Those of you who read this space regularly know that I don’t bake much. I am a little too free-form in my cooking to really nail any sort of baking project that requires precision. Fortunately, shortbread isn’t one of those sorts of recipes. Shortbread is easy, and so are these acorn cookies.
What’s more shortbread, by definition, isn’t overly concerned with the gluten in wheat. Shortbread is so named because all that fat — typically butter — shortens the strands of gluten in the dough, leaving the “bread” crumbly. Given this, it occurred to me that a shortbread made with a lot of acorn flour, which is gluten-free, would work really well.
I am happy to report that it does. These little cakes (or big cookies, depending on your point of view), are not only fantastic, but they also hold up for a long time.
Why acorn flour? Well, I like the flavor. Acorn flour tastes a little like chestnuts, and gives the cookies a “warm” flavor that feels more rustic than a typical Scottish shortbread, which is normally made with white flour and white sugar. You could of course substitute other flours for acorns. I’d suggest, in order: chestnut flour, almond flour, barley, rye or whole wheat flour.
I also substitute maple sugar for some of the regular sugar. Maple sugar can be bought in good supermarkets or you can buy maple sugar online. A good substitute would be that brown turbinado sugar you see as “sugar in the raw” in coffee shops.
So while yes, these are great acorn cookies to make at home and eat there, they are also a perfect thing to make for a hiking or hunting trip. Store them in a little tin and put them in your backpack — they’re way better than a typical granola bar.
Acorn Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature (8 ounces)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup maple sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
- 1 cup all-purpose or King Arthur's "white whole wheat" flour
- 1 cup acorn flour
Instructions
- Put the butter in a large bowl and add the sugars. Use a fork or spoon to mix them together until well combined. Add the vanilla extract.
- In another bowl, mix the salt and the flours with a whisk until combined. Pour the flour mixture into the bowl with the butter and sugar and mix well with the fork or spoon. The dough will come together quickly, but will be sticky. Don't overwork it, but be sure you don't have hidden blobs of butter in your dough.
- Shape the dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and set in the freezer about 2 hours, and up to overnight in the fridge. The dough must be very cold for this to work, or the cookies will collapse.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Flatten the disk of dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into cookies. I used a 2-inch cutter, but any sort of cutter would do. An acorn-shaped one would be cute. Keep soing this, reshaping the dough, until you've used it all.
- Arrange the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 23 to 26 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies just begin to brown.
I tried baking the maple-acorn shortbread cookies, but the first tray burnt to a flat, blackened crisp and the second tray I just barely saved from spreading (& burning) into oblivion after only ten minutes in the oven. The dough for both trays came right out of the freezer and was quite frozen (I pre-flattened the second batch and then stuck it back in the freezer to re-freeze because the first batch was almost too solidly frozen to work with), AND lowered the oven setting to 325° the second time around. Any suggestions? I still have a bit of dough left and enough acorn flour for a second batch but I don’t want to waste it. Thanks!!
Here in New Zealand shortbread was often baked as a slice and cut into pieces, rather than as separate biscuits/cookies. You could try it baked in a tray, rather than as separate entities and score it with a knife when it comes out of the oven. If you score it, it should break/cut into separate pieces quite nicely.
Would you please be so kind as to weigh one cup of your acorn flour? I made the cookies following your recipe and they turned into little brown (tasty) puddles. My acorn flour is VERY fluffy – I think this is the same problem Marie Duggan had (see above). If I knew how much a cup of your flour weighed, I can adjust the recipe. Thanks!
Andrea: That’s possible, but the more likely culprit is that you did not chill the dough long enough.
I had the same problem with spreading as many others have reported and my dough chilled for 24hrs before going in the oven.
I will be making acorn cookies for holiday treats . Made 2 lbs. acorn flour so there will be lots of cookies.
Steve: Just make sure the dough is very cold when it goes into the oven!
has anyone tried using. Acorns from the Live Oak tree? And, if so, your opinion please?
Jennifer: Yes, but they tend to be small.
If your recipe didn’t work for someone, the problem might be not only the temperature of the dough, but also the variability of acorn flour. Since we all make our own flour, and we might be using red or white oak acorns, the texture and stickiness might be different from one flour to another. Also, leaching techniques result in flour that’s more or less sticky. End result: try it out, modify based on the results!
Thanks for the recipe, I’ll be trying it out tomorrow. It’s a mast crop this year in Madison, Wisconsin, so I have loads of really beautiful reds! More flavor and oil, yay!
These didn’t wirk. They melted. I think the ratio of sugar to flour is too high. These had two cups of flour, and one cup of sugar. According to Joy of Cooking, about 1/2 cup of sugar is appropriate for two cups flour.
Marie: They work. You need to put them in the oven COLD. If the dough is warm, they melt.
To answer about the GF flour question:
I’m going to use my personal blend I’ve made up of cassava/white rice/tapioca/sweet potato starch but if you have a favorite 1:1 blend (Pillsbury, Pamela’s, Bisquick, etc.) I’m sure that would work just fine. As i am also allergic to sugar, I am going to substitute coconut sugar for the white sugar. Can’t wait!
