Creating Acorn bread.

How you all been? I'm looking for help in trying to make Accorn bread. I've tried for a long time to find flavor to make my bread taste better without salt or oil, but it's difficult right now. Thanks!

The acorn has a reasonable amount of oil in it--I haven't found the need to add any extra oil to breads containing acorn flour. I've mostly used it as an extender rather than baking breads from pure acorn flour, though. The crucial thing is to ensure you soak your acorn meal long enough to remove all the tannins, as this will ruin the flavour of any product made from the flour.

Add 1 cup of acorn flour per 3 cups of wholemeal flour and make the bread as you usually wood. Gives it a lovely, nutty, savoury flavour, and makes the bread moist and filling.

the amount of oil in the acorn is pretty dependent on the species - the red family has much more than, say, white or chestnut oak, which have hardly any. baking with purely acorn flour can be tricky. no gluten. we’ve been pretty happy with some of the corn-A-corn bread we’ve been making (about 2/3 acorn flour, and 1/3 cornmeal.

you know, the most traditional way to consume acorn is probably pudding. acorn flour is a fantastic thickener, and acorn flour + water with a bit of heat makes pudding real easily. sweeten (or salt) to taste, maybe add some berries, excellent. what kind of acorns are you dealing with? and what leaching process are you using? i make and use a lot of acorn flour and am usually happy to discuss techniques.

I'm also trying to make all my bread kosher, vegan and organic as they can be without no oil, salt or added sugar. Anybody else has more recipes for that?

oil/fat and salt are two items the very most primitive parts of our brain crave as they are not so easy to find in nature. I'm not sure how to emulate the taste/flavor of them.
forgive me for my ignorance but what does oil, salt and sugar have to do with a food being kosher?

One of our members has posted a lot of good information on using acorns.

Here is a thread with some information on how to process acorn into flour:

https://permies.com/t/94642/Easy-Acorn-Flour-Muffins-gluten#776624

You might enjoy her book:

https://permies.com/wiki/73585/Acorn-Foraging-Alicia-Bayer

If you decide to get her book please do a review for our Book Review Grid and you will get credit for the review on your Scavenger Hunt.

Blake Lenoir wrote: How you all been? I'm looking for help in trying to make Accorn bread. I've tried for a long time to find flavor to make my bread taste better without salt or oil, but it's difficult right now. Thanks!

Frybread can be made without salt, sugar, or oil.  If you don't want to fry it in oil then make it like a tortilla.

I don't use a recipe for my frybread.  Mine is made from cornmeal and hot water.  Roll into a ball then flatten before putting in a hot pan.

You might need to experiment some to see what you can make.

Could frybread be used for sandwiches and stuff? I wanna find out if accorn flour can be used to fry stuff such as chicken, fish and that sorta thing?

The frybread that I make is too thick for sandwiches, at least for me.

Maybe make it thin like tortilla then it would be great for sandwiches.

While I have not used acorn flour for breading I feel it would be great.  Just use it like you would use any flour or cornmeal and see how it works.

Maybe try a steamed bread? Like Boston brown bread,  or tamales or the indian idli?  A steamed bread can be more tender than a baked bread without added fat.

I made my first batch of acorn bread today, based on a cornbread recipe. It was delicious. Mine was half wheat flour, half acorn flour and full of fat, but it was delicious. I have no reason to avoid fat  and would never avoid salt, so I'm sorry if that doesn't help you. But given that we have probably thousands of pounds of acorns, I'm happy to find uses for them. Next thing to try, acorn pasta. Wish me luck.

Praise God! I've found somebody who know how to make good acorn bread! You mix in the stuff and then put it into the oven? How long it lasts in the oven?

The acorn bread took about 1/2 hour in the oven. Pretty basic cornbread recipe: 1 cup acorn flour, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 stick of butter, melted and cooled slightly, 1/3 cup brown sugar (or sweetener of your choice), 2 Tbsp. honey, 1-2 eggs (depending on size), and 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix wet ingredients, mix dry ingredients, combine the two. Pour into a greased and floured 9 inch square pan. Bake in 350 oven for 20-30 minutes.

As far as keeping these ingredients in the house, most of them are staples for us. We have chickens, so eggs a plenty. Buttermilk I buy and freeze in 1/2 cup cubes so we always have some.

In researching ideas for uses acorns, I look to recipes using corn for bread, buckwheat for pastas and chestnuts for stews or stuffings.

I have chestnut cream pie recipe that I want to try with acorns. We will see.

Probably a dumb question but is acorn bread GF?

I can say that acorn flour is gluten free. If one combines acorn AND wheat flour, the bread would no longer be gluten free.

Stacy Witscher wrote:The acorn bread took about 1/2 hour in the oven. Pretty basic cornbread recipe: 1 cup acorn flour, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 stick of butter, melted and cooled slightly, 1/3 cup brown sugar (or sweetener of your choice), 2 Tbsp. honey, 1-2 eggs (depending on size), and 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix wet ingredients, mix dry ingredients, combine the two. Pour into a greased and floured 9 inch square pan. Bake in 350 oven for 20-30 minutes.


