Acorn flour has a delicious roasted nutty flavor and is edible as well as nutritious. Flour from acorns gives a unique taste to this recipe for acorn cookies, and is a great way to use foraged acorns!
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Flour From Acorns
Acorn flour is edible, nutritious, and delicious. It has a nutty and roasted flavor, similar to that of roasted dandelion root. Some people use acorn flour as a substitute for coffee just like dandelion root coffee!
Acorns are plentiful in most places in the fall and are easy to forage for. Making homemade acorn flour from foraged acorns is possible, if a bit time-consuming, as it requires soaking to leach the tannins.
If you have the time for a fun project and acorns available, here’s a great tutorial on how to make acorn flour at home.
Another option is to buy acorn flour, like this one, although there are a few options online.
Since acorn flour is starchy, it works best to mix it with regular flour for baking. It’s generally recommended not to use more than 25-30% of the total flour with acorn flour for best results.
That doesn’t take away from the tasty nutty flavor of these acorn cookies though!
If you have any leftover acorn flour after making these cookies, a batch of homemade pancakes is a great way to use it up!
Acorn Flour Cookies
Let’s talk about these tasty acorn cookies!
This recipe uses cookie cutters, and while you can use whatever shapes float your boat, I opt for acorn, oak leaf, squirrel, and fox shapes. In my world, I can’t have acorn cookies that aren’t acorn-shaped!
For the cookie cutters shown here, the acorn, oak leaf, and squirrel are in this fall cookie cutter set. The fox is in this woodland cookie cutter set along with other cute animals and a mushroom!
For this acorn cookie recipe, I decided not to put any icing on the cookies to make sure the flavor of the acorn flour shines. They turned out delicious!
However, if you want to ice your acorn cookies, I think the maple icing from my maple leaf cookies recipe would be perfect. Just make sure to let the cookies cool completely before icing.
Ingredients
All-purpose flour: Traditional wheat flour is necessary to add in with acorn flour, to make the cookies turn out as expected.
Acorn flour: It’s fine to use either homemade foraged acorn flour or one bought online.
Note: If you want more acorn flour in the mix, feel free to experiment with using a higher ratio of acorn flour to wheat flour. I haven’t tried this so I can’t guarantee the results.
Butter: For this recipe, the butter should be at room temperature.
Brown sugar: I love the flavor that brown sugar brings to pair with the nutty acorn flavor.
Egg
Acorn Cookies Recipe
First, use a medium bowl to combine the dry ingredients: wheat flour, acorn flour, baking powder, and salt.
Now, in a large bowl combine the wet ingredients: first beat the room-temperature butter and brown sugar until it is creamy.
Then stir in the egg and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until it comes together into a dough. If the dough is too sticky, it’s okay to slowly add a little more flour until it is the right consistency.
Divide the dough into two halves.
Roll each dough half out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
Note: Using parchment paper in this step is important so they can stack easily while chilling, and it helps the dough stick less when you use the cookie cutters.
Now, place one rolled-out dough on parchment on a sheet pan, then put the second rolled-out dough on parchment on top of the first. Then cover the top dough with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap.
Refrigerate the rolled-out doughs for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
Cut Out and Bake the Cookies
Once the dough is chilled and ready to cut out, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and pull one rolled-out dough out of the refrigerator.
Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into acorn shapes (or whatever shapes you like). When you’ve used all the dough you can re-roll the scraps to cut more shapes.
Put the cutout acorn and other cookie shapes onto the baking sheet with an inch or so in between them. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are just starting to turn brown.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for several minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Now repeat with the remaining dough until all the cookies are baked!
Embrace Fall with Acorn Cookies
Cookies made with flour from acorns are a wonderful way to truly embrace the essence of fall. They are natural, delicious, and perfect for the season!
Acorn cookies are a perfect treat, dessert, or tea-time snack. The cookies are nutty from the acorn flour and go great with coffee or tea. Frost or ice them if you wish, but I don’t think it’s necessary.
The acorn flour gives these cookies a roasted and slightly bitter but pleasant flavor. It is similar to the flavor of roasted dandelion root, which would make a perfect tea pairing.
Store acorn flour cookies in an airtight container at room temperature on the countertop. Embrace fall and enjoy the delight of these nature-inspired cookies!
More Seasonal Cookie Recipes
- Maple Leaf Cookies w/ Maple Icing
- Candy Cap Mushroom Cookies with Maple Icing
- Conifer Needle Shortbread Cookies
- Calendula and Thyme Shortbread Cookies
- Meyer Lemon and Rosemary Shortbread Cookies
- Lemon and Lavender Shortbread Cookies
- Pine Needle Cookies
Acorn Flour Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup acorn flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine the flour, acorn flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl combine the butter and brown sugar until it is creamy. Stir in the egg and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until it comes together into a dough. If the dough is sticky you can add a little more flour as needed.
- Divide the dough into two halves and roll each one out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
- Place one rolled-out dough on parchment on a sheet pan, then put the second rolled-out dough on parchment on top of the first. Then cover the top dough with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap.
- Refrigerate the rolled-out doughs for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
- Once the dough has been chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Pull one rolled-out dough out of the refrigerator.
- Use acorn shaped cookie cutters to cut the dough into acorn shapes (or whatever shapes you like). When you’ve used all the dough you can re-roll the scraps to cut more shapes.
- Put the cut out acorns onto the baking sheet with an inch or so in between them. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are just starting to turn brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for several minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
- Repeat with the remaining dough until all the cookies are baked.
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