Sweets
Evergreen Syrup
Spruce tip syrup used to be quite popular back in the day. It was used throughout Europe and by the pioneers in North America. Since Spruce tips grow in the spring, this syrup would have been a seasonal type of medicine. I generally make my evergreen syrup using needles and cones as these parts of the plant are most readily available, and have medicinal value as well.
Energetically, evergreens are super appropriate to use as medicine throughout the winter. Although most of the trees have lost their leaves by now, evergreens remain green, showing us that nature lives all year long. Evergreens are also helpful with the particular ailments that abound during the cold and dark season.
For the following recipe, I harvested from Norway spruce (Picea abies) and White pine (Pinus alba). Not the time of year for the tips so I used needles, twigs, cones. It turned out quite delightful with a predominantly sweet taste and evergreen-almost citrus undertones.
Evergreen Syrup Recipe:
- White pine needles, some twig ~2 oz weight (other pine species can be used)
- Spruce needles, 2 cones ~2 oz weight (other spruce species can be used)
- Filtered water to cover
- Honey- half of the amount of decoction that remains (a 1:2 ratio honey:decoction)
- Water added to evergreens
The weights are listed because I had them handy, however there is no set amount – it all depends on how much syrup you want to make. Put the plant material in a pot and cover with water. Bring this to a boil and then lower to simmer until the liquid is halved. I used a spoon as a measuring stick. You can also have a measuring cup handy to pour the liquid back and forth until it measures half of water added.
Reducing the decoction to half of the original liquid took almost ten hours. The liquid is then strained out, put back in the pot without the needles, and then the honey is added. The amount of honey to add is equal to half the amount of concentrate, so 8 ounces of concentrate would require 4 ounces of honey, or a 2:1 ratio. Warm and stir the mixture, and the syrup is done!
Medicinal Uses for the Syrup
Tree medicine is very powerful when grounding is needed. It fosters opening up to old wisdom, and letting oneself be cared for by the Earth. The evergreen forest is quiet, and feels limitless and mysterious. Evergreen syrup is good medicine for reflecting, meditating, and otherwise conjuring up introspective energy.
Decomposition of evergreen needles lowers the surrounding soil pH to provide a particularly acidic environment, a fact that I find interesting and relevant to its use as an antiseptic.
In Europe, pine products have been used as medicine since the Middle Ages, and their medicinal properties are pretty uniform across the Pinus genus. It acts as a stimulating antiseptic for respiratory infections and stuck mucus, and is useful for bronchitis, and at onset of colds and flu to stop infection. Pine is also used for coughs and asthma.
Spruce is useful to cut phlegm in the throat and lungs, and for opening air passages. It is high in vitamin C content, and can also be helpful for bladder conditions and in cases of leucorrhea.
Overall, Spruce and Pine syrup is great medicine to have on hand during the winter and early spring season. It can be used for acute illness, and as a winter tonic to provide a bit of sunshine in the form of a local source of vitamin C.
Evergreen syrup is also really tasty, making it an easy medicine to work with as it can be added to hot water, porridge, pancakes, or taken straight.
From: Herb Geek
Coconut Pine Cookies
Boreal forest meets tropical fruit in a shortbread cookie.
Ingredients
- 3 cups unbleached flour
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 10 tbsp pine powder
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
If you are unfamiliar with pine powder, it’s very simple to make, here’s a link: Pine Powder.
Place all dry ingredients into a bowl. In another bowl blend together melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend well.
Roll cookie dough into balls about 3/4 the size of a golf ball and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Use a fork to flatten the cookies until they are about 1/4” thick.
Bake at 350°F for about 10-12 minutes. Makes about 5-6 dozen.
Found at: Edible Wild Food
Pine Cookies
Pine needle cookies that taste great. No pine nuts are used in this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups unbleached flour
- 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
- 8 tbsp white or red pine powder
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions:
If you are unfamiliar with pine powder, it’s very simple to make, here’s a link: Pine Powder.
Place all dry ingredients into a bowl. In another bowl blend together melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend well.
Roll cookie dough into balls about 3/4 the size of a golf ball and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Use a fork to flatten the cookies until they are about 1/4” thick.
Bake at 325°F for about 10-12 minutes.
Makes about 5-6 dozen.
Found at: Edible Wild Food
How To Make Molasses
Take pumpkins, boil them, press the juice out of them, and boil the juice to a proper consistence. There is nothing else necessary. The author of this book, John George Hohman has tasted this molasses, thinking it was the genuine kind, until the people of the house told him what it was.
Easy Peppermint Chocolate Fudge
This easy peppermint chocolate fudge is made with only 5 ingredients and takes 5 minutes to make and 1 hour to set. It is infused with amazing peppermint essential oil and is gluten and dairy free.
Ingredients
- 250 grams cashew butter
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 6 drops peppermint essential oil
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender/food processor/thermomix and blend until smooth.
