Mushroom Chocolate Cookies
Let’s talk mushrooms. These earthy, umami-laden fungi are employed across large swathes of dishes, lending their deep, grounded flavour to soups and stews, risottos and quiches, pizzas and stir-fries. Despite their breadth of applications though, mushrooms are often still limited to the savoury realm. So, this begs the questions, can mushrooms be used in sweets and desserts?
To me, the answer to that question is a resounding YES! And this shroom recipe here is proof of it—a rich, umami-heavy, mind-altering (the legal kind) mushroom chocolate cookie!
The inspiration for this idea came from my very first mushroom paradigm-shifting experience at Sitka restaurant in Malaysia two years back, where I had a luxurious mushroom chocolate dessert that Chef Christian cleverly fused together. It was a simple, delicate dessert of tongue-coatingly smooth chocolate mousse, with a dash of truffly, mushroom oil giving it a hint of earthiness and a pleasant bitter end that toys with your palate in the same way dark chocolate with high cocoa content does. The dish played tricks with my mind with each spoonful as I curiously came to grips with the flavour combination. Even as I had the last lick of my spoon, I was left wanting even more. Such is the power of that hint of umami that mushrooms bring.
Clearly, that experience has stayed with me since, and so when K Fresh got me to create a recipe based on their mushrooms, this mushroom chocolate dream instantly came to mind. But rather than turning it into a mousse as Chef Christian did, I went with a more direct approach, working mushrooms into the universally adored dessert—chocolate chip cookies!
Looking through K Fresh’s mushroom collection—they have white and brown shimejis, golden enokis, as well as matt oyster mushrooms—the latter fit the bill perfectly. The matt oysters are shaped like small trumpets, and come in cute little clusters, but their petite size packs quite a punch! Compared to more common mushrooms like button mushrooms or shiitakes, these have a stronger, earthier, and subtly sweet aroma, and a bouncier, meatier texture too. All these characteristics, I thought, would lend well to the cookies I envisioned, and would allow for the mushrooms to flaunt its flavour even more. So I did a few tests, and nearly swooned at the results! (I mean, just look at the photos!)
The cookies had all the character of a winning chocolate cookie—a buttery, golden-brown base, a slightly crinkly top, with burnished pools of gooey chocolate. And on top of that, there’s a sweet, earthy umami from the matt oyster mushrooms garnished on top, as well as embedded within the cookie dough in the form of mushroom powder, giving the dough even more funky character. At first glance, these might look like an experiment gone wrong, but bite into them and your mushroom worldview will be rocked.
So put aside your fungi fears and mushroom mistrust, for I promise you these shroom cookies will blow your mind.
This recipe is sponsored by K Fresh by First Pick, a brand bringing premium air-flown Korean fresh produce to Malaysia.
About the Dish
To make this, I started off with my trusty chocolate cookie base. (Notice the omission of chocolate “chips”, because I’m a fan of hunks of chocolate in my cookies rather than just measly chips of chocolate.) To start off the cookie dough, I get some butter, brown it till it’s really nice and nutty, add some coffee powder and vanilla extract to it for a touch of aroma, then give it that hit of paradigm-shifting umami via a spoonful of mushroom powder as well as doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste). Then, whisk them all with some sugar and eggs, fold in some all-purpose flour and baking powder to provide structure, throw in the chocolate chunks, and you’ll have your cookie dough.
Next, all it needs is a chill in the fridge for the flavours to really meld, and they’re ready to bake. And when it comes to baking these, to bring some visual appeal to them as well, I like topping each individual cookie with more chocolate and more mushrooms.
Tips for Success
To make these killer cookies, here are some important tips and advice, especially on the mushroom front:
Types of mushrooms to use: I used K Fresh’s matt oyster mushrooms in both the mushroom powder and as a garnish, as it had a great earthy depth punctuated by a good dose of umami. But any strong tasting mushroom would work well too, especially for the powder. I’d recommend dried porcinis or shiitakes for the powder. And to garnish, fresh maitakes, shimejis, or even slivers of portobellos would work.
