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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

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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

acorn cookies make like shortbread

Acorn Maple Shortbread Cookies

By Hank Shaw on October 7, 2013, Updated July 3, 2020 - 40 Comments

If you want to know what I am munching as I hit the road for a very long book tour, it’s these cookies. Acorn flour makes a damn good shortbread because shortbread doesn’t really need gluten to be good. These are nutty and sweet, with a hint of vanilla and maple.

Read More about Acorn Maple Shortbread Cookies

gooseberry sorbet recipe in a parfait glass

Gooseberry Sorbet

By Hank Shaw on July 30, 2013, Updated June 22, 2020 - 1 Comment

Gooseberries are among the tartest, most aromatic of all our berries. No matter what variety you find, grow or buy, you can make a pretty sorbet from the juice of the berries. Perfect for a hot summer dessert.

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wild cranberry sauce recipe

Wild Cranberry Sauce

By Hank Shaw on December 23, 2012, Updated June 22, 2020 - 17 Comments

Cranberry sauce has been part of the American holiday tradition for more than two centuries. It is a perfect accompaniment to roast turkey or venison, pork, wild boar or bear. And while this is a pretty classic recipe, it is made with real wild cranberries from New England.

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walnut snowball cookies recipe

Black Walnut Snowball Cookies

By Hank Shaw on December 12, 2012, Updated May 22, 2020 - 15 Comments

Snowball cookies were my favorite Christmas cookie when I was growing up. My mum made them with regular walnuts, but my rendition of this classic cookie uses wild black walnuts, plus a little orange liqueur.

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wintergreen ice cream recipe

Wintergreen Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

By Hank Shaw on November 1, 2012, Updated November 9, 2017 - 8 Comments

Wintergreen ice cream. Why not? I love regular mint ice cream, and after my friend Nate and I foraged for a bunch of wintergreen berries on Cape Ann in Massachusetts a couple weeks ago, I reckoned this would be a cool way to use them… no pun intended.

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wild ginger ice cream recipe

Wild Ginger Ice Cream

By Hank Shaw on June 29, 2012, Updated June 22, 2020 - 15 Comments

A surprisingly wonderful ice cream from a surprisingly wonderful wild plant. Wild ginger grows on the forest floors of much of the United States, and, when eaten in moderation, is different – yet just as good – as the ginger you buy in the store.

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pine nut ice cream recipe

Pine Nut Ice Cream

By Hank Shaw on December 31, 2011, Updated June 23, 2020 - 10 Comments

Pine nuts from America’s Great Basin are among the best in the world. Combine them with some desert wildflower honey I bought in Arizona and you have one spectacular ice cream.

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black walnut ice cream recipe

Black Walnut Ice Cream

By Hank Shaw on November 6, 2011, Updated January 24, 2021 - 35 Comments

Black walnut season has started, and my favorite thing to do with these hard-to-crack nuts is make ice cream. My version gives you a double-dip of black walnut flavor.

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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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