Googled how to use up a sad fennel bulb, fell into a rabbit hole about medieval bread laws

Yesterday I had one sad fennel bulb and a half bag of rye flour, so I searched for a simple swap and somehow ended up reading that in 13th century England bakers who put peas in bread got fined 20 shillings. That sent me down a full hour of learning how people used to stretch flour with chestnuts and acorns, which honestly sounds like the original pantry hack. Has anyone else ever tried substituting something weird like mashed beans or oatmeal in a quick bread and actually liked the result?

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the_max2d ago

Acorn flour is no joke, that stuff tastes like dirt no matter how much you soak it. The oatmeal trick works fine in banana bread if you blend it first, otherwise you get these weird gritty chunks. I've also done the black bean brownie thing and it's actually decent if you're desperate for fiber, just add extra cocoa and a shot of espresso to kill the beany taste.