I happen to have a pouch of acorn flour in my cabinet and can’t wait to try this! We gathered over 10 pounds of acorns and American chestnuts today and will be preparing them for our next round of learning about self-sustaining wild foods. Thanks for this recipe!
If I wanted to make these totally gluten free what flours might you suggest works well with the acorn?
Thank you for demystifying the great and humble acorn for me! I always just assumed that the tannin content made it unsuitable for humans. I harvested 15 or so pounds of acorns with the thought that I’d feed the squirrels and deer a bit this winter then got the idea of eating them.
Your articles and recipes encouraged me to try it. I was amazed at how good they are and how relatively easy it is to convert them to good food.
Thanks much! I just made the butter cookies for my German club’s fall festival. They are excellent. I made them directly with wet flour and they turned out great. I just increased the bake time by 6 minutes.
Thanks for the recipe. O:-)
Made these yesterday from a bucket of acorns that my kids gathered. They turned out great! The acorns i had were three or four different varieties so there was quite a bit of leaching to do. I froze them first, shelled them, and then soaked the whole in a bucket for a couple of days, changing the water a couple of times a day. Huge amounts of tannin came out of them. I then pureed them with some water into a thick bater like consistency and added more water to float off more tannin. I used the flour water but added little more flour (probably 60:40). I used a stoneground whole flour which always soaks up more moisture anyway. It’s a bit of effort but they are very good biscuits. Friends and family have been astounded. My six year old son is especially happy that his foraging has been put to good use.
Going to try your acorn cake next with the remaining flour.
Great website! Definitely my favourite hunting/gathering site. Keep up the great work!
Cheers
John
Hi Hank, I’ve really enjoyed reading through your acorn processing experiences and this year is my first time working on my own. I’ve tried two different batches of the shortbread cookies and had the same problem as Eric Shoefer above. My cookies melted very flat in the oven, almost completely covering the pan. They are quite tasty, but more like a buttery crispy wafer than a cookie. It is almost as if the proportion of butter is too high, and just melts in the oven even though I refrigerated the dough. I tried one batch with an all-purpose gluten free flour and the second batch with white wheat flour. Any thoughts on how to achieve a more voluminous acorn shortbread cookie? I’ll definitely be experimenting a bit more on my own. Thank you!
Hank,
Do (would) you ever use acorn slices in the cookies as well? I’m going to try so make these cookies soon and am going for a little more visual aesthetics as well.
Thanks-
Dan
I like them without it. They seem to hold together better that way.
Hi Hank,
I tried biscuit recipe. Mine turned into big buttery mess in oven. Didn’t look at all like yours. I substituted brown sugar for maple,
but I don’t think that should make such a difference. Came out like a big flat cookie covering entire pan. My daughter still liked it, but I would like to taste the acorn more after all the work of making the flour. Ground is covered now in snow, but I guess we’ll have to gather and try again next year.
Almond meal is basically ground almonds with the oil removed.
I use it all the time to make my blueberry almond cake
(http://www.cocointhekitchen.com/search/label/almond).
I’m not sure if acorns contain as much oil as almonds,
but my guess is that these shortbread cookies would be
great with either hazelnut or almond meal.
You know I’ll be doing a test batch for the holidays.
Bob’s Red Mill sells hazelnut flour and I have almond flour on hand. Has anyone tried either of those?
Hi, Hank.
Is acorn flour available anywhere for purchase or do I have to make my own?
These sound delightful, and I am utterly intrigued by the idea of acorn flour!It is something I have never tasted.
I can only imagine how great these cookies taste with the nuttiness from the acorn flour!
Jessa: Drying it preserves the flour for a LONG time, i.e., more than a year. Freezing wet flour works, but is bulky and I just don’t like starting with wet flour.
great idea. gonna try making these with the kids! thanks!
I have ALL THE INGREDIENTS for those. OMG. I will be making them this weekend. Adding black walnuts: good idea/bad idea?
I’m assuming you fully dry your flour when you make it? I always have, but my roommate stores it still wet and freezes it. Are there merits to one way or the other? My decision has always been about limited freezer space rather than quality.
I’m making these completely gluten-free with some of the odd flours I have on hand. I’ll report back.
I’d make them with acorns but I am far too lazy for all of that. Now if SOMEONE would send his sister some acorn flour, that’d be another story 😉
Stay safe driving! xoxo
Saskia: I’d dry it first, because the added moisture might mess with the texture of the cookies.
These cookies sound wonderful! I can’t wait to give them a try. It’s been a stellar year for acorns here in the Northeast. Thank you, Hank!!
oh my this sounds absolutely perfect for my first ever batch of home made acorn flour, which btw is still losing the tannins in the fridge (day 2) another recipe I found here only yesterday!
I do have a question for you: can I use the flour once it’s lost the tannins by the end of the week, as is, i.e. without drying or does it have to be dried first?