Fermented Pine Needle Ice Cream
Pine needles can be gathered throughout the year, which makes them perfect for a winter forage.
This tree offers many feast worthy foods and medicines, from its nutrition rich pollen, and young pine cones (which make heaven scented syrups), to its naturally anti microbial resin and phytochemical rich bark, even the inner tree bark is used for traditional breads in Finland.
What a tree!
There are approximately 120 different species of pine worldwide, and our local native variety in the Northeast is white pine, distinguished by its 3 needle leaf bundle.
As always, make sure to gather needles away from an urban setting and look for freshly fallen needles on the ground before taking any from the tree's twigs.
A simple herbal tea with snipped up pine needles is an excellent way to get a dose of vitamin C, fight off respiratory infections, and taste the uplifting lemon scented freshness while you contemplate your 2022 goals.
The ice cream recipe I created is simple but like all my recipes, it does have an alternative twist with one of the ingredients...
The Coolest Ferment You Might Not Know…
Allow me to introduce you to Amasake! If you haven't discovered this fermented drink yet, then it's time to get acquainted. This is one of the multitude of delicious fermented foods that Japan has introduced the rest of the world to, and it's made with the national bacteria of Japan, Koji.
Koji is used to create miso, soy sauce, tamari, sake and a slew of other umami tasting foods.
I discovered koji last year while reading Koji Alchemy, an incredible introduction on the topic, and after a year of bathing my brain in Koji learning, I am getting the hang of the alchemy part!
Amasake is traditionally made with koji fermented rice, cooked rice and water, but I fell in love with this recipe to create an oat based version and it works beautifully in the ice cream.
If you don't want to learn how to grow koji, or make amasake, you can purchase rice based readymade amasake online, or perhaps at a Japanese supermarket, and use this as your foundation for the recipe.
All you need is cashew nuts, pine needles, grated orange rind, raw honey, the amasake, and that's it!
The Recipe
1 cup oat amasake. (If using ready made amasake, then add enough water to create a milk like consistency).
1/2 cup raw unsalted cashew nuts. (Soak the cashews for 8 hours in water with a pinch of salt, and rinse before using)
1 tablespoon of raw honey or maple syrup, if you prefer
A few peelings of fresh organic orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons of pine powder, (if dried)*, or 1 tablespoon of chopped up fresh pine needles.
*If you are using a regular blender, use dried pine, and pre-grind the needles in a designated coffee grinder to make a fine powder. Alternatively, if you have a high speed blender, like a Vitamix, you will be able to use the fresh pine needles to create a fine enough powder. Whatever you use, make sure there are no visible pieces of pine in the ice cream, as texturally the needle pieces are not appealing to eat.
Method
Add all the ingredients to a blender and mix until smooth, then pour the mix into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s settings.
The ice cream tastes best when it has been allowed to melt to the consistency of a soft serve.
The wild dessert was a hit with my family over the holidays and it is incredibly creamy even though the only fat is coming from the cashew nuts.
I have been concocting with pine all month, and even made a pine resin infused white chocolate bark. That was delicious! You can take a peek at my instagram post to see the results.
Lastly, if your interest in koji has been sparked, I am teaching a miso making class this month and you can find that and all the other new class listings, including incense making, medicine making, winter skincare, and a soup class in my upcoming classes.
Happy 2022!