Acorn, Coffee, Walnut Cake

200 grams softened  unsalted butter

1/2 c soft brown sugar

1tbsp golden syrup

4 eggs

1/2 cup of ground acorn flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup almond flour

1/2 c white flour

pinch of salt

Butter coffee icing- an old fashioned hand beater is great. 

150 g softened butter

1 cup of icing sugar- beat together until light & fluffy

Beat in

1+ tbsp coffee, chicory essence

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

In one bowl mix the acorn & almond flours, add the chopped walnuts.

Cut up a cupful of dried figs & squeeze over them the juice of an orange.

 To make the cake- cream the 200 gms of softened butter & beat together with the 1/2 c of soft brown sugar. Beat in the tbsp of golden syrup & then each of the 4 eggs. Gently fold in the pinch of salt, vanilla essence & the figs (tip of the orange juice) & flours as above plus the 1/2c of white flour.
Pour the batter in to a well greased & floured cake tin.
Bake at 160c for about 40 minutes.

 ice with the above icing when cold.

 How to make acorn flour here. Or follow a much more clearly laid our recipe here: https://charlotteslivelykitchen.com/coffee-buttercream/ although, I halved (ish) the recipe.

Katie X

Sweet Chestnuts

Who would have thought that there would be a period in history called Covid-19 Level 4 Pandemic Lock Down, in New Zealand, that would last for 4 weeks+ in the year 2020? But here we all are, most of us staying at home and periodically having a wander around in our own neighbourhoods. I am so glad that it's autumn and that I live in an area in which I have been able to gather and discover all kinds of nuts and seeds. I was so disappointed to think that I was missing the chance to gather sweet chestnuts this season, as there are very few trees in the inner city that I know of. And then I remembered the Castanea Sativa trees in Windsor Park- in fair walking and biking distance from home.

These trees don't produce the most remarkable nuts, but if you look carefully you can find enough decent sweet chestnuts to make it worth your while gathering them.

Sweet chestnuts are easy to identify once you know that you're looking for- little baby hedgehogs!

The horse chestnut trees produce armoured, much larger nuts, known as conkers. They are not even actually in the same family as sweet chestnuts. There are three varieties that you're likely to find in a park near you, but they are sadly inedible. They can, however, be used much like soap nuts for washing clothes. 

If you cut the nuts open, peel off the outer brown shell & then cut in to small pieces, cover with cold water in a jar then within a few hours you'll have a well saponified handy washing liquid.

Now back to our sweet chestnuts- no matter which way you cook them: roasting in the oven, over the fire or boiling, you'll need to cut a cross in the top of each one.

I have worked with them all ways and have decided that it's just easiest to boil them.

Cover the nuts with cold water, bring them to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the cut skins begin to curl back.

Leaving all the chestnuts in the pot of hot water you then take them out a few at a time to remove the hard outer shell and the thin inner brown covering that surrounds each nut. They are only workable if they're still hot, so pop them back in to the water in the pot if they start to get a bit hard to work with.

Quite a performance, but worth it. Chestnuts have a very short shelf life- only 2 or 3 days but can be frozen for up to 3 months. They can now be added in to autumn/winter dishes or tossed in butter, salt & pepper in a cast iron fry pan- delicious!

This week I made a feijoa crumble. 

In the topping I added 1/2 cup of chestnut meal, 1/2 cup of ground acorn meal, a cup of white spelt flour, 1/3 cup of brown sugar & enough butter rubbed in to make it all moist but crumbly.

If you'd like to have a go at using acorns you can find my post about them here.

Katie X

Acorns

A wonderful thing to forage for in autumn are acorns. There are so many kinds of oak trees and therefore so many kinds of acorns. All acorns are edible but they are also full of tannins and need to be well prepared before eating.

Last year I fiddled around soaking & cooking acorns from the park, only to find that they were too hard to work with and way too much trouble.

This season I've learnt that the evergreen oak acorns are sweeter and much easier to process. They also taste amazing- so sweet and like a mix of caramel and toffee flavours!

Amazingly there are loads of these trees in parks all around town.

Quercus Ilex. There are a few varieties of evergreen oaks, but these ones are great and easily accessible.

They fall to the ground when they're ready. 

They look just like any other acorn.

I had a go at cracking them just picked, but they were very hard and when I tasted the nut they had that familiar tannin taste- astringent and not good to eat.

However, once baked in the oven for 20-25 minutes the tannins disappeared, the nuts cracked easily but were still soft inside and great to work with.

This was a good colour to end up with.

At this stage they are still easy to chop up. I then processed them in small batches in an old coffee grinder, until pretty finely ground.

This topping for a feijoa crumble worked really well.

I added 1/2 cup of chestnut meal, 1/2 cup of ground acorn meal, a cup of white spelt flour, 1/3 cup of brown sugar & enough butter rubbed in to make it all moist but crumbly.

 The extra made these biscuits- crisp and delicious.

