Candy Cap

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp crimini mushrooms dried well (Chopping the mushrooms in a coffee grinder also works and your next pot of coffee will be very special.)
• 3  egg yolk 
• 2 cups cup heavy whipping cream 
• 2 tsp salt 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 cup milk whole

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• sauce pan
• whisk
• sieve
• spatula
• ice cream machine

Directions

1. In a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until hot but not boiling.
2. Add the ground candy caps.
3. Remove from the heat and let steep for at least 1 hour or up to 2 hours.
4. When you feel like your mushrooms are in a good place, return the pan to medium heat and bring the mixture back to hot.
5. Fill a large bowl or pan with ice and water.
6. Place a large, clean bowl in the ice bath and fit the bowl with a fine-mesh strainer.
7. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well blended.
8. Remove the cream mixture from the heat. Slowly pour about half of the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.
9. Transfer the yolk mixture back to the saucepan with the remaining cream mixture and return it to medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula and being sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan so it doesn't scorch, until the liquid begins to steam and you can feel the spatula scrape against the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes.
10. Remove the custard from the heat and immediately pour it through the strainer into the clean bowl you set up in the ice bath.
11. Let cool, stirring occasionally.
12. When the custard has totally cooled, cover the bowl tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or preferably overnight. When you are ready to freeze the custard, transfer it to an ice cream maker and spin according to the manufacturer's instructions. Eat immediately, or transfer to an airtight container, cover, and freeze for up to 1 week.
13. Fun Fact: To start selling this flavor, we had to make some adjustments to the branding. We couldn't sell a lick when we called it "Candy Cap Mushroom"—apparently people get scared of mushroom ice cream? So we now list it as "Candy Cap (taste it first and then we'll tell you)." As soon as they put it in their mouth, out comes the phrase "it's actually really good."
14. From Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book by Jake Godby, Sean Wahey & Paolo Lucchesi. Text copyright © 2012 by Jake Godby and Sean Wahey; photographs copyright © 2012 by Frankie Frankeny. Published by Chronicle Books, LLC.