Acorn Shortbread

Back in October I wrote about the laborious process of making acorn flour.  I only was able to process three batches before my acorns deemed too wormy to continue.  My scant cup and a half of flour has been waiting in my 'fridge since then for a recipe worthy of my efforts.  Friends have had scads of ideas but all of them included lots of added flavor.  For all of my hard work I wanted the subtle nutty acorn-ness of the flour to come through.  Finally I decided on a simple shortbread.

All of my cookies start out, usually, with the original Betty Crocker Cookie Book.  It's where I learned to bake back in the 70's and it never fails.  The original shortbread recipe has been slightly altered to allow for my handcrafted flour (and my tendencies towards whole and organic foods).  At one time in my early adulthood I used to collect cookie cutters.  I still have them and to my delight there was an acorn leaf shape.  Perfection!

Acorn Shortbread

3/4 cup unsalted organic butter
1/4 cup unrefined sugar
1/2 cup acorn flour
1 and 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 t salt
fleur de sel

Mix butter and sugar thoroughly.  Work in flour and salt with hands.  Chill dough for at least one hour.  Heat oven to 350.  Roll dough out to 1/3 to 1/2" thick.  Cut to desired shape.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel.  Place on ungreased baking sheet for 20 to 25 minutes.  Allow to cool before removing from pan or cookies will crack.