1up Mushrooms

Introduction

Need an extra life? Have one of these Mario 1up Mushrooms! Just be careful: if you intend to use them to gain immortality, you’ll probably die from a sugar over-dose first. This recipe can also be easily adapted to make the red “super” mushrooms of similar (if not greater) fame. Note that this is not a “full” recipe I am providing here, but an “expansion” of sorts to the previously posted Chocolate Covered Mushrooms recipe. So before you try to make these little greenies, you need to read and understand the Chocolate Covered Mushrooms recipe (to be honest, I would recommend trying to make the CCM’s first, as those are a little easier than these). So as you’re reading the instructions below, understand that they are modified/additional steps to be applied to the CCM recipe. Now, on to what these little life-givers are about: pure sugar. They’re made of meringue like the CCM’s, but instead of milk chocolate, they use white chocolate, which is pretty much just sugar in the consistency of chocolate…so, yea, just sugar…you get the idea.

Make this dish when…
The same rules from CCM apply here pretty much, but you probably won’t freak anyone out into thinking these are real mushrooms. However, making these takes even longer than regular CCM, so you’re definitely going to need plenty of time. You’re going to need a long evening, and the next morning, or simply an entire day if you start early (you won’t be busy the entire time, but waiting for chocolate to cool etc takes a while). Also, these of course are great for anything gamer or geek related, and I suppose even just fun for kids, because hey, just about everybody knows who Mario is.

Don’t make this dish when…
Again, definitely need a lot of time for these. Having a helper is also mandatory for this recipe (one person just cannot do some of these tasks at the same time, but that is pretty much what needs to happen). You need to be even more patient while making these than with CCM’s, and this recipe has a few parts that require a little more technical skill than CCM’s, so if you think you might get a little lazy on them after working for a bit, they might not come out so hot (but hey, mine aren’t perfect either, so no worries). Additionally, these will stain your tongue when you eat them (non-permanently of course), so if you don’t like that, then don’t have these. They will probably stain your fingers a little bit while you’re making them, and if you spill something, they might stain your clothes as well (and that could be permanent). Lastly, if you don’t like white chocolate, or prefer milk chocolate, then you’re probably better off with CCM’s instead.

Statistics

Dish Type: Dessert/Candy
Health Value: You gain an extra life! Just, in the form of raw calorific value…
Serving Size: About 30-70, depending on how you prepare them
Preparation Difficulty: More tiring and difficult than CCM’s by a long-shot; putting each white chocolate
Preparation Time: 8-9 hours (including baking), then several “set-up” periods (can be overnight)
Shelf-Life: 1 month (sealed in Tupperware at room temperature)
Freshness Requirements: These don’t need to be served fresh; just keep them at room temperature
Vegetarian/Vegan Concerns: These use egg-whites; you can use Meringue Powder, but that is pretty much just dehydrated egg-whites, so if you don’t like using eggs, I’m afraid there’s no way around it
Pre-cooked Edibility: I ate a little and I’m still here, but the mixture has raw egg in it (potential for salmonella), so eat it at your own risk

1up Mushrooms (continued)

What You Need

Ingredients
You no longer need…
1. Cocoa Powder (this can be a culinary brand or you can use certain kinds of hot-chocolate mix. I prefer sweeter tasting ones, but it can be bitter if you like. If you use hot-cocoa mix, make sure that it is pretty much just chocolate, not with all the extra weird chemicals like in Swiss Miss allowed!)
2. About ¾ Cup of Chocolate Chips (for melting. You can use chocolate kisses, but I recommend going for something a little more high-quality, like Ghirardelli’s or Guittard’s, as the quality flavor really makes the dish)
But you now need…
1. About 1-2 Cups of White Chocolate Chips (for melting. You can use chocolate kisses, but I recommend going for something a little more high-quality, like Ghirardelli’s or Guittard’s, as the quality flavor really makes the dish)
2. Green Food Coloring (or Red if you intend to make Super Mushrooms instead. Gel or powdered only!)
3. Black Food Coloring (for the eyes; if you don’t want eyes, don’t worry about this then. Gel is preferable, but you could work with other kinds I suppose)

Equipment
You no longer need…
1. Sharp Knife
2. Fine Strainer/Fine Straining Lid for a Shaker (and said Shaker)
But you now need…
1. 2x Cocktail forks or similar sized tools for extracting food coloring form small jar
2. Plate
3. Something to use like a brush for the chocolate (this could even be a brush; I used the back of a small paint dropper)
4. Microbrush (for the eyes; if you don’t want eyes, don’t worry about this then)
5. A helper (this was optional in CCM’s, but is required for this recipe; otherwise your meringue could collapse or you will die of exhaustion while putting on the white spots)
6. A second piping tip and accompanying large zip-loc bag.


