Acorns provide protein, fat, vitamin B3 and B6, folate and pantothenic acid, plus the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese! Plus its a easy to collect food source!
I started my morning today with acorn pancakes with acorns collected from this past summer. I have learned a quick and easy way to leech acorns. Follow these easy steps and you'll be cooking with your acorn flour within a few minutes:
1.) Collect the acorns. Don't pay any attention to holes or the quality of the acorn. Go for large quantities.
2.) Toss them in a bucket of water. Toss the ones that float.
3.) Dry the ones that fall to the bottom of the bucket. They are the good ones that haven't been invaded with insects. To dry them, simply lay them single layer somewhere warm with moisture free. Allow to dry at least a week to make shelling them easier.
4.) Shell the acorn. Crack with a nut cracker and peel the thin outer layer off. You can freeze any nuts that you don't use immediately.
5.) Take a cup of the acorn and put in a blender. Fill half blender with water. Put it on high for up to two minutes or until the acorns are cut finely.
6.) Pour mixture into a thick nylon sock (a nylon dress sock works quite nicely).
7.) Tie a knot at the bottom of the sock where the majority of the nut milk is. You will notice that the water that is coming out of the sock is whitish brown. That is the tannin in the acorn that must be leeched out before you can eat the flour.
8.) Put the sock under running water and squish the acorn nut meat between your fingers until the water runs clear and no longer whitish brown.
Taste the nut meat. Do you taste a bitterness? If yes, continue to run under water until the nut meat tastes very bland. When that happens it is ready to use!
