Processing Acorns - Part 2.
How does acorn chocolate cake sound?
In Part 1. I showed you how to quickly and easily remove the bitter/astringent tannic acid from the acorns. Now let’s cook with them! We’ll start up right after the leaching step, with the crushed acorns still in the pipe. Dump them onto a cookie sheet, spreading them out into a thin layer. Set your oven to the “Warm” setting or if your oven doesn’t have that feature, set it to 175F. Place the cookie sheet of acorns in the oven and leave them there for at least two hours but not more than three. The acorns will dry out and darken. If you followed the directions in Part 1. , you’ll have more enough acorn meal to make two of these 9” diameter cakes.
After the time has passed, use a blender or food processor to grind them up to approximately like standard corn meal-sized particles. This works best by grinding multiple small batches rather than trying to do all the acorns at once. Try to get all the acorns ground up, but you’ll never quite succeed. Use a colander to sift out the larger pieces.
If I wanted to make gravy with the acorns, I’d run them through my flour mill* to render them into a fine powder. However, for this recipe doesn’t require that much effort or specialized equipment. You are now ready to make chocolate cake, where the chocolate flavor comes from your acorns!
Acorn Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cup ground acorns
⅔ cup white sugar
3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil (avocado oil is best)
1 large egg, beaten
Butter (for pan)
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 400F
Combine flour, acorn meal, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl, mixing thoroughly.
Whisk in oil, egg, and milk until the batter is smooth.
Pour batter into buttered, 9” round cake pan.
Bake 20-30 minutes, checking after 20 minutes to see if a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top has a golden and cracked appearance. If material clings to the toothpick, bake 4 more minutes then recheck.
Allow to cool before removing from cake pan.
As mentioned earlier, the chocolate flavor comes from the acorns rather than adding cocoa. Frankly, at this point I just eat it as is or with a bit of butter because it tastes soooo damn good, but you can add frosting, candles, and whatnot to make it look like a regular chocolate cake. Only the most discerning taster will suspect it’s not loaded with cocoa, and even he/she will still love it! Yes, this is a bit more work than buying a box of cake mix, but the satisfaction and self-sufficiency you’ll gain makes it worthwhile.
Note, you can use this same ground acorn in pancakes, waffles, and other batter-syle recipes. The key is to use 1 part regular flour and 2 parts acorn meal.
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