A Few Questions Before We Begin…

The same questions from CCM’s apply here (NOTE: less-dense meringue takes on food coloring better and is recommended for this recipe), but also consider…

What do you want your mushrooms to look like? Think about color/dots, overall size/the size ratio between caps and stems, and if you want your mushrooms to have eyes or not. Swap the green food coloring for whatever color you want your caps to be (red Super Mushrooms, purple poisonous ones, or even a made up kind, just have fun), and check the ingredients and equipment lists above depending if you want eyes or not. As far size and ration, naturally if you make smaller mushrooms you can make more of them, but they are extremely difficult to work with, and making stems that small can also be very tricky. My batch is of fairly large mushrooms, some with really large caps, some with fairly large stems. But whatever ratio you decide on, figure it out ahead of time so that when you split your meringue between stems and caps, you’ll know how much you want and don’t end up with too many of one or the other. I personally recommend doing about 2/3 caps and 1/3 stems, because bigger caps just work better all around. For the dots, these are a lot of work, but a really great touch in my opinion. I aim for 5 dots on my mushrooms, but fewer dots = less work. They would still be cool without the dots, just not as cool… Lastly, the eyes are really cute, I highly recommend including them (unless you’ll feel bad eating them because of their cuteness).

1up Mushrooms (continued)

Now On To Business

WARNING: Read through this recipe and the CCM recipe at least once before cooking!

You are going to do just about everything the same up until you reach the Piping Your Mush(rooms) stage. The only additional things that need to be done before then are to make sure that your food coloring is easily accessible, and that you prepare the second piping bag as well. Now, it’s piping time!

Piping Your Mush(rooms) Redux
Getting your gel into the piping bag should be roughly the same as in CCM, but in this case, you’re going to only remove enough of the gel to make the stems. If you’re going by my ratio, that’s about 1/3 of your gel. The reason you do this is to allow you to use the mixer to nice and evenly mix the food coloring into the remaining gel, aka the caps. So in this case, you have no choice but to make your stems first. One last note before making the stems: these are shaped and used differently from the CCM stems; you want to be sort of cones that you will then flatten the top of, and when you stick them onto the caps, you will actually place them upside-down in comparison to how they were placed on the CCM’s, resulting in stems with smaller bases that stalks. So once you have the bag ready and loaded, here’s what you (or your helper) should do:
1. Place the piping tip about ¼ inch above the cookie sheet, and very gently squeeze the bag (from the top down) DSC6242.
2. Gently raise the bag/tip about ¾ inch while still squeezing, creating the stalk. You’re aiming for a roughly conical shape here, as opposed to the footed shape used in CCM’s.
Now just repeat these steps until you’ve used up all of your gel. Once you’ve used all of it up, place the piping setup aside and grab your spoon. Like when CCM’s, you’re going to wet the spoon to just the right amount to allow it smooth the gel without getting it soggy or sticking to it. But instead of smoothing down the top of caps, you’re going to be flattening the “tops” (the eventual bottoms) of the stems. So simply use the wet spoon to shape your stems into what could be described as a cylinder with a smaller top. This doesn’t have to be perfectly flat, but if you can get it pretty flat, your mushrooms may be able to stand on their own!
While somebody is doing the above process, somebody else needs to be preparing the gel for the caps. This is what to do:
1. Using the rubber spatula, scrape all of the gel into a pile in the middle of the bowl, and then create a little pit in the middle of said pile.
2. Using your 2 cocktail forks (or equivalent tool/tools), scoop out a pretty big glob of food coloring. Ultimately you’re aiming for around ¼ teaspoon of it (which is a pretty big amount when it comes to food coloring).
3. Dump this blob of food coloring into the little pit you made in the gel. Keep adding more until you get about ¼ teaspoon (a little less is fine, probably not more though) of food coloring into the pit. Set your food coloring and related tools aside.
4. Using the rubber spatula, fold a blob of gel over and on top of the pit, cover the food coloring. Do not mix!
5. Put the bowl back into the electric mixer, and mix it on high. Periodically stop and scrap down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get all the gel into the center so that it mixes evenly. Once you have a good even tone (for the most part at least), you can put the gel into your second piping bag and pipe your caps just like in the CCM recipe, or differently if you want them to be different, whatever you planned on doing.
Once you’re done piping your caps, just set the bag off to the side. Now it’s time to smooth the caps, but it’s a little different this time. Because the caps have food coloring in them, that means they most likely (it depends on what brand of coloring I suppose) have a water-based coloring agent in them that will run with water. That means that if you get too much water on your caps the color will run and look weird. To avoid this, here is what you do:
1. Get your plate, and put just enough water on it so that it forms little puddles. Dip your index finger into one of these puddles, and give it a shake or two (just to get any large droplets off).
2. Using your finger, gently smooth down the caps to make that nice dome shape. You may need to use a sort of swirling motion to get it completely smooth.
After just one cap, your finger will likely be too dry and start to stick instead of smooth; just get it wet again and keep going until all of your caps are done.
Now that everything piped and smoothed, put your caps and stems into the over for 2 hours just like for CCM’s. Let them cool etc, and then move onto the (modified) chocolate step below.

