Acorn Boule

I’ve mentioned before that we’re all decolonizing at different rates so substituting some acorn flour into this recipe, whether it’s one cup or one teaspoon, is an opportunity to connect and I can help if you need acorn flour. 

I wanted to make a nice sturdy loaf without the denseness of a full acorn flour bread so I mixed this with bread flour. You can use any flour you want, the ratios might be a little different for you, but messing around with flours to make your favorite acorn bread is very Indigenous of you, and everybody will love to slab some jam on your experiments. I know I mention fennel pollen a lot, but it is such an available seasoning, it grows everywhere, it’s not endangered in any way (it’s an invasive import from Italy) and you have very little chance of stepping on anybody’s toes in a fennel patch. It adds something really special to this bread so put it on your gathering list for late summer/early fall next year! This is also something that would be a great spice to trade for other ingredients as it’s rather expensive to purchase, and can be difficult to find. If you want to try some and it’s not in season I can send you a couple of teaspoons to play around with, email me at s.calvosa@gmail.com

Ingredients

1 cup acorn flour

2 cups bread flour

1.5 tsp yeast

1 tsp maple sugar (or regular sugar, or maple syrup)

1 tsp fennel pollen (optional)

1 1/2 c warmed water (slightly warmer than room temp, you want your yeast to bloom)

extra flour for dusting

Instructions

1. Mix together all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl

2. Add warmed water to dry ingredients to form a sticky wet dough ball.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel & set aside for 12 hours

5. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper and gently knead into a cohesive ball, you don’t want to punch out all the air bubbles.

6. Once it’s a ball, set it back in the bowl for 1 hour 

7. Preheat oven to 425, place a dutch oven with a lid into the oven to preheat as well

8. Pull the cast iron pan out of the oven and carefully place your dough ball in the dutch oven and cover with the lid.

9. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for 20 more minutes (I use a chopstick or skewer to check for doneness)

10. Cool on a rack

Voila, a ball of crusty delicious bread.