Acorn Banana Bread

Acorn Banana Bread

1 cup acorn flour
2 tsp baking powder 
¾ cup corn meal
½ tsp salt 
¼ tsp baking soda 
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
3 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup maple syrup 
¼ cup honey


Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350° F. 
In medium bowl sift all dry ingredients. Flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
Mix eggs, butter, bananas and honey in large bowl and slowly add flour mixture and beat until well blended. 
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake about 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

 (You can also use wheat flour instead of acorn flour. Also walnuts or pecans in place of acorns and it’s still delicious).

I used the mix of honey and maple syrup because well, I only had 1/4 cup of honey. So, I think it came out a bit sweeter than a straight honey recipe would. If you are going to use just honey, use 2/3 cup. 

It's a little crumbly, which I believe is because it is gluten free. I might look into adding things such as xantham gum, arrowroot, or.. maybe just another eggwhite!  

I used my mother, my son and one of his friends as taste testers and they all liked it a lot. When the boys were told what it was they were REALLY impressed and said "Well knowing what it is, it REALLY is good!"

The magic elixir... Acorn Tannin Water!

It's that time of year! Acorns!!  

 My sister has a day care and she has a lot of oak trees. You know, if you tell small people to gather umpteen billion acorns off the ground as some sort of game, they will do it! She ended up with the acorns cleared from her yard, and I ended up with a good crop of acorns this year.

Anyway!  One of the products of processing acorns, is tannin water. In order to use acorns for anything but throwing at each other, or decorations, or checker pieces you must leach the tannins out.  The tannins in acorns is what makes them bitter and inedible to humans in their raw form (you COULD eat them if you HAD to.. but they would be very very very bitter, and probably give you a belly ache).

  

I could go into a whole big thing here about how I process acorns, but this is going to be more about the tannin water and the benefits from it. 

This water is a tannic acid solution that has a variety of uses. This water is very antiviral and antiseptic and can be used as treatment for many, topical issues. It is great for poison ivy, cuts, rashes, burns, etc.  This is what my family has benefited from the most.  My mother even used it on the cat!  This is the best story. My cat had a hot spot at the base of her tail and she would bite it till the skin was bare and raw. The vets tried everything from topical creams to internal medicines and nothing helped.  I gave my mother some tannin water and suggested she try it, couldn't hurt right?  She did, and not only did it clear up quickly, it never returned!!  When I was on the Trail, I got a decent sunburn.  I gathered up some acorns and boiled them up for the water (let it cool), put that on my sunburn and I was good to go!  

  I have also used it as a detergent for washing clothes (not whites!). It leaves your clothes smelling so fresh! Don't use it on your whites, unless you want to dye them.. in which case it makes a GREAT dye.. but you need to fix it with salt to keep it from fading. 

  Things I have yet to try, but have read: it can be used as a gargle for sore throats, taken as a mild tea for diarrhea and dysentery (good to know when hiking!), it can also be used externally for hemorrhoids. 

  Of course, what tannic acid is best known for is tanning hides (how tannic acid got its name... or was it the other way around? ). I have yet to take advantage of this use, but perhaps some day?

    

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.

You can see the original post here : http://bearmedicineherbals.com/banana-acorn-cake-flourless-gluten-free.html

 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.