Acorn Bread Recipes

ACORN BREAD

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Grease a loaf pan.
• Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil.
• Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
• Stir just enough to moisten dry ingredients.
• Batter will be a bit lumpy.
• Pour into a greased pan, bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Acorns are very easy to use, similar to chestnuts.
• First examine the acorns as you pick/gather them.
• Throw away any that are wormy/moldy/cracked/etc.
• Next, shell them.
• Early in the season (August-September) the shell is usually soft enough to cut through.
• Later in the season acorns may require a nut cracker, though many times the shells are rather thin and brittle.
• Taste the raw acorns- if they are bitter, they need to be boiled.
• Tannic acid causes the bitterness, and is easily leached out by boiling the acorns in successive pots of water.
• When the water no longer turns brown (looks a lot like tea), the acorns are ready.
• The next step is to roast the acorns slightly.
• Use a warm oven, no more than 250 degrees.
• Acorns that have not been boiled will take 60 minutes or so, boiled acorns will take longer.
• Once they're roasted, the acorns can be used in place of nuts in most recipes, although they are less oily than most nuts.
• They can be glazed like chestnuts, simmered in a soup, ground and used as a flour extender.

ACORN BREAD

Steps:

• Mix acorn meal, baking powder, salt, sugar and flour.
• Separately, to the beaten egg add milk and oil.
• Stir this gently into the dry mix, then pour into a well-greased pan.
• Bake your dough at 400°F for 30 minutes.
• Top with butter when it comes out of the oven.
• For muffins pour into muffin tin until 2/3 full and bake 20 minutes.

ACORN SQUASH BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 [degrees] F. Wash, halve, and remove seeds from squash. Cut a 1-inch-thick slice off one of the squash halves; set aside. Place squash halves, cut sides down, in a baking dish. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until tender. Remove pulp from squash; discard shells. Measure 1 cup.
• Place the 1 cup of squash in a medium saucepan. Add the 1 1/2 cups milk, the sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, and salt. Heat and stir just until warm (120 [degrees] F to 130 [degrees] F). Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and sage. Add the squash mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can, using a wooden spoon.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (45 to 60 minutes).
• Punch dough down. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2-inch loaf pans.
• Gently shape each portion into a loaf, tucking edges under. Place the shaped dough in the prepared loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
• Preheat oven to 375 [degrees] F. Use a vegetable peeler to make several thin strips from the reserved 1-inch slice of squash. Brush surface of bread with milk. Place squash strips on top of loaf. Brush squash strips with the melted butter.
• Bake about 35 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when you tap the top with your fingers. (If necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning.) Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks. Makes 2 loaves (32 servings).

CORNBREAD

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 400°F. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan or 9-inch round cake pan with the cooking spray.
• In a 1-quart saucepan, heat the butter over low heat until melted.
• In a large bowl, beat the melted butter, milk and egg with a fork or wire whisk until well mixed. Add the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once; stir just until the flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour batter into the pan; use a rubber spatula to scrape batter from bowl. Spread batter evenly in pan and smooth top of batter.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm.