK at least, this is a "mast year", which as you may know is a year when trees such as oak, beech and chestnuts produce large amounts of fruit. Sounds like it might be a mast year where you are too?
ReplyDeleteScoff, you mean this happens all over the world at the same time? Totally cool!
ReplyDeleteSave your driveway and buy a macadamia nut cracker?
ReplyDeleteWhat species of oak are these? An American native?
Hey Adam, I think they're white oak. Native to the US but not this area. They were planted as ornamentals in the park.
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