The Chocolate Redux
Ok, this is it, the most painfully time-consuming step in the process: putting on the chocolate spots. Melt the white chocolate just like regular chocolate, and then figure out who is going to do what job: one person needs to be the spotter (the person who applies the spots, get it? Corny for the win), and the other needs to be the smoother (to smooth out the inevitably unsmooth chocolate). Here’s what the two of you do:
1. Spotter: Grab a cap, and using your brushing tool, put a single spot on it. If you’re going for the 5-spot pattern (where you have one spot on top and four going around the sides; this is the original design of the mushrooms), start with the spot on the top. How you apply the spots really depends on your tool, but you definitely don’t want a tail of chocolate to fall onto the rest of the cap. However, a tail of chocolate within the spot is pretty much unavoidable. Once you’re done spotting the cap, place it back down onto the cookie sheet, so that the Smoother can pick it up easily
2. Smoother: Now that the Spotter has put a spot onto a cap, your goal as Smoother is to use a wet finger (just like when smoothing the caps before they went into the oven) to smooth the tail into a nice smooth spot on the cap of the mushroom. Don’t worry about making the spot perfectly blend into the side of the mushroom or about being completely even: as long as you have a decently round shape and no big blobs or creases, it will come out fine.
Repeat these steps until you get through all of your caps. Once you’ve done one spot on every cap, go back to your first cap and put another spot or two on it, going in the order that you originally spotted your caps so as to give the chocolate the most time to “dry.” If you’re doing the 5-spot pattern, all of your top spots should be done now, so next you should probably do two opposite side spots. Regardless of how you’re doing your spots, keep doing this process until you have enough spots that you’re satisfied.
Now that your caps are all spotted, it’s time to paint the eyes (if you want to). Get out your black food coloring and your microbrush, and do this:
1. Dip the microbrush into the food coloring just enough to get the majority of the brush tip coated (not submerged!).
2. Pick a side of a stem and use the microbrush to paint a simple little line down it. I recommend looking over the stem and finding a side that is nice and smooth if your stems have developed any cracks.
3. Now dip the brush again, and paint another little line down next to the first, making long skinny little eyes just like in the game. You can try to aim for rounded edges, but it doesn’t matter too much.
When painting the eyes, don’t be afraid to deviate a little for more expression, or if there is a particularly interestingly shaped stem that could result in something like a facial expression, go for it.
Now that your stems and caps are decorated, you need to let them dry. This will take at least a few hours, but I let mine go overnight. The next morning, I joined my stems to my caps, but this time, I did it a little different:
1. First, make a match between all of your stems and caps, picking a fitting stem for each cap.
2. Pick up a stem in one hand, and the appropriate cap in the other, and dip the flat side (the side that was touching the parchment paper during baking) into the chocolate, getting just enough on to cover that side of the stem.
3. Attach the now chocolate-y side of the stem to the flat side of the cap, creating a mushroom. If you’re going for the authentic look (using the 5-spots pattern), then the eyes should be facing the same direction as one of the side spots.
4. Set the mushroom stem-up to dry, just like in the CCM recipe.
Now give these another hour two to dry, and you’ll be set!

Cleanup Tips Redux
For the most part, the same tips apply as with CCM’s, but with one exception: letting things soak in the mixing bowl will likely stain them, as the water will be all green from food coloring.

1up Mushrooms (continued)

The Recipe In Short

WARNING: Only use this if you have: read and understand the above complete recipe, have prepared this dish before, or really know what you’re doing.

1. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add sugar and beat on high speed for another 5-10 minutes, depending on desired density.
3. Transfer part of the mixture into a piping bag and pipe stems.
4. Add food coloring to remaining part of mixture and mix thoroughly.
5. Pipe caps using colored mixture.
6. Smooth stems and caps accordingly.
7. Bake mushrooms for 2 hours in a 200° F oven.
8. Remove mushrooms from oven and let them cool to room temperature.
9. Melt chocolate chips in a bowl.
10. Apply spots to caps.
11. Apply eyes to stems.
12. Allow stems and caps to setup/dry.
13. Attach stems to caps using chocolate.
14. Place completed mushrooms onto a cookie tray to setup.
15. Allow mushrooms to setup for several more hours.
16. Enjoy!

1up Mushrooms (continued)

Credits and Acknowledgements

• To my Dad, for showing me the recipe in the first place, for all those times you made them when I was a kid, and for your supportive guidance while I learned to make them. Oh, and for the use of your kitchen and all of its tools/appliances, and loaning me the camera.
• To Lindsey, for all your help taking pictures and with making the mushrooms.
• Original Recipe from: Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts by Alice Medrich.
• Mushroom design/idea © Nintendo

Chocolate Covered Mushrooms

DSC6305

Introduction

These little "mushrooms" (thankfully) have nothing to do with fungus of any sort; they're actually a delicious dessert that amounts to little more than sugar and chocolate. They're made of meringue (puffed sugar, somewhat similar to marshmallows), cocoa powder and chocolate. But most people, at least at first glance, think that they're real mushrooms, and if somebody asks you what you're cooking, you get to say "chocolate covered mushrooms" and relish in their facial expressions of horror and disgust (or pitiful attempts to hide such feelings). Then you can keep working on your merry way, finish the mushrooms, and eat one with a satisfying crunch (yes, they are quite crunchy) right in front of them, freaking them out yet again as they ponder what could possibly make a mushroom crunch. They're also nice decorations or sides to other dessert dishes (you can try sticking them onto a Yule-log, or use them on a themed cake), and are just a fun snack to bring to school or work (where you can disturb more people!). Beware though: they can be addictive.

