Native Food of the Week! - Aronia berries

Native Lands Restoration Collaborative interns are digging deep to learn more about native plants and share their experiences with our community! Our Nourishing Communities intern, Anne, has been studying native edible plants, how to identify, collect, and prepare food from them with our experienced staff. She'll be sharing recipes featuring native foods with all of you here, on the Nature Gang blog! Today's focal species is black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa):

A bucket of Aronia berries gathered on a warm summer day - feels like a bucket of gold!

Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is a fruit-bearing shrub with great drought tolerance, once established. They provide food for many birds and mammals and host the caterpillars of several butterflies and moths, including the coral hairstreak. Native to the Great Lakes and Appalachian mountain regions (see range here), black chokeberry shrubs were absent from most prairie landscapes historically. But the highly nutritious berries have been an important food source in the eastern portion of the continent for many thousands of years. The berries are carried, stored, shared and highly valued; they mature slowly and store for long periods of time without rotting or drying (perhaps due to their high level of antioxidants).

Our Nourishing Communities Intern, Anne, attempted multiple recipes with Aronia berries to help local farmers and their customers connect with this important food source. Her favorite was a brownie recipe featuring the rich native fruit. Here are Anne's notes!:

"I started with a recipe found on the website, A Healthy Life for Me, for double chocolate cranberry brownies. I chose this recipe because the Native Lands' staff mentioned Aronia berries cook/bake similarly to cranberries.

The original recipe for double chocolate cranberry brownies can be found here.

I made a few modifications to the recipe - I used white granulated sugar instead of coconut and I used coconut flour as the gluten free flour. I nixed the melted chocolate chips and instead used ¼ cup cocoa powder instead of just 1 tablespoon. Of course, I used frozen Aronia berries in place of the cranberries.

At first, the batter seemed quite dry. I think the subtraction of the melted chocolate and the absorbency of the coconut flour were to blame. But, I thought the frozen berries would melt in the oven and their juice will help moisten the brownies.

The brownies needed an extra time in the oven than described in the original recipe. For a successful bake, I started with the oven at 350° F for 35 min and then increased the temperature to 375° F for 10 min.

Anne's Final review: 

The coconut flour gave the brownies a weird texture, but the flavor was so good it didn’t matter. The chocolate and melty berries were Black Forest Cake adjacent."

Aronia Berry Brownies are rich in flavor, like black forest cake!

Anne's Chocolate Aronia Berry Brownie Recipe:

Ingredients: 

-½ cup (aka 1 stick) unsalted butter 

-¾ cup sugar 

- ¼ cup packed brown sugar 

- two eggs 

- a pinch of salt 

- a splash of vanilla extract 

- ¼ cup cocoa powder 

- ⅔ cup flour  

- 1 cup chokeberries ( fresh or frozen) 

Steps: 

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, cocoa powder). 

2. Melt the butter in a mixing bowl. Allow to cool, then add in the eggs and vanilla extract. 

3. Fold the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet mixture. After combining, add in your berries. 

4. Put the batter into an 8x8 in pan and bake for 35 minutes at 350°, remove from the oven and check with a toothpick. If the center is still raw, turn the oven up to 375° and bake in five minute intervals until the toothpick comes out clean or the center seems baked through. 

5. Enjoy! These would be amazing served warm with ice cream!