Mushroom powder: I made my own mushroom powder from scratch, again using those stellar matt oyster mushrooms from K Fresh (can you tell, I really like them!). If you have a dehydrator or an oven that can go to a low temperature, I’d recommend making your own by drying the fresh mushrooms then pulverising it into a potent powder. But if you don’t have a dehydrator or low-temp oven, you can always just blitz up some dried mushrooms, or even use mushroom paste in place of the powder.
Mushroom garnish: I use fresh mushrooms as my garnish, and only put them on halfway through the bake. I don’t put them early on mainly because the mushrooms won’t fit onto the cookie pre-bake, and I don’t just lay them on after the bake either because baking it for that short while actually helps remove some of the raw grassy aroma from the mushroom and helps its flavour blend better into the cookie.
Mushroom Chocolate Cookies
Makes 20 cookies
Ingredients
Mushroom powder (optional)
100g matt oyster mushrooms (I got mine from K Fresh), or any strong-tasting mushrooms
Cookie dough
170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
20g (approx. 2 pieces) ice cubes
5g (2 tsp) mushroom powder (from above), or mushroom paste
4g (1 tsp) espresso powder
5g (1 tsp) vanilla extract
5g (1 tsp) doenjang or miso paste
80g (4 tbsp) sugar, caster or granulated both works
100g (1/2 cup) dark brown sugar
4g (1 tsp) salt
1 egg
200g (1½ cup) all-purpose flour
4g (1 tsp) baking soda
160g (5 oz.) dark chocolate, roughly chopped (the quality of chocolate varies from brand to brand, but a good rule of thumb is to use chocolate you would eat on its own)
Garnishes
60g (2 oz.) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
3g (1 tsp) flaky sea salt
100-150g matt oyster mushrooms, or any other fresh mushroom
Directions
Make mushroom powder: Separate the mushroom clusters into individual mushrooms. Then, lay them out on a tray and place them in an oven or a dehydrator set at 60°C for 8-12 hours, until completely dry. (The duration might differ based on your climate; but once they’re brittle and crispy, they’re done.) Transfer the mushrooms into a blender or food processor, and blitz on high speed into a fine powder.
Make brown butter: In a small pot or saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Let it melt and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts to smell nutty and the butter (especially on the bottom) starts to brown. When done, take the pot off the heat and add in the ice cubes to cool down the butter.
Make cookie dough: Transfer the brown butter to a bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if you’re mixing by hand), and add in the mushroom powder, espresso powder, vanilla extract, doenjang, caster sugar, dark brown sugar, and salt. Whisk this on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until completely smooth and it turns two shades paler. Then, add in the egg and whisk for another minute until well-mixed. Next, sift in the all-purpose flour and baking soda, and fold it with a spatula to incorporate the dry and wet ingredients together. Finally, add in the cut-up chunks of chocolate, and give it a final few folds, making sure no streaks of flour remain.
Chill dough: When the dough is done, chill them in a refrigerator for 20 minutes to harden slightly and make them easier to work with for the next steps. (You can chill it for longer if it’s still really soft and sticky to touch.) Then, with an ice cream scoop, or with your hands, portion the dough into 40g balls, and keep this in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or up to 3 days, to develop the flavours slightly. (The cookie balls can also be frozen at this point too to keep for longer.) If you’re absolutely short on time though, you can skip this long chilling time and go right ahead to the baking
Heat oven: When you’re ready to bake the cookies, heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Then, line a baking tray with baking paper or with a silicon mat.
Bake the cookies: Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, and place 6-8 cookies on the lined baking tray, making sure to leave at least 8cm (3 inches) of space in between each dough ball. Press the cookies down slightly into discs 5cm (2 inches) in diameter. Then, place 2-3 chunks of chocolate reserved for the garnish on top of each cookie ball. (These chunks will form gooey pools of chocolate on top of each cookie.) Bake the cookies for 6 minutes. Then, take them out of the oven, and place 5-6 pieces of mushrooms on top of each cookie, and sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top too. Bake the cookies for another 10 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool the cookies: When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Then, with a spatula or with your hands, transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat steps 6 & 7 for the rest of the cookie dough.
Eat!: The cookies keep well for 3-5 days in an airtight container. But when I made them, they were so good they didn’t even last 2 days!
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