Make this dish when…

You have a decent amount of free time (preferably in the evening), ideally with a movie to watch (or other entertainment that lasts a similar amount of time), and have a craving for some chocolate (because you will eat some while you're cooking). And of course, if you want to freak out some people or need something fun for a theme party (Halloween perhaps?), these are great.

Don't make this dish when…

You need something in a pinch: these take quite a while to make, and they can actually be a little tiring to prepare. Don't make these if you don't like to share: leave some of these out somewhere and somebody brave (or who knows what they are) might try one, and then they'll be gone before you know it. Also, you need to be a little patient while making these, so if patience isn't your game, then making these might not be for you. These are also definitely not recommended for anyone diabetic.

Statistics

Dish Type: Dessert/Candy

Serving Size: About 30-70, depending on how you prepare them

Preparation Difficulty: Can actually be a little tiring, but doesn't demand too much technical skill, and the cooking (baking) process is quite simple

Preparation Time: 3-4 hours (including baking), then "setting-up" over several more hours or overnight

Shelf-Life: 1 month (sealed in Tupperware at room temperature)

Freshness Requirements: These don't need to be served fresh; just keep them at room temperature

Vegetarian/Vegan Concerns: These require egg-whites; I don't know if you can use (or if there is) a substitute if you are not into the use of eggs

Pre-cooked Edibility: I ate a little and I'm still here, but the mixture has raw egg in it (potential for salmonella), so eat it at your own risk

What You Need

Ingredients

• About 3 Eggs (or a carton of egg-whites), to obtain ½ cup of egg-whites
  
• ¼ Teaspoon Cream of Tatar (this is key for acidity balance; if you use a copper mixing bowl though, this is unnecessary, as the copper bowl will take care of this…supposedly. I recommend you just go stainless-steel use the cream of tartar)
  
• 1 Cup White Sugar (preferably super-fine; with regular sugar you may notice the occasional crystal in the finished product (this is not referring to powdered/confectioner's sugar though)
  
• Cocoa Powder (this can be a culinary brand or you can use certain kinds of hot-chocolate mix. I prefer sweeter tasting ones, but it can be bitter if you like. If you use hot-cocoa mix, make sure that it is pretty much just chocolate, not with all the extra weird chemicals like in Swiss Miss allowed!)
  
• About ¾ Cup of Chocolate Chips (for melting. You can use chocolate kisses, but I recommend going for something a little more high-quality, like Ghirardelli's or Guittard's, as the quality flavor really makes the dish)
  

Equipment

• Measuring Glass
  
• Measuring Spoon Set (Or at least ¼ tsp spoon)
  
• Measuring Cup (1 cup is preferable, but you can use a smaller one several times to the same effect)
  
• Scissors
  
• Sharp Knife
  
• Butter Knife
  
• Spoon
  
• Small Bowl
  
• Large Zip-Loc Bag
  
• Piping Tip Mount
  
• Electric Mixing Bowl (you must use one of these; nothing else will really get the job done) DSC6178
  
• Beater Attachment (for said bowl)
  
• Parchment Paper
  
• 2x Cookie Sheets
  
• Oven (with enough room for both Cookie Sheets)
  
• Fine Strainer/Fine Straining Lid for a Shaker (and said Shaker)
  
• Rubber Spatula
  
• Someone to help you (not required, but highly recommended)
  

A Few Questions Before We Begin…

• What type of and how many mushrooms do you want? These two parts of this question are interrelated, as they both depend on the density of the meringue. A more dense meringue means fewer (about 30) but crunchier and sweeter mushrooms, while a less-dense meringue results in a larger batch (about 60-70) of fluffier mushrooms that are not as sugary. If you want the chocolate flavor to stand out more, go for the less-dense mushrooms, as the amount of chocolate will stay the same, but there will be less sugar-per-mushroom to overpower said chocolate. But if you want each bite to be a sugar bomb of death, the more dense meringue is the route to take. Also, if you only have one cookie sheet or have a smaller oven, then go for the more dense meringue so you make fewer mushrooms and don't waste any of the mixture. Lastly, note that with denser mushrooms, if you are not using super-fine sugar, you may notice the occasional sugar granule in the finished mushrooms.
  
• What do you want to do with the unused egg yolks? If you buy a carton of egg-whites, you don't need to worry about this, but otherwise, you may want to consider something else to do with your unused egg-yolks so as not to waste them (like finding a recipe that calls for egg-yolks, such as béarnaise sauce). Though, you could always just try and cook them, throw them at somebody, or feed them to a dog. If you only care about the waste in a fiscal sense, it may actually be cheaper to buy eggs and toss the yolks than to buy just egg-whites anyway.
  

Now On To Business

WARNING: Read through this at least once before you start cooking!

Obtaining the Egg Whites

If you have bought yourself a carton of egg whites, then simply pour ½ cup from the carton into your measuring glass.

