This modest little loaf has a story. First let me explain who Euell Gibbons is since most probably haven’t heard of him, he was a proponent and practitioner of eating wild foods. His first book
"Stalking the wild asparagus " was published in 1962. I remember, and I’m showing my age here, seeing him on television in the late 1960’s and early 70s he died in 1975. At the time he made an impression but not so much of a one that I wanted to go out and start gathering dandelions. But interests change and while reading his book realized what a good cook as well as an excellent
forager he was. One of the first chapters in the book is about acorns and that is where the recipe comes from.
Now to the acorns. Last fall the young burroak in the yard bore it’s first crop which was gathered more on a whim than anything else and after tasting them and finding very little of the bitterness that acorns are known for made a bread using some of them merely roasted with some einkorn flour which is described in another post. The rest were spread on the sceen of a dehydrater not turned on and basically forgotten about until my new interest popped up, inadvertently this was the correct thing to do. In a book by a modern forager Samuel Thayer, I forget which one he has a few, who I recommend highly for anyone interested in the subject the process of cold leaching acorns is described in detail and I decided to try it. The basic principle of cold leaching is to remove the bitter, water soluble, anti nutrient tannin from ground acorns by soaking in cold water that is changed frequently. Since I had only a small catche of acorns they were cracked out using an ordinary nut cracker but it still was a time consuming job that would have to be done otherwise with a larger amount, luckily Samuel Thayer decribes a couple of ways to do that. The nutmeats were then ground using an old Vitamix with a stainless steel container into a fairly fine meal resulting in only a coulple of cups. That was placed in a quart mason jar and covered with cold water. After at least four hours the mostly clear water was poured off fresh water was added and the contents stirred, this process was repeated numerous time until the water which was almost tea colored in the beginning was almost as clear as the replenishment water and the meal had no trace of bitterness when tasted. The wet meal was placed in a jelly bag and as much of the water was squeezed out as possible. Then the meal bag and all was put in dehydrater and dried at a low (145F) temperature. The now caked meal was removed from the bag and reground using an electric spice grinder which resulted in just a little over a cup of finished product.
Now finally to the bread which follows Euell Gibbons recipe exactly with the exception of using fresh ground white whole wheat instead of the AP he calls for. Wisk together 1cup of acorn meal, 1cup flour, 3tsp baking powder, 1tsp salt, 3Tab sugar. In another bowl beat 1 egg, 1cup whole milk, and 3Tab vegetable oil. Add the wet to the dry and mix until everthing is well moistened. Pour into a oiled loaf pan, spread evenly, and bake at 400F for thirty minutes. This results in a dense, nutty, but still tender loaf that is especially good toasted.
I know this sounds like (and was) a lot of work for a little loaf of bread but the lessons learned will be expanded next fall so more experiments with the acorn meal can be done. One I am particularly interested in is trying a Native American recipe so if anyone has a good one I would greatly appreciate if you passed it on.
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