I have chestnut cream pie recipe that I want to try with acorns. We will see.

My mouth watered imagining this bread! Thanks for the recipe, I will definitely try it.
Cheers

Any good sources to help identify different acorns? I’m a newbie at owning land and I know there’s plenty of acorn varieties just don’t know which type they are.

I like the idea of making bread with acorn flour as it is gluten free. But does anyone know a quick way of shelling and cleaning a large amount of acorns in a short time?  I have tried smashing each one on the end with a mallet but removing the meat takes a long time at best and cannot imagine doing it for buckets of acorns.  Is there a way to wash the pulp without losing much of the acorn substance? I've thought of setting out the acorn meats in the rain in a large bucket with holes in the bottom and letting it wash through to leach out - but for how long? If the acorns are in small pieces they would wash away easily.  Thinking to save water as on a well.

Andre Herrera wrote:Any good sources to help identify different acorns? I’m a newbie at owning land and I know there’s plenty of acorn varieties just don’t know which type they are.

Maybe some of these would help: https://dof.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/Acorn-Identification.pdf
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/documents/PB1731.pdf
https://www.realtree.com/food-plots-and-land-management/galleries/oak-tree-id-guide-the-different-acorn-producing-tree
https://www.gardeningchores.com/types-of-oak-trees/

Do you soak acorns before or after removing from shell?

after. you want a decent amount of surface area get the tannin out efficiently.

That acorn bread recipe looks great. I just planted a ton of oak trees and will be waiting awhile until I have my own acorn crop to use but this thread is a great reminder of why I'm planting certain plants.

For the pie that I'm going to make I'm going to try leaching the acorn pieces in a mesh or fabric bag in the toilet tank. It seems like an efficient method. I will let you know how it turns out. Most recipes for making flour have you leach the ground acorns in a jar and pour off the water daily.

Denise Cares wrote:

Andre Herrera wrote:Any good sources to help identify different acorns? I’m a newbie at owning land and I know there’s plenty of acorn varieties just don’t know which type they are.

Maybe some of these would help: https://dof.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/Acorn-Identification.pdf
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/documents/PB1731.pdf
https://www.realtree.com/food-plots-and-land-management/galleries/oak-tree-id-guide-the-different-acorn-producing-tree
https://www.gardeningchores.com/types-of-oak-trees/

Thanks so much for sharing these!!
I have saved them so I can study them.

Ryan Kremer wrote:That acorn bread recipe looks great. I just planted a ton of oak trees and will be waiting awhile until I have my own acorn crop to use but this thread is a great reminder of why I'm planting certain plants.

Did you buy the trees or did you start them from seed? I’m looking to plant several varieties of Oak in my land as well, and wonder what the best way to do it is..

Sounds like most folks are making acorn bread in combination with another flour.  Is that for binding purposes?  Just wondering if acorn bread can be made with acorn as the only flour.  

Acorn only bread products would more likely be a flat bread or pancake type thing. Without gluten or something else to behave like gluten acorn only bread would be very dense. I love gluten and wheat so I don't try to make gluten free products. I know others here are gluten free, so maybe one of them will chime in.

@Andre Herrera - last year, I planted some acorns in an air-prune bed with wire mesh covering it to protect from rodents (Edible Acres Youtube channel has some great videos on this). This year, I've planted out some of those seedlings, some additional seedlings I bought for variety of species, and field-planted acorns. With the field-planted acorns, I buried about half dozen at each location hoping that if mice/voles/etc find some of them, I'll still have some survive. Buried them about the depth of the acorn in the fall, with a bit of mulch to cover. I'm not sure yet how this method will turn out but I'm hopeful that sewing in quantity will be a good strategy.

@Andre Herrera - Free download ebook that I used - https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/32626

This is great!! So many posts about acorn bread—-the ultimate survival food which is everywhere. A great skill to master!

I know this might sound silly...but, how does one process acorns to make flour?  We always have tons of acorns in the fall.  Our squirrels always leave tons behind and I've heard of using them.  I don't know the first thing about acorns/acorn meats, for processing.  I've never even broken one open before.  
Can anyone help?
Advice??

Thanks!

Ryan Kremer wrote:@Andre Herrera - last year, I planted some acorns in an air-prune bed with wire mesh covering it to protect from rodents (Edible Acres Youtube channel has some great videos on this). This year, I've planted out some of those seedlings, some additional seedlings I bought for variety of species, and field-planted acorns. With the field-planted acorns, I buried about half dozen at each location hoping that if mice/voles/etc find some of them, I'll still have some survive. Buried them about the depth of the acorn in the fall, with a bit of mulch to cover. I'm not sure yet how this method will turn out but I'm hopeful that sewing in quantity will be a good strategy.

Cool! Thank you for sharing this info with me. I hope you get lots of sprouts!