If you are using just plain eggs, this is where things get technical. Grab your small bowl, and your measuring glass. Your goal is to collect your whites, from one egg at a time, in a bowl, then pour from that bowl into the measuring glass. This way, if you mess up, you only "contaminate" the contents of that single egg, thus preserving the other eggs (imagine getting 2 eggs perfect, then messing up the third and contaminating all of them. It would be an awful waste…or an interesting omelet…). Anyway, to do this:

1. Crack 1 egg over the bowl, making sure to keep the yolk inside one half of the shell while emptying the whites from the other half of the shell into the bowl.
   
2. Dispose of the empty shell half, then (over the bowl of course) gently pour the egg yolk from its shell into your other hand, taking care not to break the yolk (don't let the shell cut it, or let it fall from too high).
   
3. Empty into the bowl any whites left in the shell, then dispose of the shell. Now, you basically want to try and let the whites sift between your fingers while hanging onto the yolk. One technique that works well for this is to gently swap the yolk between your hands. If the yolk starts to break, you're best to cut your losses and do with it whatever you have planned for your yolks before it contaminates the whites in the bowl.
   
4. Once you're done, pour the whites into the measuring glass.

Now repeat these steps again; when adding your last batch of whites, don't worry if you end up with more than ½ cup, we'll handle that here…

If
you have more than ½ cup of whites in your measuring glass, pour a little back into your bowl/carton. Keep doing this until you have just ½ cup. If you accidently pour out too much, you can just pour it back into the measuring glass from the bowl/carton (this is why you shouldn't pour the whites down the sink). It doesn't have to be perfect though, so don't worry if you're a little off.

Setting Up Everything Else

I highly recommend that you measure out the rest of your ingredients and have them ready ahead of time (except the chocolate; that's at least two hours away from this point), and get as much as you can ready now instead of later. So get your ¼ tsp of cream of tartar (using your measuring spoon) and your 1 cup of sugar (using your measuring cup and butter knife) measured out and ready (but separate from each other!). I also recommend that you get your piping equipment and cooking sheets ready. This means covering the top of both cooking sheets with parchment paper (no greasing or cooking-spray needed), and see below for preparing your piping bag. You also should probably start preheating your oven to 200° F now. The reason to get everything setup ahead of time is that once things are set in motion, they really shouldn't stop: meringue is essentially puffed sugar, so if you wait too long between steps, it may lose all of its puff!

Prepping Your Piping Equipment

This procedure has at least two methods: you can be old-school and fancy and use a piping bag (don't know what one is? No worries, it's not important), or use my preferred method and use a plastic bag. So…

If you're going the piping bag route, you probably already know what to do, so you're on your own. Just remember that don't need to use an actual tip, just the mount will work fine.

If you're going with the plastic bag (zip-loc), here is what you do:

1. Cut a small amount of one of the lower corners off of the bag so that you can get your piping tip mount through the hole. This sort of depends on the size of your mount, but to be safe, go smaller first, then make the hole bigger to accommodate your mount.
   
2. Place the taller, conical (back) end of the mount part-way through the hole (narrow-end first) from the inside of the bag. Then (while holding the "back" piece of the mount in place), screw on the "cap" (the other part of the mount) over the bag, so as to hold the mount to the bag. Ta-da! You have just made yourself a semi-disposable piping-bag that is way easier to clean than a regular one, and to be honest, probably works a bit better DSC6173.
   

Now just keep your bag open, but out of the way. If you want to make the final production of the mushrooms easier (and have obtained a helper!), you may wish to prepare two bags, so that you can pipe half of the mushrooms while your helper pipes the other half.

The First Mixture

Alright, you are now ready to start actually making some stuff! Here's what you do:

1. Pour the eggs whites into the mixing bowl for your electric mixer.
   
2. Drop in your little blob of cream of tartar (if you're using it, which you should! Check the info about this ingredient if you don't know what I'm talking about).
   
3. Now attach your mixing bowl to the mixer (if you haven't already), and then attach the beater attachment (again, if you haven't already).
   
4. Start the mixer on its lowest setting, and slowly work up to medium speed.
   
5. Let these two things get beaten together for at least 2-3 minutes, until "soft peaks form." Well, that's what the recipe book said, but you'll probably end up with plenty of foam, and eventually get something that looks like the last picture in the slide show below.

At this point, you might want to power down the mixer and lower the bowl (if your mixer can do that; otherwise raise the mixing arm away from the bowl, if it can do that). Then use the rubber spatula to scrape the foam down back into the mixture. Your first mixture is done, but quickly now, it's time for the next step!

Making It Sweet

Now for a little flavor, adding the sugar! Here's what to do:

1. Get your mixing bowl back into its mixing position on the mixer, and slowly power the mixer up to full speed.
   
2. With the mixer running, slowly add the sugar to the mixture. To do this, rest the cup of sugar on the lip of the mixing bowl; then, using your other hand, gently tap the back of the cup to drop only small amounts of sugar into the bowl at a time. This results in the sugar being more evenly distributed, and prevents the big mess of sugar flying everywhere DSC6221.
   
3. Once all the sugar has been added, power down the mixer and use the rubber spatula to scrape any sugar etc. stuck up on the sides of the bowl and back into the main mixture.
   

