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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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How to Cook with Candy Cap Mushrooms

Candy Cap Mushrooms or Lactarius rubidus

Dried Lactarius rubidus, a species of candy cap mushroom you can use in desserts.

Dessert Mushrooms that taste like maple syrup 

The first time I made a mushroom dessert, it was a porcini ice cream made from fresh-frozen porcini, which the pastry chef where I worked at the time pronounced an abomination and refused to use. In hindsight, there were probably better things for me to do with those expensive mushrooms. Candy caps though? They’re another story.

candy cap mushroom cookies on wood with dried candy cap mushrooms

Candy cap cookies are a classic.

I can still remember how excited I got reading about them years ago in Eugenia Bone’s book Mycophilia. I mean seriously. Nature created a mushroom that reeks of maple so strongly you can smell it through clothes, plastic, paper, even your skin after you eat it? “No way!”.

It’s true though, and even touching high-quality dried ones will make your hands smell sickly sweet for hours. Back when I had an apartment, the entire floor would reek of maple syrup after I cooked anything with them for days on end. The smell is so strong of maple syrup that it almost tastes unnatural. There’s a hint of mushroom flavor if you search for it, but most people will never taste or recognize it at all–just pure, maple-y, candy cap goodness.

Candy cap mushroom semifreddo_

Candy cap semifreddo is like maple ice cream you can make without an ice cream maker. It’s tastes like maple ice cream, kinda. 

There’s more than one candy cap 

There’s a number of different candy cap species, but generally people speak of three: Lactarius fragilis, rubidus, and rufulus, but from my experience (they don’t grow in the Midwest) mostly Lactarius fragilis is what’s available, and most of the time I’ve purchased them they’ve been excellent. Since they’re tiny little buggers, the price should reflect their quality. 18-20$/ounce retail is common, and upwards of 150-200$ wholesale is fair.

As I mentioned, the most commonly referred to candy caps don’t grow in the Midwest, but we do have a species of Lactarius in our area that’s similar: Lactarius camphoratus. Notice that I don’t use the word candy cap to describe them. For the record, If you’re going out hunting for what people call the Midwestern “candy caps” in my opinion, do not expect any sort of culinary result like commercially sold candy caps. The flavor of the camphoratus isn’t as strong, not in the slightest. There’s a subtle hint of the flavorful compounds present in other mushrooms in the genus, but any similarities end there. Anyone who tells you Lactarius camphoratus is a substitute for the real thing is misinformed, or hasn’t had the real-deal candy caps.

Candy cap mushrooms caramels recipe

Candy cap caramels should be one of the first things you make. They might take a couple tries to get perfect, but you’ll look forward to them every year. 

Cooking

As for cooking the real candy caps though, they’re fantastic in just about any dessert where you can imagine them. They’re really a dream come true for the adventurous dessert maker. Candy caps are easy to use, and incredibly strong. You can add them to just about anything and get a good result. Instead of “what can you make with candy caps?” a better question to think of is “what can’t you make with candy caps”. Here’s a few examples, just for starters: 

  • Ice cream
  • Cookies
  • Any kind of syrup
  • Anything with dairy 
  • Caramel 
  • Custards 
  • Even marshmallows!

I’d challenge you to name another dessert ingredient outside of vanilla and chocolate that’s more versatile.

Grind them into powder and go! 

Since they’re dried mushrooms, you could technically re-hydrate them in water, swish them around to remove any grit strain the liquid and separate or recombine the two depending on what you’re doing with them. But, I find that not to be necessary. Typically I grind these into powder and just add that to whatever I’m making, and I’ve never had a problem with grit using commercial candy caps ground to a powder.

candy cap mushroom flan recipe

Flan made with candy cap powder.

Grinding your candy cap powder also ensures an even distribution of their flavor. From there, as you can probably imagine, there’s plenty of possibilities for using these, but since they’re flavor is reminiscent of maple, imagining places where maple would taste good is a great place to start.

Candy Cap Mushroom Caramel

A simple caramel sauce you can put on pancakes or ice cream is a great way to use candy caps if you’re new to cooking with them. See the link for that below. 

Use small amounts to Avoid Bitterness

The only thing to be careful with, and probably unlikely since, unless you’re harvesting these in large amounts yourself, is that you don’t want to add too much of them to something, since things will get bitter, fast. If you start out with small amounts and taste as you go, you won’t have a problem. To make things even easier, I have a number of things I’ve made that you can start out with that are tested and ready to go.

candy cap marshmallows with candy cap mushrooms

Candy caps can be used to flavor all kinds of things from ice cream to marshmallows.

Where to buy

There’s a few different suppliers online. Here’s one example.

Recipes

  • Candy Cap Caramels 
  • Candy Cap Semifreddo 
  • Candy Cap Bavarian Cream 
  • Candy Cap Ice Cream 
  • Candy Cap Caramel Sauce 

More Candy Caps 

Related

35 Essential Wild Mushrooms Every Forager Should Know 

Candy cap mushroom bread pudding recipe

Bread pudding with candy cap caramel, from my first restaurant. 

 

Related

Previous Post: « Purple Laccaria Mushrooms (Laccaria ochropurpurea)
Next Post: The Forager’s Guide to Morel Mushrooms »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Colin Franger

    July 13, 2017 at 11:13 pm

    I know this post is getting on in age… I’ve got a pretty good load of candy caps I picked out here in the Columbia River Gorge last year. I dried them nice and slow and the aroma is on point. If you’re interested in having me send some shoot me an email and we can make arrangements. Getting sucked into your blog. So many ingredients I haven’t considered before.

