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Finding the Forgotten Feast

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Dessert Recipes

A selection of recipes for snacks and desserts featuring wild edible plants. You'll find baked goods, ice creams, cookies and cakes, all using wild nuts and berries.

A plate of pine nut cookies.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

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•  Recipes: Ice Creams & Ices | Booze & Brewing | Baked Goods | Wild Syrups

•  Our Latest Posts

Ice Creams and Ices

I love making ice cream with wild ingredients, and, where something creamy isn't appropriate, ices and sorbets.

Some of my favorites are wild mint leaf ice cream, paw paw ice cream, and black walnut ice cream, which is also great with butternuts or hickory nuts.

I also make a damn good gooseberry and blackberry sorbet.

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Booze and Brewing

Infused liqueurs, wild beers and wines, even wild champagnes are big favorites. It's an important way to preserve the aromas and flavors of many wild foods.

Some of my most popular recipes are elderberry wine, elderflower liqueur - and elderflower champagne - as well as spruce tip beer, and my all time favorite wild brew, a red ale fermented on wild juniper yeast I call Junipine.

Fir tip ale recipe
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

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Baked Goods

I am not a natural baker, but I do have a few recipes for baked goods I am happy with, mostly cookies and simple cakes. Especially cookies.

The pretty picture at the top of this page is of my pine nut cookies, and some of my other popular baked goods include persimmon bread, olive oil rosemary cake, butternut squash bread, fig bread, huckleberry muffins, butternut cookies and anise cookies made with wild fennel seeds.

And come holiday time, venison mincemeat pies are well worth the effort - sweet, tart, savory, fatty, and crunchy, they check all the boxes.

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Wild Syrups

One of the most versatile things you can do with a wild fruit or aromatic herb is to make a simple syrup with it. This brings out the flavor of the fruit, and is shelf stable.

My most popular wild syrup is prickly pear syrup, but I also make a mean spruce tip syrup, that also works with pine or fir, a simple blackberry syrup, and an intriguing fig syrup that is great on ice cream or pancakes.

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The Latest

A slice of olive oil rosemary cake with some preserved fruit and sherry.

Olive Oil Rosemary Cake

By Hank Shaw on January 20, 2023 - 8 Comments

A recipe for an olive oil rosemary cake with pine nuts. This is an Italian cake that isn’t too sweet, and is great with preserved fruit and a little liqueur.

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A plate of pine nut cookies.

Pine Nut Cookies

By Hank Shaw on November 10, 2022 - 10 Comments

How to make pine nut cookies, pignoli, with American pine nuts — although any kind of pine nut works. These cookies have a touch of rosemary in them and are not too sweet.

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Butternut Squash Bread

By Hank Shaw on October 3, 2022 - 7 Comments

My take on the classic, butternut squash bread is like pumpkin bread: A semi-sweet, breakfast type quickbread studded with pepitas.

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A slice of fig bread on a plate with Taylor ham.

Fig Bread

By Hank Shaw on September 1, 2022 - 9 Comments

A semi-sweet, moist fig and nut bread that’s great for breakfast or a snack; it’s a hybrid fig bread and fig cake. Walnuts add a nice crunch.

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A bowl of fig syrup.

Fig Syrup

By Hank Shaw on April 8, 2022, Updated April 19, 2022 - 5 Comments

Tired of maple syrup? Make fig syrup. You can use fresh or fried figs, wild or store-bought.

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Three scoops of elderberry ice cream in a bowl.

Elderberry Ice Cream

By Hank Shaw on May 30, 2021, Updated May 30, 2022 - Leave a Comment

I love ice creams. They are my main weakness when it comes to sweets, and I specialize in weird ice creams — herbs like yerba buena and fruits like this elderberry ice cream. Elderberries live in most states, and are ripe from June to September, depending on where you live. Only use ripe berries, as

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Blackberry panna cotta on a dessert plate.

Blackberry Panna Cotta

By Hank Shaw on May 12, 2021, Updated May 27, 2022 - 2 Comments

Blackberry panna cotta is a joy of summer, and can be made in several different ways that I’ll go through here. A traditional blackberry panna cotta would actually be a vanilla panna cotta with blackberry syrup and fresh or macerated blackberries on top, as in the picture. I prefer to infuse the blackberries in the

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A bottle of elderflower liqueur with a basket of elderflowers next to it.

Elderflower Liqueur

By Hank Shaw on May 27, 2020, Updated May 27, 2022 - 6 Comments

Making your own elderflower liqueur is a way to remember that moment when spring becomes summer, even in the depths of winter. Elderflowers are the color of butter and smell sweet and just a bit spicy. Their beauty fades fast, however. You will need to pick them before noon, as the aroma fades once the

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Hank Shaw holding a rod and reel in the American River

Hi, my name is Hank Shaw; I’m a James Beard Award-winning author and chef. I started this site back in 2007 to help you get the most out of all things wild: fish, game, edible wild plants and mushrooms. I also write cookbooks, have a website dedicated to the intersection of food and nature, and do a podcast, too. If it’s wild, you’ll find it here. Hope you enjoy the site!

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As seen on CNN, New York Times, Simply Recipes, Martha Stewart, Food and Wine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, and The Splendid Table

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