Now at this point, you need to refer back to the decision that you should have made regarding what kind of and how many mushrooms you want…

If you want more-dense mushrooms, you need to beat the mixture for a shorter period of time. Maybe somewhere around 5 minutes, until the mixture is uniform and glossy, a bit soft and looks like this: DSC6236.

If you want less-dense mushrooms, you need to beat the mixture for a longer period of time, maybe 10 minutes, until the mixture is uniform, dull, and stiff.

I apologize: because I went with the first option of more dense mushrooms, I don't have a picture to more thoroughly explain the second option. Perhaps I will make a less-dense batch some other time and get a picture of the mixture. Until then, sorry!

Piping Your Mush(rooms)

Ok, so you have your mushrooms! They're just in, well, gel form. So now we're going to go about shaping that gel into mushrooms, and the way we do that is…piping! So, let's fill our piping bag(s) and get to work! What you're going to do is create the stems and caps separately (they'll be combined later). Thus, you should fill one cookie sheet with stems and one with caps (with an equal number of stems and caps of course), unless you're doing the dense mushrooms: you can probably fit all of your stems and caps on one sheet (but the other sheet will be useful later for assembly purposes). Here's how to do it:

NOTE: When doing this, you'll likely find that the gel sticks to the bag a bit: I don't really worry about it, but if you want to avoid any stickage and try to get out every last drop, you can use cooking spray to lube the inside of the bag, but just don't use too much or things will get nasty. Also, this might get a little tiring, as very controlled movements are required, but you can't stop or your mushrooms will turn into raw fail (they won't puff well)!

Remove your mixing bowl from the mixer, and use your rubber spatula to sort of scoop/pour your gel into the bag through its open zip top. This is a time when a helper is extremely, well, helpful: they can hold the bag open while you scoop (which is why I have no pictures of this process: my photographer was too busy holding the bag to take pictures).

Now, I highly recommend that you pipe the stems first, as the meringue will be stiffer and thus stand-up better. But don't worry; it's quite alright if some of your stems fall over: real mushrooms don't grow perfect anyway! So to make your stems:

1. Place the piping tip about ¼ inch above the cookie sheet, and very
   gently squeeze the bag (from the top down).
   
2. Keep the bag/tip in the same place and keep (gently!) squeezing until a small glob forms (the foot of the mushroom).
   
3. Gently raise the bag/tip about ¾ inch while still squeezing, creating the stalk. You can variate on the height and angle of the stalks, but once you've reached your desired height, stop squeezing and twist the bag/tip as you pull away.
   

Now just repeat these steps until you've used about half of your gel (preferably a little less than half), spacing the stems about ¼-½ inch apart (they don't expand too much). Don't worry about any little tails or extra bits hanging around: they'll be taken care of later. Just count how many stems you have made (if you don't already know), and prepare to make some caps. This is what to do:

1. Place the piping tip about ½ inch above the cookie sheet, and again, very gently squeeze the bag to form a single large glob the size of a cap. This is like making the foot of the stems, but a bit bigger.
   
2. Once your glob has expanded to the proper size, stop squeezing and gently twist the bag/tip up and away. You'll end up with something that looks like a giant chocolate kiss: don't worry, we'll make it look more like a mushroom in a bit.
   

Now just repeat these steps until you have as many caps as stems. If you have some gel left (which you very well may, no worries), just alternate between creating stems and caps to make sure you have an equal amount of both. Once you're done, just set the bag off to the side. Now it's time to smooth the caps:

1. Get your regular spoon, or at least its bottom side, wet (more than moist, but not dripping).
   
2. Using the bottom of said spoon, gently smooth down the top of a cap into a uniform, dome-y shape that befits a mushroom.
   

After about 4 mushrooms, your spoon will likely get dry and start to stick instead of smooth; just get it wet again and keep going until all of your mushrooms are done.

Congratulations, you're finished piping! But there is still more to be done…

Adding That Mushroom Grunge

The key to making your mushrooms look like the real deal is to properly dirty them with a little cocoa powder. There are two techniques to use here, and you should probably use both, but you don't have to; in fact, you can skip this step completely if you like. A few broad tips first: imperfection is fine, if not recommended, as you don't want all of your mushrooms to look the same. However, you want to avoid large clumps of cocoa powder, as such clumps will melt in the oven, creating a strangely dark and plastic-y mark on the mushroom. So first, to speckle your mushrooms:

If you're using a shaker with a fine strainer lid (like I am)…

1. Load the shaker with some cocoa powder (if you want to just have a shaker full of cocoa powder around, which is a completely reasonable thing to want...then fill it to about ¾ full, otherwise, put in just a little bit, and you can always add more).
   
2. Turn the shaker sideways and a little downward over an empty spot on the cookie sheet full of caps (if you don't have such a spot, a paper plate will do), as a large amount of powder will likely fall out.
   
3. With the shaker still held sideways, hold it about 2-3 inches above a cap, and give the "butt" of the shaker a little tap or two to make some powder fall out and speckle the top of the mushroom. You can also try to just shake the shaker, but you're more likely to get too much or too little powder that way DSC6264.
   

Now just move to the next cap and repeat the spanking part until all of your mushrooms are properly coated.

