Last year we celebrated OAKtober and shared how to harvest acorns and how to use acorn flour. Since it is once again OAKtober, here is another way to use those acorn you forage.  You can grind them to a meal (like corn meal) rather than a flour and these will still work.

Originally, I adapted this recipe from a peanut butter cookie recipe because I can’t eat peanuts (and many other legumes). I have made it with teff flour, and even banana flour from Pereg Foods. (Note – no, we are not an affiliate – I just think they have a quality product.)

Questions

No acorns?
This recipe will work with mesquite flour!  Or even meal.  You may simply need to add extra water and let it set a while to get a non-crumbly texture.  Or see next note.  By the way, you can easily grow oaks in much of the Southwest.  Here’s how to Grow Oaks on Gardening with Soule.

Gluten free life?
Substitute almond flour for the all-purpose flour. Cookies will be very crumbly.
To get them to stick together better, I add one egg, or one egg substitute (flax seed meal plus xanthin gum – post coming).

Vegan?
Yep – you can do that too!

FODMAP diet?
If you are avoiding sesame seeds (what tahini is made from) then do this with sunflower seed butter or any other seed or nut butter. I imagine almond butter would work well. The honey (instead of white sugar) already makes it a friendly recipe.

I thought seed oils are bad for you?
Highly processed oils from soy, canola, and rapeseed have been linked to health issues. Tahini is a seed butter and not processed in the same manner.

Anyway you make these easy cookies is good (IMHO). It is a fairly basic recipe to help you use your foraged flours. I imagine you could use pine pollen flour, or maybe even cattail pollen flour.

Acorn Tahini Cookies

1 cup mesquite or acorn flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 /2 cup butter – or use sesame oil
1 /2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons water - possibly more depending on your seed/nut flour
1 cup raw tahini

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 350ºF degrees.

2) Blend the flours, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt. Keep blending until the mixture is crumbly and the butter all worked in. I use my fingers and a large mixing bowl but you could use a fork, or a food processor.

3) Add tahini and water and stir (or mash with fingers) until a smooth dough begins to form.

4) Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it a few times on the counter until smooth.

5) Roll dough into walnut sized balls.

6) Place the balls on a cookie sheet (parchment optional). These do not spread out much so you can get them fairly close together.

7) Flatten each ball slightly with your fingers, or a fork – like peanut butter cookies.

8) Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown. This “golden” might be hard to see. If the edges start to get dark brown – they are done!

9) Cool well. Not sure why – but they taste better cooled.

Enjoy!

The Savorists

Our Honey Cookbook

We have this great little cookbook (IMHO) for sale when we are out there making our public appearances.  Since there is already Christmas things in some stores – I will add this – our little cookbook is priced low enough to make a nice stocking stuffer! If you go to the book sale site and want to order more than one copy – just click on the “Special Orders” tab.

Using Honey in New and Savory Ways offers 36 pages of tips for using honey in your cooking, as well as in all manner of dishes. 

We hope you will help support some local Southwest folks!
From the review:
“Honey is for more than desserts – and this book can help! Using honey in cooking savory dishes helps engage all your taste buds and adds a layer of added flavor to everyday dishes – plus holiday fare.”

Beekeeper?  We offer volume discounts – because if you sell in local markets you might want to offer some of these books as well.

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