brownies

chocolate-orange-curly-dock-recipe

Wild Food Recipe: Chocolate Orange Curly Dock Brownies

Are brownies one of the most popular treats today? I will admit that I am not much of a baker. Cooking is my calling and I love to work with food but I find the strict nature of baking, where you have to measure every ingredient carefully, too restricting. So when it comes to baking recipes I need easy to make ideas that will allow that extra room for flexibility if I decide to put in an extra spoonful of chocolate. These wild curly dock brownies turned out to be super simple and super tasty. chocolate-orange-brownie-recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup of ground curly dock seeds
  • 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 200g of Dark chocolate

Chocolate Orange Buttercream

  • 3 Tablespoons of butter
  • 1 Cup of icing sugar
  • 1 Teaspoon of Cocoa
  • 3 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice
  • Orange zest sliced thinly

How to Make Your Brownies

Preheat oven for 20 minutes.chocolate-orange-buttercream-topping

Line a baking tray with parchment paper or tinfoil. Beat the sugar and butter together until it is light and fluffy, add the eggs and mix. Leave to the side while you prepare the dry ingredients. Melt 1/2 the chocolate over a hot pan and leave it cool down. Fold into the wet mix.

Sift the dock seed, flour, baking powder and cocoa power together.

Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Spread mix in lined baking tray.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until centre comes out clean with a knife.

Add wild berries and icing sugar to decorate.

Voila! Now you are ready to treat your friends to some wild curly dock brownies. Learn more about Foraging for Curly Dock seeds here.

wild-plants-curly-dock-seeds

Foraging for Curly Dock Seeds: Wild Flour, Crackers and Seed Mix

Getting to know Curly Dock aka Rumex Crispus is the perfect way to start a love affair with wild green leaves and wild seeds. It is a native plant in Europe and Asia but can today be found in agricultural land across the world. As one of the five most widely distributed plants in the world it is strange that we don’t find it is use in many areas.

Perhaps it is overshadowed by its edible cousins Buckwheat and Japanese knotweed, the Curly dock gets left on the shelf. As a medicinal plant it has been used as a laxative, to treat blood diseases and to treat jaundice.foraging-for-curly-dock-seeds-orchards-near-me

Is Curly Dock Edible?

Nearly every part of this commonly found plant is edible; the stem, the leaves, the seeds and the root are used in different ways.

Where to Find Curly Dock?

Curly dock isn’t fussy when it comes to its habitat and where it chooses to grow. You will find it on shingle beaches, roadsides and walking trails. It also grows in wet conditions, hence why we have so much of it here in Ireland. The leaves can be found all year round.

There are many myths that suggest rubbing dock leaves on a nettle sting will relieve the pain. Although there is no scientific evidence to prove this actually works, there is something soothing about using nature to cure any natural stings or bites.

In the summer and early Autumn the seeds start to appear on the dock leaf stems. They will turn brown and get lighter in weight.

How to prepare dock seeds?

The seeds should be harvested in late summer when they have turned brown. Simply use a knife or clippers to cut the seeds from the curly dock stems. Then gently pull the seeds from the stem while holding it over a large pan or bowl. You can either wash them gently or sift them through a sieve to remove any bugs. Finally use a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder to blend the seeds into a fluffy flour mix.curly-dock-flour

The seeds are gluten free for anybody looking for a wheat free flour. Be sure to store the dock flour in an airtight container.

Dock Seed Recipes

Curly Dock Crackers Recipe

If you are looking for a simple snack recipe then curly dock crackers are easy to make, nutritious and full of flavour.

  • 1 cup of ground curly dock seeds
  • 1 cup of all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon of Dried Thyme or Rosemary
  • Water

Wild Seed Mix

You can use this wild seed mix to add a spoonful of natural nutrition to your meals. We hand pick and dry out all of the seeks on a tray and combine an even amount of each one.

  • Curly Dock Seeds
  • Plaintain Seeds
  • Nettle Seeds

Now that you know all about Curly dock seeds you can keep an eye out for them the next time you are out for a walk. Let us know if you have any curly dock recipes to share too, we love swapping notes.

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