If you're using a fine strainer…

1. Load the strainer with some cocoa powder (not much; you can always add more if you need it). You should probably do this over an empty spot on the cookie sheet or on a paper plate near the cookie sheet, as too much powder will likely fall through, and even just moving the strainer may result in a small amount of powder falling.
   
2. Hold the strainer over (maybe 2-3 inches above) a mushroom cap. Gently tap the side of your strainer to make powder fall out and speckle your cap.
   

Now just move to the next cap and repeat the tapping part until all of your mushrooms are properly coated.

I decided to speckle my stems as well by simply repeating the same technique that was used on the caps.

Now for the second technique (which I recommend using on both the stems and caps as well): dusting. To dust your mushrooms, giving them a nice brown shading, you need to:

1. Using your strainer or shaker, create a small pile of cocoa powder on an unoccupied portion of your cookie sheet or on a paper plate. The plate is preferable if you really care about which parts of your mushrooms get dusted, because you can move the plate.
   
2. Gently blow (or fan, if you're worried about the sanitary quality of your own breath) the cocoa powder into the desired mushroom parts, creating a nice smooth browning similar to air-brushing DSC6268.
   

Repeat these steps as much as you like; you could completely brown your mushrooms if you want, get all of the sides, or just one side, it doesn't really matter. But again, be sure not to get too much cocoa powder on there, or it will melt (or even worse, burn!), resulting in weirdo mushrooms. If you did accidently pour too much powder onto a particular mushroom while speckling, then you can blow (or fan) the excess powder off to dust the nearby mushrooms.

Torch 'Em

Now that you're done shakin', it's time to get bakin' (sorry, I couldn't resist). This also means you get to enjoy whatever roughly 2-hour long entertainment (or chore…) you have planned. Remember, the oven should already be heated up to a toasty 200° F by now, so just do these few things and you're good to go:

1. Place both trays of mushrooms in the oven (you can use convection if you like; if you have a digital oven, it should automatically compensate the temperature by 25° F if you do opt for convection) onto separate racks. Placing the caps on the upper rack might help them rise more, but it doesn't matter too much.
   
2. Close up the oven, set a timer for 2 hours, and walk away. No peaking, or your mushrooms might die a horrible death of imploding (they might collapse from a change in temperature in the same way that baking bread can)!
   

Now, when I say walk away, I mean to stay within earshot of the timer; if you used a portable timer (or a cell phone alarm), then you can just take that with you, but you still shouldn't leave the building: leaving an oven completely un-attended is the sort of thing that catches people's houses on fire, or at least burns their food. Also, just make sure that whatever you have planned is something that you can stop within a minute or two: the mushrooms don't have to come out at 2 hours on the dot, but they might get burned if you decide to "just finish this match" or something like that (you gamers out there know what I'm talking about).

Once you've taken them out of the oven, give the mushrooms a few minutes to cool, and they should, or at least can, look like this: DSC6271 DSC6272.

If you need to finish up something else you have going on at the moment (like that match…), now is a good time, as these need to cool to room temperature, and should be fine for a while once they've reached that temperature (as long as nobody wanders by and eats them). Just don't forget about them. Once they're all cooled, you can move on to the next step.

The Chocolate

Ok, this is it, the step that earns them the name "Chocolate Covered Mushrooms." Okay, so they're not exactly covered in chocolate as you might think, but they still have plenty of the stuff. But before we start chocolating things up, we need to prepare the stems for joining with the caps. It's pretty simple:

1. Using a sharp knife (as in not a butter knife), cut the pointy tips off of any stems, and separate any stems that might be joined by random tails.
   
2. Place the cut stems onto a paper plate (you will be using their cookie sheet as a place for the completed mushrooms to cool).
   

So now that you have all of your stems ready, it's time to melt some chocolate. This is yet another step that has at least two ways to do it, so…

If you're lazy like me and want to just microwave the chocolate, do this:

1. Place your chocolate chips into a bowl.
   
2. Microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds on half-power.
   
3. Stir the chocolate, and repeat the previous step until the chocolate is melted (but don't forget to take out the spoon!). This will likely add up to about 2-3 minutes.
   

NOTE: If the chocolate starts to solidify again, give it another 15 seconds on half-power. You could place an electric heating-pad under the chocolate to try to prevent this.

If you want to be a little more professional…

1. Place your chocolate in a bowl like above; the high sides are important (the higher the better; this prevents water from spilling in). You might prefer to use a bigger bowl, just so that it is easier to work with.
   
2. Get a pan (not a pot; you need to be able to easily reach down inside) that is large enough so that you can place your bowl in it (a wok might work well for this), and add enough hot water to it so that the bottom of your bowl (and only the bottom!) will be submerged.
   
3. Bring the water to a simmer using only low heat and wait for the chocolate to melt.
   

Now your chocolate is melted, and it should probably stay that way. Just be careful around the flame, the steam, and the boiling water. The microwave is a lot safer you know…

Ok, so now you have melted chocolate through some way or another, and it's time to get working (and quickly if you used the microwave method). You need to:

1. Grab a cap in one hand, and a stem in the other hand. You're playing match-maker here, so make a happy couple!
   
2. Take the cap, and gently dip its bottom (the flat side) into the chocolate.
   
3. Pull the cap back out of the chocolate while twisting.
   
4. Try to sort of flip the cap back up right without having a chocolate tail dangle over the edge and onto the top of the cap. Try spinning the cap while righting it or using your finger to block any dangles from spilling over onto the top.
   