- Spoon the mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and smooth over with a spatula.
- Place into the freezer for approximately 1 hour to set.
- Take out of the freezer and cut into desired portion sizes.
Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups buckwheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅓ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Beat together sugars with butter until smooth. Add in egg, vanilla, and honey, beating well. Combine dry ingredients, including chocolate chips, in a large bowl and cover with wet ingredient mixture. Form 2-inch balls of dough and create rows on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly brown.
From: Jen Reviews
Coconut Stuffed Limes
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 12 medium-large limes, rinsed well
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- Green food coloring (optional)
- 2 cups shredded fresh coconut
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil over high heat, add 1 teaspoon of the baking soda, stir to combine, and then add the limes. Cook at a soft simmer until slightly tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the limes from the water with a slotted spoon and let cool.
Make a small incision in the top of each lime with a sharp paring knife and carefully scrape out the flesh, making sure you don’t tear the rind; discard the filling. Return the intact rinds to the pot, add cold water to cover, and stir in the remaining 1 teaspoon baking soda. Bring to a boil, strain, and repeat this process (without any more baking soda) 3 more times to remove the bitterness from the limes.
Return the limes to the pot, add cold water to cover, then stir in 1 1/2 cups of the sugar and a few drops of food coloring. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until the syrup has thickened to the consistency of corn or maple syrup, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, let cool completely in the syrup, then transfer the limes to a wire rack and let dry.
Combine the coconut, the remaining 1 cup sugar, and the 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the coconut is soft, almost translucent, and thick. Let cool until it is safe to handle.
Fill the limes with the coconut mixture and let cool completely. Eat by biting into the lime. Store in an airtight container lined with parchment paper in a cool, dry place for up to 2 months.
From: The Splendid Table
A Crumpet Recipe
What is a crumpet? This traditional British teatime treat is midway between English muffin and pancake. Like an English muffin, it’s full of holes, perfect for collecting rivulets of melted butter. But it’s also moister and thinner – more like a small pancake.
These are best enjoyed toasted, and spread with butter, jam, and/or clotted cream. Since their holes reach to the outside crust, there’s no need to split them before toasting.
You can make crumpets without English muffin rings (or cleaned tuna cans), but they’ll be perfectly round and ever so much nicer looking if you use rings. Here’s a recipe from King Arthur Flour.
A Great Crumpet Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Instructions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. A stand or hand mixer, set on high speed, work well here.
Cover the bowl, and let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour. It will expand and become bubbly. Towards the end of the rest, preheat a griddle to medium-low, about 325°F. If you don’t have an electric griddle, preheat a frying pan; it shouldn’t be as hot as the temperature you use to cook pancakes.
Lightly grease the griddle or frying pan, and place well-greased 3 3/4″ English muffin rings in the pan, as many as will fit. (If you don’t have English muffin rings, use well-cleaned tuna cans, from which you’ve removed the top and bottom.) Pour sticky batter by the scant 1/4-cupful into each ring; a muffin scoop works well here.
After about 4 minutes, use a pair of tongs to slip the rings off. Cook the crumpets for a total of about 10 minutes on the first side, until their tops are riddled with small bubbles/holes. They should be starting to look a bit dry around the edges. Their bottoms will be a mottled, light-golden brown.
Note: They probably won’t be as full of holes as store-bought crumpets; that’s OK.
Turn the crumpets over, and cook for an additional 5 minutes, to finish cooking the insides and to brown the tops gently. This isn’t traditional; “real” crumpets are white on top, but the crumpet police won’t chastise you for adding a little color to the tops.
Remove the crumpets from the pan, and repeat with the remaining batter, until all the crumpets are cooked. Serve warm. Or cool completely, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. To enjoy, warm in the toaster. Serve with butter, or butter and jam.
Borrowed from: The Prosperity Project
Candied Lemon Balm Leaves
This is a favorite kid activity around here! Beat an egg white with a tiny bit of water. Dip fresh lemon balm leaves in the mixture, then dip in sugar. Lay the coated leaves on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in a 200°F oven until the leaves look dry, but not browned. Check after 20 minutes and every 5 to 10 after that.
Use to decorate ice cream, cakes, cookies, cupcakes and other confections.
Found at: The Nerdy Farm Wife
Lemon Balm-Apple Sorbet
Ingredients:
- 2 large apples, chopped
- 1 cup lemon balm leaves
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup honey
- Juice of 2 lemons
Puree apples and lemon balm in a blender or food processor. Transfer puree to a sauce pan. Add water and honey. Simmer over low heat until thick and bubbly. Strain. Add lemon juice, stir briskly, and cool. Place mixture in an ice cream maker and freeze. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, freeze, then blend the mixture just before serving. Garnish with fresh lemon balm sprigs, and serve with scones or tea biscuits.
FREAKING DELISH!!!
Found at: Bay Witch Musings
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I think it's time to go shopping... maybe even buy some really cool stuff at my online shops!!