 Here is the acorn meal with some toasted ground Linden seeds. The Linden seeds really do taste like chocolate.

 This small batch of biscuits were made as a basic shortbread- 1/3 cup of acorn meal, a 1/3 cup of ground almonds, 3/4 cup of white flour (spelt), 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 100 grams of butter. Add a tsp of vanilla essence if you like.
Cream the butter and sugar, stir in the flours. Chill  for an hour or so & then roll out, cut and bake in a moderate oven for around 20 minutes.

 This same mixture made the most brilliant pie crust for pumpkin pie- recipe here.

There's so much more to explore about acorns and oaks. They are delicious and so worth the effort to prepare.I am not sure yet about their keeping qualities, but using them in their season right now has been an excellent idea.

One other thing I have made with them- is a jelly.

After reading Kiva Rose's post just here about using acorns, I simmered a handful of toasted acorns in water to make a hot drink. I loved the flavour and decided that the liquid would make a wonderful jelly. Sweetened with honey and set with good gelatine- truly delicious.

Katie X

Aquafaba Mayonnaise

Ok, so this sounds like the weirdest thing ever and honestly- what the heck is an aquafaba?
Well it's what you make with the liquid left over from cooking chickpeas or the liquid that's in the tin with chickpeas when you open a can, and it's brilliant!
A light, great tasting and versatile mayonnaise that keeps really well & only takes a few minutes too make.
I simply strain off the liquor from a tin of chickpeas, or use half a cup of the cooking liquid if you made them yourself. Cold would be best, rather than warm.
Then in to a blender (or use a hand mixer) add:
~ A tbsp of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, or infused apple cider vinegar
~ salt, pepper, a good spoonful of wholegrain mustard
~ Any fresh herbs that you like
~ 1 tbsp honey

Blend for a few minutes until frothy, then slowly drizzle in about a 1/2- 1 cup of olive oil
Keep processing & adding the oil until you hear it thicken up.

That's it!
Pour in to a jar. Pop on the lid and you now have a delicious light mayonnaise.

Katie X

Pumpkin Pie With Acorn Crust

Goodness, I haven't made a pumpkin pie for years. I used to make them often when we lived in Hawera some 30 odd years ago. And since it's Easter and here we are in "Lock Down"- just the two of us together in this surreal time of the Covid19 pandemic & we have pumpkins that we grew down at the Eversley Community Garden sitting on our front porch, I decided that pumpkin pie would be a lovely thing to make. I never have quite understood why we Down Under just tagged along with the Northern Hemisphere all this time and never bothered to create meaningful Easter rituals and practises of our own. Because, quite frankly, it's autumn and harvest time here not spring!

Having some time on my hands and needing to take walks in the sunshine has given me a wonderful opportunity to wander in my neighbourhood and see what I could forage and make use of. I happened to have just been reading Kiva Rose's post & her use of evergreen acorns when I came across this Holm Oak- Quercus Ilex tree in the Duke street reserve. Last year I had a go with English Oak acorns but all that soaking and faffing around to leach out the tannins was a bit much.  

 So  I took Kiva at her word and roasted a handful of acorns for 20 minutes or so until dark brown.

 They have a lovely thin shell so are easily peeled.

Next I chopped the acorns up a bit more & then ground them in a coffee grinder (I have an extra grinder that I use for such things). Acorns are way too hard for a regular food processor to cope with. As fine as possible is good. To make the pastry for the pumpkin pie:

Cream 100 grams of softened unsalted butter with 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar. I used a lovely Trade Aid Muscovado sugar, but coconut sugar would be fine too. 

Add in the ground acorns- 1/3 cup

And a 1/3 cup of ground almonds

Then add 3/4-1 cup of flour- I use German white spelt flour.

1/2 tsp of ginger & 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

Lastly a pinch of salt.

Mix altogether in to a nice firm dough.

 Pop in to the fridge to chill for for an hour or so.

 Press in to a greased pie dish- or in this instance two dishes as that was all that seemed suitable in the cupboard.

Now for the pumpkin custard bit:

Cook chopped pumpkin until tender & blend well using a stick blender.

A potato masher would do just fine but I like the silky texture of the pumpkin this way.

You should end up with a really good cupful

 Mix in a tsp ground ginger, a tsp cinnamon & a a good grating of nutmeg to the pumpkin.
Along with 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar.
Mix altogether & leave it to sit while you assemble the other things.

 Once cooled pour off any extra liquid that has settled out of the pumpkin & then beat in 2 eggs & 3/4 cup of cream.

 Pour in to the prepared base & bake for around 40 minutes at 150 C
Or until the custard has set.

Serve with cream.

I will refine this recipe when I make it again but this version was just delicious & the base was gorgeous. Acorns have the loveliest flavour- a unique combination of caramel & toffee. 

The texture was light & highly digestible.

The extra dough I made in to biscuits & cooked them alongside the pie.

They are light & crunchy & fabulous!

Katie X