Do acorns have to be brown before you bake them to dry them out?!? URGENT FOR BIOLOGY PROJECT DUE TUESTDAY!!! 11/13/14!!!

Only cooking homework... I don't do trigonometry !

Hooray for you, and hooray for the Food 52 Homework Rangers!

Hello everyone!!! I got my grade for my project. The brownies were so yummy!!! My class loved them, and my teacher said they are the best shes had in a while. I got 45/40 points!!! Thanks to all who helped

Here's a recipe for Oak Ice Cream from the NY Times that uses oak chips: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016055-oak-ice-cream

I know people who have baked acorns for crafts like wreaths and whatnot, and have heard that they leave behind an AWFUL stink after baking.

There is a recipe for Italian Pignoli cookies on this site.. Pignoli..( pine nuts) can be very expensive, so you may want to look for a recipe that requires A ore modest amount of them.

Thanks , everyone who helped. I reluctantly e-mailed my teacher... who wants to talk to their students on weekend?!? She said I could use store bought pine nuts, as long as I do enough research to be able to describe the harvesting project. She said we can eat green ones, but they might make us sick (not poisonous), because of the tannins. That is what make them bitter, we not as accustomed to eating them so it might irritate our stomachs. They ripen because of heat, sunlight, and airing out. As they ripen, some of these tannins "disappear" or "evaporate". I was so scared I would get marked down for using store bought nut, that I refused to give up on my acorns. I didn't want to ruin my teacher's weekend with work. I'm such people pleaser!!! Thanks for all your help!!! I'll update you with how it tuned out, and my grade.

Maybe you can choose the sugar maple and do something lovely with Maple syrup. No more competition with squirrels ! Let us all know how your project goes.

Thanks, I know right?!? I e-mailed her, she said using bought pine nuts is fine as long as I am able to explain now to harvest them. She said green acorns, aren't poisonous, because they aren't fully ripe, they are more bitter and may irritate some stomach's, depending on our body, and what it likes or can handle

Or, "Your Best Squirrel Recipe." Actually I've had squirrel and it's not bad if braised... can be a bit dry otherwise. (Sorry, all... I'm just desperately trying to avoid doing laundry.)

I think Food52 needs to have a contest for your best Acorn recipe. :-) There's an awful lot of info out there about how to harvest and process them. Makes me wonder why they aren't sold just like other tree nuts.

Oh boy.. Science projects due tomorrow...been there , done that ! I know that acorn flour was used by native Americans, but there are many varieties of oak trees. I'm not sure if they are all equally edible, or if they need to be roasted before using. Have you checked books by Euell Gibbons, a famous wild food forager? He wrote a book for the outward bound program called "A WILD WAY TO EAT" .. Which might include some tips on acorns. I agree that you might ask for a little more time for your assignment. No teacher wants you to get sick for the sake of a science project. Good luck.

Yikes! Renae, this is a case where you must tell your teacher your need more safety guidelines. If acorns without caps might have worms, and green acorns might be poisonous, why is your teacher asking you to cook with any kind of acorn without explicit guidelines? There are other ways to study trees and shrubs! You should not take the responsibility of anyone getting sick!

I googled "do acorns need to be brown before drying" and the info popped up immediately. It says they must be brown or they are unripe and unedible possibly even poisonous. It also says they will ripen off of the tree. This was all from Wiki-how. There was more info and a link to directions how to make acorn flour.

I'm not sure, but they're not going to get brown by Tuesday, right? So it doesn't really matter. You could do a test and bake some to dry them out and taste a couple. If you don't HAVE to make brownies, maybe chop them up in a blender or food processor and make some home-made granola with them instead of brownies?

Google "how to cook with acorns." Here's one link I found. The part about not using acorns that don't have caps seems important... it means they probably contain worms. Ick! http://www.livestrong.com/article/471623-how-to-cook-acorns/

You need to do some research of your own to learn the process of making acorns edible. Look for an experienced forager in your community, go to the library and look at books on wild foods or foraging, or try to find some RELIABLE sources on the web. You might look for some of James Duke's books on wild foods.