Don't despair if the mushroom season is over. DIY indoors!

PORCINI COOKIES

170 g butter, room temperature

85 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

25 g dried porcini, crushed finely

200 g flour

1. Beat butter until fluffy.

2. Add sugar and vanilla. Continue to beat until light.

3. Add mushrooms gently so they do not fly all over the place.

4. Finally, add the flour and mix.

5. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for about an hour.

6. Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch. Cut out in mushroom shapes. Place on lined baking sheet. Poke and puncture raw cookies with a fork.

7. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 minutes.

Chocolate Mushroom cookies anyone?

Chocolate Mushroom recipe from Herb e-cooking school

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
100g 70% dark chocolate melted and cooled
3/4 cup sour cream
10 button mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds
1 ¾ cups plain flour
¼ cup dark cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and beat thoroughly until combined. 
2. Stir in the melted chocolate and the sour cream then folding in the chopped mushrooms and the chopped almonds. 
3. Sift the flour, cocoa and the baking powder with the salt. Add the flour mix to the creamed mixture and mix well. 
4. Place tablespoons 5 cm apart on greased baking paper. 
5. Bake at 175C for 20 minutes until dry to touch.


I substituted walnuts for almonds and I halved the amount of sugar. It worked just fine.

Shiitake Mushroom Ice Cream

Shiitake Mushroom Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Bacon Bits from Flik Independent Dining School. Finalist in Pinterest's Mushroom recipe contest.

Recipe by Robert W., Flik Independent School Dining Executive Chef

Ingredients:

1 lb. bacon
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
1 lb. shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
½ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 cups dark chocolate, melted

Preparation:

Pan fry or bake ½ the bacon off until crispy and set aside on paper towels to cool and drain excess grease.  In a medium size sauce pan add the milk, cream, vanilla extract, remaining ½ of the bacon, and ¾ of the mushrooms. Bring milk mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 10 minutes stirring often with a high temp spatula.

While that is simmering, in a mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until the yolks take on an opaque pale yellow color.  Then strain the milk mixture through a china cap and return to the sauce pan.  Discard the strained bacon and mushrooms.  Then gradually ladle the milk a little at a time into the yolks, while whisking continually.  Once the milk and yolks are combined, return to the sauce pot and bring to a simmer, stirring with the spatula every 30 seconds or so.  Simmer the ice cream base for 10 minutes or until the base is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

After the base has simmered, strain through a china cap and pour into a shallow pan and place in the refrigerator to cool — the closer to 32 degrees the better. Once cooled, place the base in an ice cream machine and turn on.

While the ice cream is being made, take the cooked bacon and dip it into the melted dark chocolate and coat it completely. Place on a greased cookie rack to cool and harden. If desired, you can crumble one or two pieces to put on top of plated ice cream scoops as a garnish.

After the bacon has been coated ,put the remaining chopped mushrooms in a mixing bowl and spoon enough chocolate on them to coat and be able to form into a ball with a spoon in the bowl. Spoon the chocolate mushroom ball onto a piece of greased sheet pan and spread out until its about a ¼-inch in thickness; allow to cool and harden.

As the ice cream is just about done, take the chocolate covered bacon and mushrooms and crumble into the ice cream machine. Stop the machine as everything mixes just enough to combine. Spoon out the ice cream into a container that has an air tight lid and place in the freezer to set.

To serve, scoop out desired amount into a serving bowl and garnish with crumbled bacon and or whipped cream.

Chocolate + mushrooms = ?

Got a truffle to spare?

How about making black truffle ice cream?

Mushrooms for dessert

The usual way to eat mushrooms is to make something savory with them. There is, theoretically speaking, nothing to prevent us having mushrooms for dessert. Mushroom flavor is a flavor, like any other. The only thing stopping us is our mind and mental blocks: we have learned that mushrooms are good savory. This is true.

However, we can also learn that mushrooms are tasty sweet, as a dessert. In my blog, I have written about chanterelle toffee, chanterelle marmalade, porcini cake, cookies and porcini marshmallow. Obviously, mushrooms for dessert is an exciting area that has great potential.

Have you heard of mushroom ice cream? The mushrooms used are candy cap mushrooms (Lactarius camphoratus) which are supposed to taste of both maple syrup and nuts. Sounds super delicious to me.

Yellow Foot Chanterelle Mushroom Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Bacon by Chef Robert W. from Friends School of Baltimore.

Recipe for Candy Cap Mushroom Ice Cream

Another Candy Cap Ice Cream recipe. And yet another.

Porcini marshmallows

Whipped up a batch of marshmallows and wondered what I should flavor them with. It should not come as a surprise that I thought of mushrooms. Found a bag of dried porcini which I pounded in my mortar and pestle and added to the boiling syrup. Very mild but evocative of the season that soon will be upon us.