5. Take the stem, and use its cut end to push the chocolate bulge most likely left on one side of the cap into its center.
   
6. Press the stem into the center of the cap. There should be enough chocolate there to hold the stem in place, creating a completed mushroom!
   
7. Place your completed mushroom cap-down (stem-up) onto the cookie sheet (or the part of it) that you were using for your stems.

Repeat this process until you have made all of your mushrooms, creating a lovely little upside-down mushroom wonderland DSC6296.

Now here's the bad news: these take a while to cool and "set up." They're truly done only once the chocolate is no longer glossy, but a flat brown like the chocolate chips were DSC6300.

This will probably take at least a few (1-4) hours (it would probably be faster in the fridge, but then you need to wait for the mushrooms to return to room temperature, possibly wasting more time than was saved), but I prefer let them set overnight. If you have roommates/family, make sure to put a note on them so nobody eats them while you're asleep (I wake up last usually, so the note is very important!). So once you're done forming all of your mushrooms you can move on to clean up, and call it a night.

The Morning After

Congratulations, after all of your patience and hard work, your mushrooms are done at last! Take a bite (or use my preferred method of cramming an entire one into your mouth; no mess, and very crunchy!), savor the flavor, and then consider storage options. If you intend to keep them for a while, Tupperware is the way to go. I like to line the Tupperware with a piece of parchment paper, just to add that sort of "hey, are those really mushrooms?" mystery to the box, but it's not necessary. If you want to leave them out for people to eat, pile them onto a plate (you can arrange them, but I find the sort of disorganized pile look more befitting of mushrooms) and loosely cover them with plastic wrap. That's it, you're done!

Cleanup Tips

• Take the mixing bowl, fill it almost completely with water, and then slide in anything that had contact with the gel (except for the plastic bag; I'll get to that in a second). Let this soak overnight, and the gel will have either dissolved away or at least be loosened up enough to be easily rinsed off.
  
• The whole idea behind using the plastic bag is that it is disposable! So when you're done piping, unscrew the piping tip mount, just pull the long end of the mount completely through (instead of reaching into the bag and pulling it out the way it went in), and toss the bag! You should probably rinse the mount to get most of the stuff out of it before you let it soak in the mixing bowl though.
  
• The moment you're done with it (including eating from it), the chocolate bowl should be rinsed out completely. The chocolate will be extremely difficult to remove once it has hardened, but shouldn't be too much trouble while it's still soft. Using hot water makes the process easier.
  

The Recipe In Short

WARNING: Only use this if you have: read and understand the above complete recipe, have prepared this dish before, or really know what you're doing.

• Beat egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
  
• Add sugar and beat on high speed for another 5-10 minutes, depending on desired density.
  
• Transfer mixture into a piping bag and pipe an equal number of stems and caps onto cookie sheets.
  
• Smooth tops of the caps.
  
• Using cocoa powder, dust and speckle mushrooms for realism.
  
• Bake mushrooms for 2 hours in a 200° F oven.
  
• Remove mushrooms from oven and let them cool to room temperature.
  
• Melt chocolate chips in a bowl.
  
• Dip caps into melted chocolate and attach stems.
  
• Place completed mushrooms onto a cookie tray to setup.
  
• Allow mushrooms to setup overnight.
  
• Enjoy!
  

Other Possibilities/Recipe Variations

Aside from their many decorative possibilities, I believe this recipe has the potential to be adapted in a few interesting ways:

• While the mushrooms I created looked like little portobellos or some other type of "button mushroom," differing amounts of speckling and dusting, coupled with different shaped stems and caps, could create other types of mushrooms. For example, to create shitake mushrooms, you would need a minimal amount of speckling and a fairly heavy amount of dusting, along with small/narrow stems and larger/flatter caps. To achieve the darker tone of shitakes, you might even want to mix a little cocoa powder into the raw mushroom gel, though I'm not sure of what effects (if any) that could have on the meringue's properties, but it would probably be fine.
  
• This recipe involves piping, so you can make almost anything, as long as you can properly extrude it through a piping tip or get it to work with a mold. Somebody want to make a meringue house or car or something? The trick to making these is figuring out the bake time, but you're on your own with that one I'm afraid.
  
• I have one other idea in mind, but I think I want to actually try it; if it works out, I'd rather devote and entire blog post to it than just give a short little snippet here. All I'm going to say is that it has something to do with toads: see if you can figure out the rest from there ;-).
  

Credits and Acknowledgements

• To my Dad, for showing me the recipe in the first place, for all those times you made them when I was a kid, and for your supportive guidance while I learned to make them. Oh, and for the use of your kitchen and all of its tools/appliances, and loaning me the camera.
  
• To Lindsey, for all your help taking pictures and with making the mushrooms.
  
• Original Recipe from: Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts by Alice Medrich.