Acorn Cream Puffs

We had a sweet first day pouring with rain at the Kingston Farmer’s Market as Hungry Heart. Come out next Saturday (5/23) if you’re in the area, it will be even better!

Last week, we transformed my favorite store Chicory Naturalist in Kingston into an acorn processing workshop: A huge sheepskin was spread on the floor and set with baskets of dried nuts and lemon squeezers. The first kids who arrived were knighted as forest royalty with necklaces made from acorns strung through weevil-bored holes, and after about 5 seconds of instruction, they got to work cracking nuts. More guests filtered in, some of them enthusiasts of other nut varieties (chestnuts, black walnuts), some of them totally new to the native nut scene.

Sage opened the presentation with a talk about the work of The Giving Trees and the importance of using what the oaks have to offer us. Forming a relationship with those “gentle giants” is the only way we’re going to care enough to protect them and plant more, she said. Mark got into the nitty gritty of acorn flour making: which oaks to pick from (you can use any, but he usually finds red oaks), the importance of drying the nuts if you’re not processing right away, what the water looks like as you leach out the tannins. Meanwhile, the kids sat on the floor furiously cracking acorns as if it were a video game.

During the talk, I began plating acorn treats. First up was dotori-muk, a Korean acorn jelly made from acorn starch cooked with water until it thickens up like gelatin. I served each piece on a perilla leaf with sesame-soy seasoning sauce and scallions. I passed out slices of malted acorn black bread — my take on Russian Borodinsky, but with ground sprouted-and-roasted acorns for flavor instead of spices — with roasted acorn-infused honey butter (that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped it would). For dessert, we had acorn butter cookies (vegan and non-vegan) and acorn cream puffs. Mark and Sage brought containers of their famous acorn ice cream, which we served in small cups. There was plenty of everything for seconds and thirds, and the crowd pretty much cleaned us out.

For paid subscribers, I’m including the recipe for acorn cream puffs below. You’ll need both acorn flour and roasted acorns for this recipe — the flour contributes to the texture of the cream puffs, but doesn’t add much flavor, while the roasted acorn-infused cream is where you’ll discover the taste of acorns. I recognize that most people probably don’t have these things stocked in their kitchens, but you can get both from The Giving Trees!

This one had the batter piped rather than scooped, which makes it look more like a poop

Acorn Cream puffs