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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wait, WHAT are you eating?

Well, acorns of course!  



Tonight is the last night of my "retirement" as I start a new job tomorrow and I decided to celebrate with a sweety-yum-yum of some sort.  The crisp atmosphere of Fall is in the air begging me to make a cozy treat for the evening.  Keeping in line with the Autumn theme of the treat, I decided to utilize some acorns I have had processed and ready to use for about two years.  

I have been trying to get away from enriched flour (and leaning towards gluten free all together) and so, started searching out a recipe that I could use that did NOT include wheat based flour.  This proved to be quite a task!  Just about every recipe that uses acorn flour ALSO uses another wheat based flour. I finally found one that made me perk up.  

Here is what I found:

Banana Acorn Cake (Flourless, Gluten Free)
  • 1/4 cup acorn meal
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
  • 2/3 cup mashed bananas
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • Mix dry ingredients together, then mix wet ingredients together. Pour into pre-oiled pan (a smallish bread pan works well) and cook for approx 20 minutes at 350.

 I had to keep it in the oven for probably more like 40 minutes in order for it to not seem like an oil bubbling chocolate sponge.  I had a piece of it while it was still hot and the center was molten coconut oil and somehow I could not decide if it was gross or yummy.  I decided to put it in the fridge to cool it down and then try again. 

  Vanilla almond milk in hand, I pulled the cooled "cake" out of the fridge for a second try. It was still pretty much an oil soaked sponge, but no longer apt to cause 3rd degree burns in my mouth. I sliced off a tiny sliver of the very flat, dense, oily loaf and popped it in my mouth. Again... absolute toss up, is this disgusting, or yummy?  

  I think it is the coconut oil. Or, perhaps it's the banana. Maybe that I used dark chocolate cocoa? Either way, it's not the acorn that I am having a problem with personally.  I decided to get a second opinion and presented it to my mother.  She decided it was worthy and I left the entire "cake" with her and her fork.

  Perhaps I will try tweaking this recipe and see if I can turn it into something more palatable, but that is not going to happen tonight.



6 comments:

  1. Very cool blog - not sure I would want to taste though......

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  2. I am halfway through "processing" my acorns but I killed my blender :(

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    1. I had dried them as halves (the pic is the actual acorns) then I put them into my coffee grinder to grind just the amount I need into flour. If you turn it into flour now, it won't keep as long. These acorns are 2 years old!

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  3. Sounds interesting. Might try adding some rice flour (or other)and cutting back on the oil....make in muffin tin to help cooking all the way through.

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  4. I was thinking as I read the recipe that there was waaay too much liquid and not enough dry...I agree with Denise, cut out some of the coconut oil to maybe a 1/4 cup, but I'd also cut the maple syrup to a 1/4 cup too (assuming it'll still be sweet enough without it - if not, try adding some stevia from the health food store).

    Another thing you could try, and I know you're not likely to be able to pick your own, but maybe try some almond meal in there as well to fill it out a bit...Just doesn't seem like there's enough to the BODY of the recipe to me.

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    Replies
    1. I was thinking the same thing as I was reading it. But, when it mixes up, it is actually the same consistency as a cake mix would be. The cocoa does it. I was going to pick up some rice flour, but it's just so expensive!!!
      I will try it again this week with tweeks and report back :)

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