This is the dessert section, although since my favorite dessert is simply wild berries and cream or berries and a simple syrup, there are more wild berries recipes than anything else on this page. I use syrups to make homemade sodas, sorbets, granitas or to flavor ice creams; they’re also great for glazing meats. You’ll also find dessert recipes for wild nuts and a few other random things, like liqueur recipes.
CREAMY THINGS
A cooling wintergreen ice cream made with fresh wintergreen berries, studded with bittersweet chocolate chips.
Wintergreen Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips
A mint ice cream made by steeping fresh mint leaves in cream overnight, giving the ice cream a fuller, more herby mint flavor you can’t get with extract.
Wild Mint Leaf Ice Cream
Made with wild ginger, you’ll never taste anything quite like it.
Wild Ginger Ice Cream
Paw paws are native to the Eastern third of the United States, and have a beguiling, sweet aroma and a rich custardy texture. They make a fine ice cream, too.
Paw Paw Ice Cream
This is the best black walnut ice cream you will ever have. I guarantee it. My recipe has a secret to it. Read on to find out what it is…
Black Walnut Ice Cream
Almost as good as the black walnut ice cream, pine nut ice cream tastes very Italian. Be sure to toast the pine nuts first.
Pine Nut Ice Cream
I add a little creme fraiche to the ice cream to make it tangy. This recipe works well with salal berries, too.
Elderberry Ice Cream
Kinda like a dessert version of a blended blackberry yogurt, only creamier and smoother. This works with any bramble fruit
Blackberry Panna Cotta
BOOZE
How to Make Elderberry Wine
I’ve been making fruit wines for close to 20 years, and while my method is not simple, it produces a superior wine you can even give to snooty wine people!
Brewing Gruit and Other Herbal Beers
My thoughts on making beer with wild, native ingredients.
Making Gose Beer
This is a light, slightly tangy and salty beer that is fantastic in summertime. Like a Michelada without adding anything.
Spruce or Fir Tip Beer
An old style of beer updated. Think of it as a really piney, amber IPA. A really good beer. Juicy, with a long finish.
Elderberry Liqueur
A standby in my house. It doubles as after-dinner drink and medicine to boost your immune system. Not bad, eh?
Elderflower Liqueur
This is a similar liqueur you make with the flowers from an elderberry bush. It does not keep as as the berry liqueur, however.
Elderflower Champagne
A lighter drink from elderflowers. You can make this like a beer, mead or simple cider. I go through all options here.
FRUITY THINGS
Foraging Red Huckleberries
How to find, collect and use the Pacific red huckleberry. Yeah, I’m yer huckleberry…
Chinese Plum Sauce
A rich, tangy, spicy-sweet sauce made from wild plums. This is like Chinese BBQ sauce, only better. Slather it on anything, but it goes really well with duck.
Wild Cranberry Sauce
Wild cranberry sauce, made with maple syrup. Perfect for the holidays.
Gooseberry Sorbet
A tart yet smooth sorbet that tastes heavily of wild gooseberries.
Mulberry or Blackberry Sorbet
Mulberries, blackberries, really most berries will work with this recipe. It’s my standard for a sorbet.
Fig Jam with Ouzo
An adult jam, this is very Greek. Figs cooked down and then laced with Greek ouzo. Opa!
BAKED THINGS
Persimmon Bread with Nuts and Fruit
The best breakfast (or dessert) bread I make. Full of all kinds of awesome things
Acorn Maple Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread cookies made with acorn flour. These are full of energy and they store for a long time.
Black Walnut Snowball Cookies
A family favorite, this is a Christmas cookie with lots of names. Mexican tea cakes is another one.
Fennel Cookies
I call these “Bacchus Biscuits,” and they are a fantastic cookie that isn’t too sweet. I make them for on-the-road breakfasts.
Acorn Cake
Like an Italian chestnut cake, only made with acorn flour. It’s a very moist and a little crumbly cake.
Huckleberry Buttermilk Cake
A lovely recipe adapted from my friend Heidi Swanson.
Huckleberry Muffins
Tangy and sweet, I love these with blueberries and currants, too.
Sykomaitha: Greek Fig Cakes
Not exactly baked, but these little cakes are great traveling food. Or dessert.
SYRUPS
How to Make Mesquite Bean Syrup
One of the most amazing syrups you can make. Mesquite beans are naturally sweet, so you can reduce this to a stable syrup.
Hollyleaf Redberry Syrup
Yes, I know. Pretty esoteric. But if you live on the West Coast, this is a common July berry. Mix this syrup with buttermilk for a cool sherbert.
Blackberry Syrup
This is your basic syrup recipe for any bramble fruit. It’s good on pancakes, mixed with seltzer or vodka.
How to Make Elderberry Syrup
If you don’t like alcohol, make this syrup as an immune booster. Or dessert.
Elderflower Cordial
Syrup from the flowers of the elderberry. Like a homemade St. Germain base.
Prickly Pear Syrup
I love this in margaritas. It’s hot cactus on cactus action…
Spruce or Fir Tip Syrup
A very delicate syrup good in martinis, or to glaze gamebirds with.
Hi Hank…Like your site quite a lot…there are loads of food-related ones out there,
and you do an above and beyond excellent job!
Made the root beer syrup to rave reviews.
I was wondering if you’ve ever experimented w/ ginger syrup?
I have a few times…but mystified as to why:
-the syrup doesn’t thicken like the root beer syrup, tho I use same amount of liquid to sugar ratio as well as boiling time.
-ginger infusion seems to dissipate flavor-wise, in a short period of time, even tho it’s sealed and refrigerated. (my recipe is sugar, H2O, white pepper…I add lime juice when i’m adding club soda to it for a drink)
Today i’ll try making it w/ keeping the cover on pot….maybe the oils escaping in steam will ultimately make the flavor dissipate w/time…tho it won’t thicken at all because the water won’t be able to evaporate.)
Loads of science involved even in the simplest of recipes!
Any 2 cents from you would be appreciated.
Anne
I grew up on the beaches of Puget Sound– so did my dad and grandpa and great grandpa. We forage, fish and hunt. Now I’m in Ashland, OR and have discovered elderberries and turkeys. But– I also found a patch of Oregon Grape like I’ve never seen.
Aside from schnapps/liqueur — got any ideas? I know it’s considered a powerful medicinal berry– some Salish claim it was a cure for PSP if eaten in quantity– and they were mixed with salal berries, too. But– I’m hoping you may have a contemporary recipe or two.
Got the book and have given some copies away.
Thanks!
Good evening, Hank. I seriously enjoy your website. I am just starting to get into making jellies from the wild here in South FL. Can you recommend a book about jellies, thank you!
Lauri: I don’t make jelly, so I can’t help too much. Maybe books by Marisa McLellan or Cathy Barrow? They’re very good at that sort of thing.
Love the list. I would add Highbush Cranberry/Apple Butter. Amazing combination great on toast, ice cream or a spoonful added to plain yogurt. High in everything good for yo.