This text is part of the special Plaisirs booklet
What if this year you tried to “localize” your holiday dessert recipes? The Quebec terroir is rich in boreal spices that can easily replace traditional cinnamon, vanilla and other exotic herbs. Discover five plants from here to add to your homemade cakes, pies, creams and other sweets.
Pine grove spikenard
The spikenard is the kitten (flower) of the traveling comptonia, a boreal shrub that resembles a fern. This plant is found in particular in Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean, since it grows abundantly in blueberry fields. The taste of spikenard is reminiscent of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and a bit of honey. It is sold in dried or ground buds and is a particularly good complement to chocolate desserts or those made from apples, such as crumbles, pies and cakes.
Starting at $ 13, on the Racines boréales online store
Melilot
Sweet clover is a wild plant made up of long clusters of small white flowers found throughout Quebec. It is sometimes given the nickname of boreal vanilla since, once dried, it gives off sweet aromas of Tonka bean and almonds. It is harvested meticulously in order to protect its delicate flowers, which are then sorted with the tongs and transformed into gasoline or dried. Sweet clover is used exactly like vanilla: by adding a few drops of essence or powder to cakes, to pancake or waffle batter mixes or even to flavor a Panna cotta.
$ 26, on the Gourmet Sauvage online store
Burdock
Burdock is found throughout the province, often at the edge of fields or woodlands. It is easily recognized by its thistles, those small sticky balls that cling to our clothes when we pass too close to the plant. These are the roots of burdock that can be eaten in a number of ways. Indeed, when dried and then ground, the roots give off aromas of nuts. This powder is added to pastries or to homemade ice cream. We also find burdock in the form of nuggets: this is called broken toque. Ideal for people with nut allergies, they can replace almonds and hazelnuts in desserts.
Starting at $ 4, on the Trésors Boréals online store
Bee flower
Honey beetle is a perennial plant native to North America. Its ruffled pink-mauve flowers give off an intense scent reminiscent of rose or geranium. The powder that is obtained after having dried and ground the flowers has a taste similar to that of bergamot, this small green citrus slightly bitter and a little sweet. Moreover, we sometimes give the nickname of wild bergamot to the bee-nut. It gives a pleasant flavor to homemade marshmallows, scones, shortbread cookies and a fruit salad.
$ 16, on the Épices de cru online store
Balsam fir
It’s hard to talk about holiday season flavors without mentioning the king of the boreal forest, our famous balsam fir. We use it as a decoration in our living room, but it is also possible to cook it! The young shoots of balsam fir, which are picked in the spring and then dried, are very aromatic and give off unique fruity and woody aromas. Balsam fir powder goes particularly well with chocolate (such as the chocolate-mint duo) and vanilla (or sweet clover!). To try as a glaze for cupcakes or for the Yule log.
$ 6.50, on the Herboréal online store