Candy Cap Mushroom Ice Cream

*Post by Mark.

For this batch of ice cream, I was compelled to action by a summer's trip to San Francisco. It was on this trip that we purchased the wondrous candy cap mushrooms at Far West Fungi in the Ferry Building and their strangely bold maple aroma. There, we were able to sample Far West's Candy Cap popsicles, made from the creamy brilliance of Humphry Slocombe's aptly named candy cap ice cream, and grabbed a small bag of the dried mushroom to take back to Los Angeles for our own ice cream experimentation.

 

The oils from the mushrooms were potent enough to leave my hands smelling like maple for hours. No kidding about how potent the maple smell is here. Because of this, we didn't need to combine the actual mushrooms into the ice cream - we would merely steep the cream in the dried fungi. The end result is a complex, creamy, and spicy maple ice cream that retains a smooth texture without losing any flavor. 

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 ounce Candy Caps
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 extra large eggs 
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 whole vanilla bean (or 1 Tbsp vanilla extract)  

My first step was to steep the candy caps (I used all but a few small pieces set aside for later) with 2 cups of heavy cream in a small saucepan. It was kind of sad actually- watching the dried fungi drown in a pool of liquid, never to be used again. I heated the cream over medium heat until the mixture began to steam. I turned off the heat, placed a lid over it and allowed it to steep for a 1-2 hours. Once the cream had been infused with enough of the mushroom's aromatic qualities, I strained the mushrooms and squeezed out as much of the flavorful cream as possible into a large bowl. 

 

As the candy caps and cream were nearly finished steeping, I began warming the milk, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a saucepan over low heat. As the milk and sugar warmed, I began whisking together the egg yolks in a bowl. 

Once the milk mixture began to bubble, I slowly poured a portion of the warmed milk into the whisked egg yolks, whisking constantly, then combined the warmed egg yolks and the entire mixture back into the saucepan.

I continued to cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently until the mixture coated my spatula. Make sure not to overcook and scramble your eggs. Once the mixture was ready, I strained it (below, left) into the bowl containing the flavored cream and stirred. 

The final step isn't absolutely necessary, but I wanted to make sure my ice cream really captured the full essence of the mushrooms. Using four or five of the dried candy caps that had been set aside, I blended them with a portion of my mixture. Once the pieces were fully pulverized, I whisked this small batch back into the larger batch. Some people might find tiny bits of mushroom in their ice cream disagreeable. Others will appreciate how much flavor and aroma the bits bring to the ice cream. 

With all the ingredients finally combined, I chilled the total mixture for an additional few hours and then let the ice cream maker do its thing. I finished it with a little bit of sea salt to taste right before removing it from the machine.

The end result was gone in sixty seconds good. I'm not talking about the movie, that's just about how fast I ate all of it. Mushroom ice cream has no business being this good, yet somehow this sweet and savory maple dessert is the perfect ice cream for autumn. 

 

Comments

[KrisDub]

I want to make this so badly! Now where can I get these delicious mapley mushrooms in the South Bay?

[Mark]

K -

You can't get them in SoCal... but you can order them from Far West Fungi's online store: http://store.farwestfungi.com/fwf109.html