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Luxurious thick chaga hot chocolate with sweet woodruff sugar-dusted giant puffball ‘marshmallows’? Yes please 🙂
I was kindly gifted a perfect puffball at the weekend so decided to play with it… I remembered an idea that’s been rattling around in my head a while since one of many inspiring conversations with the ever-creative (Buck & Birch chef) Rupert Waites floating the idea of using puffballs as marshmallows (though he was musing about doing something slightly different & savoury with it)…
I tried cooking my cubes in a sugary coating (aiming for thin sugar waffle coating sort of effect) but the cooked puffball lost the white colour and fluffy pillowy marshmallow texture plus then tasted too mushroomy so they had to be raw to work for me, but alone they’re just a bit too bitter against the sweetish chocolate so I dusted them in invisible sweet woodruff sugar adding just enough sweetness to make it work plus a hint of vanilla from the coumarins in the woodruff ♡
For the drink itself I made a strong chaga ‘tea’ brew & strained it, then added good quality, fairtrade cocoa, organic milk (you could easily use non-dairy too), a pinch of salt, & crucially a spoonful of yummy precious birch sap syrup to make it drinkable (it was simply too bitter otherwise… you could use sugar, agave nectar or good maple syrup etc but I love that because chaga grows on birch our native sap syrup pairs just so beautifully with it for my liking!)… ooo and a warming shot of spiced woodruff-infused rum or brandy would go very well in this too as a nightcap I’d wager! Mm-MMM….
