Juneberry Puffs

June 21st, 2024
food
I only learned about Juneberries a few years ago, and they're a bit tricky. Eaten fresh, right off the tree, they have a bunch of subtle flavors that remind me of peach ice tea. If I bake them, though, these flavors mostly go away, leaving an almondy flavor. Which isn't terrible, but also isn't better than almond extract and wastes what's most interesting about these berries.

Eating them raw is great, but it's also fun to make things. Thinking about what might work well that doesn't involve heating them, I decided to try puffs. First we needed some berries, and walked over to the playground that has some Juneberry trees:

This was a bit Blueberries for Sal, with Nora eating the berries almost as fast as I could pick them, but she lost interest after a bit and there were no bears, so soon we were walking home with a good amount.

I took a sheet of puff pastry (butter-based is the tastier option, but it's hard to find and is quite temperature sensitive), cut it into small rectangles, and baked it. Once it was fully cooked, I cut each piece in half. Here's some whole, and then some with the tops cut off:

I piped in slightly sweetened whipped cream, and then put the berries on:

I think they came out pretty well. They're very light and summery, and the subtle Juneberry flavors are there.

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