Chocolate Chip Acorn Bar Cookies--Week 3 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I made a very exciting discovery when figuring out this week's cookie recipe.  Acorn flour can actually be used as a straight wheat flour substitute.  This is fantastic!  That means people on gluten-free diets don't have to be slaves to the super high grocery store prices for gluten-free products.  There is an alternative.  It is also fantastic since flour was one of the few things I was still feeling like I'd have to buy from the store until I get some fairly serious land to grow my own, and now that isn't true either.  I probably will still have to buy quite a bit this year, since I found out this miraculous tidbit so late into the acorn season, but next year, gathering acorns will definitely take more of a priority!  Acorn flour does make a denser baked product though, so for flavor/texture preference, I probably won't use anything stronger than a blend of acorn flour and wheat flour for now.  In theory though, you could make these cookies gluten-free by upping the acorn flour (at least some would have to be flour and not meal at that point) to 2 1/2 cups and omitting the whole wheat flour.

(Note:  if you're new here and haven't started gathering acorns for these great recipes, or you live in one of the few-ish places in the world that doesn't have acorn trees, but still want to make these cookies, you should be able to find hazelnut flour at a health food store.  It should give you a fairly similar flavor, I would think.  It is expensive though!)

So how do you make acorn flour?  Once you've made your acorn meal, as described in my previous post on this subject (or one of the many other ways floating around the internet), just grind it again to get a finer, flour-sized product.

Chocolate Chip Acorn Bar Cookies

1 cup butter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup acorn meal or flour (or combination)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Remove from heat.  Beat in honey, sugar, and egg.  Stir in flour, acorn meal, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan, 15 1/2 x10 1/2 x 1 inch.  Bake 20 minutes.  Cool before cutting into desired sizes.

Here's what everyone else has been baking this week for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies: