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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Wild Berry Frango

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Wild black cap raspberry frango dessert recipeWith the heat wave baking most of the U.S. this week, I reached for a tried and true, but most importantly, icy cold dessert to end a couple meals. Frango is a sort of half-frozen, old-timey dessert made from yogurt and cream, traditionally flavored with maple syrup. It’s a great thing to make if you don’t have an ice cream maker and are craving something cold, slightly sweet and refreshing. The traditional recipe only used maple syrup, but berries and cream is a combination that never tasted bad, so they’re easy to work into the mix.

Wild black raspberries, or blackcaps (Rubus occidentalis) are peaking right now, and if there’s a berry that screams summer more than them, I don’t know it. They’re one of my favorite berries, and probably the first berry that’s really worth picking in quantity if I had to rank them. They’re also just beautiful, and delicious, much lower in acid than red raspberries, with dark berry tones that, when perfectly ripe, are one of Nature’s perfect creations.

Wild black cap raspberry frango dessert recipe

Black caps scream summer to me.

But, alot of you around the country might not have access to black caps, so, just to be clear, you could use just about any berry you like here, which is why the title of the post and recipe reflects that. Raspberries and strawberries are great choices, but you can use a blend too–there’s really no wrong berry here.

One thing to talk about as an option though, is seeds. Blackcaps have seeds, just like other rapsberries, and I know some people (children) don’t care for them. With this recipe I like leaving the berries whole to give burst of flavor and color as you eat, but you could strain them out by pressing the yogurt mixture through a strainer.

Wild black raspberry frango dessert recipe

A final note on the texture of the berry frango. Since this isn’t churned, and is doesn’t include a liaison of eggs, cornstarch, or something similar, it’s going to crystalize a bit, which is natural, and the way it’s traditionally eaten. It is not meant to be eaten straight from the freezer though, it must be tempered for a bit to soften before eating. I think it’s about perfect when the edges start to melt, but the center is still firm.

Wild black raspberry frango dessert recipe

Wild black raspberry frango dessert recipe
Print Recipe
2.5 from 6 votes

Wild Berry Frango

A simple frango made from wild blackcap raspberries or other berries Makes 5 ½ cup ramekins
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Freezing time30 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Dessert, wild fruit

Ingredients

  • 1 cup thick Greek yogurt like Faye brand
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 heaping cup blackcap raspberries
  • 4 oz honey
  • Fresh lemon zest to taste

Instructions

  • Put the black raspberries or other berries in a small pan with half of the honey and simmer until they’ve given up their juice and it’s reduced by half, a few minutes.
  • Pour the liquid into a bowl, cool, then mix in the yogurt.
  • Chill the berry-yogurt completely.
  • Season the cream with lemon zest to taste, along with the rest of the honey. Whip the cream to soft peaks, then gently fold in the yogurt mix, which should be very cold.
  • Spoon the mixture into ramekins, it should be marbled and not completely even. Freeze the ramekins. To serve, take the frangos out and set a timer for 10 minutes so the cream can soften.
  • Garnish the top of each frango with a few berries, or a handful if you have them.
  • Do not just put the frango in front of people frozen and expect them to wait and not chip away at it, they really need to soften around the edges for the best result.

Wild black raspberry frango dessert recipe

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Comments

  1. Jacqui

    July 22, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    Hi Alan,
    I envy you black raspberries. They are, indeed, the best fruit ever. There is nothing so good in Europe and I really miss them. The gems of my childhood fruit gathering memories involve black raspberries.
    That said, I just made a blackberry frango with the first blackberries of the season here in the (very very dry) Paris region. It is excellent, but my husband is criticising the texture. He says the ice crystals are too big and he thinks that if I had added “enough” honey (I did not measure, and my husband has a serious sweet tooth and I have the opposite, so there is always some conflict over sugar content) the texture would be better and the ice crystals less of a problem.
    I intend to repeat this experiment with bog bilberries when we are in Northern Jutland in a few weeks for our annual two weeks of vacation with nothing to do but forage, cook and wander the beaches and dunes of Denmark’s north-western coast looking at birds and picking up tide-line corpses and sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca). We rent an old cottage near the northern tip of Denmark and about 500 meters from the beach that we have stayed in in mid-late August off and on over the last 20 years. I know the bilberry spots, the mushroom (Cantharellus, Boletus, Macrolepiota, Calvatia, Laccaria, Auricularia…) spots, the wild raspberry and blackberry spots, all the wild plum trees and the three wild or at least feral gooseberry bushes within walking or biking distance, which apple trees will have edible apples in August… yes I am looking forward to holidays. I think this year I will collect, clean and freeze the rosehips and bring them home to make jam here instead of making the jam there and transporting all that glass and sugar. It makes way more sense and I will not need to check any luggage… Let’s just hope that we are still allowed to fly, that our plane is not canceled and that they let us into Denmark from France in a few weeks time…

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine caps on hardwood sawdust from my lumberjack buddy.

Next up blewits. Spawn from @northsporemushrooms

#winecaps #strophariaaeruginosa #allthemushroomtags
It’s wild cherry season. I’ll be picking from It’s wild cherry season. I’ll be picking from my favorite spot tomorrow a.m. and have room for a couple helpers. It’s at an event on a farm just south of St. Cloud. 

If you’re interested send me a message and I’ll raffle off the spots. Plenty of cherries to go around. I’ll be leading a short plant walk around the farm too. 

#chokecherries #foraging #prunusvirginiana #summervibes
Special thanks to the beach in Ashland for hooking Special thanks to the beach in Ashland for hooking it up with on-site garnishes. Beach pea flowers taste strong and leguminous, similar to vetch, or like a rich tasting pea shoot. 

#lathyrusjaponicus #beachpeas #peaflower #foraging #northshore #bts
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