    Reply
  2. Carla Beaudet

    October 4, 2017 at 10:44 am

    I’ve been working on a recipe for candy cap ice cream, but I’m not an ice cream expert by any means. I notice you did not cook your custard to thicken it – does it work just as well for the texture that way? I am thrilled to say I found a L. fragilis this Summer, in the Appalachian mountains where I live. There were undoubtedly many more, but I’m still at the stage of making a positive identification of these. There are a LOT of LBM’s, and to confound the issue, L. fragilis doesn’t smell incredible until after it is dried – there’s really no trace of the aroma in the fresh mushroom. The diminutive size, overall cinnamon-brown color, combined with the presence of scant watery white latex are your main clues until you dry the mushroom. From there, you want to smell every single one you dry to be sure.

    Reply
  3. Joanne Burnett

    February 3, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    Are these mushrooms related to fairy ring mushrooms?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      February 3, 2018 at 3:47 pm

      No. These two vary greatly from a culinary standpoint as well as genetic. Fairy rings are from the Genus Marasmius, Candy caps are likely going to be Lactifluus rubidus, or a closely related species. I use fairy rings for savory dishes. Candy caps I generally only use in desserts. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Sheri Smith

    December 29, 2018 at 6:01 pm

    Candy Cap Ice Cream ! Had it once at Salt & straw ice cream in Portland OR ! My…oh my ! There are no words to describe how delicious it was !

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 30, 2018 at 9:44 am

      CC IC is a great one.

      Reply
  5. Sheri Smith

    December 30, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Question, instead of ‘2 tsp’ of Candy caps ( which can vary incredibly to say the least ie: how fine or how coarse the candy caps are ground. SO….. My question: to be more accurate, How many Grams of Candy Caps for this recipe ? TIA

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 30, 2018 at 5:51 pm

      Ground mushrooms won’t vary in weight that much, but calling for something like “1 cup of any dried mushroom”, without any weight comparison would be really foolish. With candy caps, you need only a teeny tiny amount to flavor most things. With the ice cream, 4 grams is going to be about 2 teaspoons, and you might even be able to get away with a little less. More people have kitchen scales than they used to, but weighing such small amounts can be tricky if you don’t have a sensitive scale. Hope that helps.

      Reply
      • Sheri Smith

        December 30, 2018 at 6:06 pm

        Alan ~
        Thank you, I’m going to use 3 grams this time & see how it turn out. The only reason I have trouble with using ‘tsp’ per se , it can vary depending on what the ‘ingredient’ is. weather it’s a very coarse item or a a very fine powdery item one tsp of Whole Rosemary vs. fine ground Rosemary… huge difference . This is why some recipes could be potentially go very wrong for some. Thank you & I appreciate very much for your quick response ! Happy New Year !

        Reply
  6. Robin L Jeffers

    October 6, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    Instead of dried candy caps, I’ve got fresh blue-green anise mushrooms (Clitocybe odora0> Arora says, “can be used as flavoring in cookies or bread.” But I’ve not found any recipes on the web. And the candy cap recipes I have found use dried ones. I’m hoping your advice to infuse flavor into dairy, cream, etc., will work with these–I’ll try panna cotta. I had hoped for cookies though, but have no clue as to what would happen to fresh shrooms in cookie dough.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 7, 2019 at 9:24 am

      I wouldn’t put fresh shrooms in cookie dough. I’m speculating here as I haven’t worked with those, but, like chanterelles, some flavors can change when the mushrooms are cooked, so if you want to retain the aroma of them fresh, don’t cook them, at least in one batch. I would warm the cream and sugar for your panna cotta with the mushrooms, cool it, add the mushrooms raw and allow them to steep over night. strain out the mushrooms, heat, pour into containers and set. If the mushrooms keep their flavor after cooking, you could bring it to a simmer with them for a stronger flavor. Either way I would probably strain the mushrooms out though.

      Reply
  7. SaidWhatWhen

    July 16, 2020 at 1:08 am

    I made candy cap and ginger kombucha, 2 tsp candy cap powder in a gallon of kombucha. Ginger to taste.

    Reply
  8. Mary E Kellington

    January 31, 2021 at 2:50 pm

    I was gifted some dried candy caps by my fabulous niece (Thanks Rosalie!)

    I ground a tablespoon or 2 and used them to flavor a 3 egg white batch of swiss buttercream. It was the most amazingly wonderful macaron filling. Delicious.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 31, 2021 at 8:21 pm

      I can corroborate that candy cap buttercream is delicious. Macaroons would be wonderful.

      Reply
  9. Andy

    January 16, 2022 at 1:16 pm

    I like candy caps in savory dishes. They are very tasty dry sauteed. I made a very nice pate with them with ground walnuts. One of my favorites is a blended soup with candy caps, carmelized onions, a little chicken bullion, and some cream.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Candy Cap Mushroom Butter Caramels says:
    December 31, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    […] Holidays remind me of seeing butter caramels sitting out on the counter at Grandma’s, or being wrapped for sale in the corner nook that’s always populated by different sweets at her house. I never ate a ton of them, but I’ve been having fun dreaming up caramels for a mignardise platter, a tray of small candies and sweets made out of different things. After a few different versions, I settled on caramels flavored with dried candy cap mushrooms.  […]

    Reply
  2. Candy Cap Mushroom Semifreddo says:
    January 1, 2021 at 10:07 am

    […] while ago at the restaurant I got a wild hair and was craving candy cap mushrooms in some kind of dessert. I’d made ice cream, bread pudding, marshmallow, custard, all the […]

    Reply
  3. Candy Cap Bavarian Cream says:
    January 1, 2021 at 10:07 am

    […] is a classic flavor of Bavarian creams, but I wanted to find another way to highlight candy caps, as well as cost out a recipe with them to see if I can afford to put them on the […]

    Reply

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Alan Bergo
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
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