Swedish porcini cookies

75 g butter/ 2.65 oz

1 ¼ dl sugar/0.6 cups

½ dl oil (rapeseed, for example)/ 0.2 cups

2 Tbs crushed dried mushrooms (porcini, for example)

2 ¼ dl flour/1 cup

½ tsp baking powder

1. Set the oven at 150 degrees C/350 degrees F.

2.Combine butter and sugar.

3. Add oil and keep mixing.

4. Add the mushrooms.

5. Mix the flour and baking powder and add to the mixture.

6. Let the dough rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

7. Form into round balls and bake in the oven for about 15 min.

Cake with caramelized porcini topping

Ingredients for the cake:
2 large eggs
150 g sugar
100 g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
25 g ground porcini (or any other mushroom)
50 g butter
1/2 dl milk

Set the oven at 175 degrees Celcius.
Melt the butter. Let the melted butter cool.
Beat eggs and sugar till it foams.
Sift in the flour and baking powder.
Add the ground porcini.
Add melted butter and milk. 
Pour the cake batter into an greased and floured tin, 20 x 30 cm.
Bake for 15–20 minutes (bottom rack).

In the meantime, make the caramellized mushroom topping.

Ingredients for the topping:

70 g butter

150 g sugar

25 g crushed dried mushrooms

2 tablespoons flour, or prefably, cornflour

2–4 tablespoons milk

Melt the butter and mix in sugar, mushrooms, flour and milk.
Leave the mixture on low heat.
Check the consistency of the mixture: it should be liquid enough to spread on the cake.
If the mixture is too thick, add more milk and leave it on low heat.
Spread the mixture over the top of the cake and place the cake back into the oven (middle rack).
Bake it further for 15–20 minuttes, or till it is golden and the topping is crisp.

Recipe in Norwegian: 

Toscakake med soppkrokan

Kakerøre:

2 store egg

150 g farin

100–120 g hvetemel

1½ ts bakepulver

25 g finknust steinsopp (eller annen lys sopp)

50 g smør ½ dl melk

Sett stekeovnen på 175 grader. Smelt smør. Avkjøl. Visp egg og sukker til eggedosis og sikt i mel og bakepulver, rør inn smør og melk. Fordel røren i smurt og strødd form, 20 x 30 cm, eller rund form. Stek kaken på nederste rille i 15–20 minutter. I mellomtiden lager du krokanen.

Soppkrokan:

70 g smør

150 g farin

25 g tørket knust sopp, f.eks. kantareller

2 ss hvetemel eller aller helst maismel

2–4 ss melk

Smelt smør i en kjele og rør inn farin, sopp, hvetemel og melk. La det småsurre en stund. Blandingen må være flytende nok til at den er lett å smøre på kaken. Hvis blandingen er for tykk, spe med litt melk og la det surre en stund til. Smør soppmassen jevnt over hele kakens overflate og sett den tilbake i ovnen, nå midterste rille. Stek ytterligere 15–20 minutter, eller til den er gyllen og overflaten stivnet. Skjær opp kaken i små eller større ruter, pynt med et tynt melisslør. Glasuren kan også stekes alene på silikon- matte/bakepapir i 12–15 minutter på ca. 175 grader. Når den er litt avkjølt brytes den i biter til krokansnop, eller grovknuses som krokan til iskrem og desserter.

Kilde: Fru Matsprell

Chanterelle toffee

Next time you are invited to the mycophagists, 

you might want to wow them with this Norwegian chanterelle toffee.

 You need 50 g dried chanterelles.

(I used winter chanterelles) 

Crush them in a mortar.

Put 2 dl sugar, 2 dl cream, 2 tablesp glucose, 50 g crushed dried 

and 50 g butter in a casserolle. 

Medium heat. Stir constantly.

Use a sugar thermometer. It just makes life much easier.

When the temperature is 118 degrees (C) you are in business!

Remove the mixture from heat immediately because the temperature tends to shoot up at this stage.

Pout the toffee mixture into a lined baking tray.

Cut into squares before the toffee it is completely stiff and brittle.

If you are feeling up to it, wrap the toffee in nice packages. Voilà!

Julekarameller

Jeg brukte fru Matsprells oppskrift som vi fikk  

på Neslekremlas julemøte.

50 g tørket sopp ble knust i en morter

I tillegg til 2 dl sukker, 2 dl fløte, 2 ss glukose og 50 g tørket sopp

hadde jeg 50 g smør oppi en gryte med tykk bunn. 

Middels varme. Blandingen røres hele tiden.

Jeg brukte et elektronisk steketermometer for å være på den sikre siden.

Da termometeret viste 118 grader (C) var vi ved karamellveiens ende.

Karamellblandingen helles over oppi i et brett dekket med bakepapir.

Klipp/skjær opp karameller før den stivner helt.

Pakk inn med cellofan. Voilà!

Hmm. Kanskje jeg kan bruke tørket steinsopp til soppkaramell?

Og jeg lurer på hvordan tørket shitake smaker i karamell...

Er du for lat til å sette i gang med karamellproduksjon av tørket sopp hjemme

 kan du kjøpe kantameller på Bondens Marked.

Men billige er de ikke.