Mushroom Chocolates: A Simple, Ancient Recipe for Shroom Chocolates

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There is an ancient alchemy that exists between mushrooms and cacao. Both have been used in ancient healing traditions, and both have sacred and divine connotations. And their names reflect it: Cacao, Food of the Gods, and mushrooms, Flesh of the Gods.

The Aztecs held cacao in the highest esteem and a bitter beverage was commonly made from the plant for use in ritual and religious ceremony.

The Nahuatl language offers insight into other sacred foods that were used in ceremony, such as the teonanacatl mushroom, which translates to “flesh of the gods.” A fungus of divine status, the teonanacatl mushroom refers to Psilocybe mexicana, a psychedelic mushroom also found native to Mesoamerica. It is well documented that these consciousness-expanding mushrooms were consumed together with cacao in ritual. The food of the gods nourishing the divine communion with the flesh of the gods.

Study of these ancient Mesoamerican cultures reveals that cacao has an established history of being consumed in combination with other ritualistic foods, especially psychoactive plants and fungi. In magic mushroom ceremonies, the Aztecs would combine teonanacatl with cacao to be served as a mushroom-cacao mixed beverage. In other cases, the mushrooms were eaten alone and followed by cacao drinks in order to further heighten the psychoactive effects.

It was thought that the qualities found in cacao potentiate and guide the spirit of the mushroom experience. The synergistic effects of cacao and mushrooms have become a classic pairing, thousands of years old.

While our recipe below contains non-psychoactive medicinal mushrooms, we still opt for a chocolate-based delivery system for our fungi. Yum!

The process of tempering helps the chocolate to set up firmly so it will snap when bitten into or broken. This process will also help give the final product a glossy sheen and bring out the flavors. It’s a bit more labour intensive but we love the end product. We encourage you to explore with ingredients, spices, and mushroom varieties. 

Mushroom Chocolates: Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cacao powder (we love Keith’s cacao)
  
• 3/4 cup cacao butter, melted
  
• 1/4 cup Forest Juice maple syrup
  
• 10 ml 11:11 tincture, or any mushrooms of choice
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• Pinch of cayenne
  
• Pinch of salt 
  

Shroom Chocolates: Tools

• Chocolate Molds (unless you are making a bark, which you could lay flat on a baking sheet)
  
• Food thermometer
  
• Saucepan and mixing bowl to create double boiler
  

Mushroom Chocolate: Recipe Directions

1. Wash and dry any molds you will use for your chocolates
   
2. Prepare your double boiler: fill a saucepan with water, less than halfway full, and place on the stove on high until it starts to boil. Find a dry mixing bowl and place over the saucepan once the water is boiling. The water should not be hitting the top of the mixing bowl and it should be only the steam that is heating the mixing bowl
   
3. Place cacao butter and cacao powder in a clean, dry bowl over the heat source to melt 
   
4. Remember the bowl of cacao should not be directly touching the heat, but rather be suspended above hot water, to be gradually melted by the steam
   
5. Stir cacao butter and powder with a whisk
   
6. As the cacao butter and paste melt together, take the temperature of the melted paste. Bring the temperature up to 115° (46° celsius)
   
7. Immediately remove bowl from hot water source once at this temperature
   
8. Continue to stir. You can add a solid piece of cacao butter or a bit more cacao powder to the melted mixture to cool it down
   
9. Add all other ingredients
   
10. Cool down to 84° (29° celsius)
    
11. Once the mixture has reached 84° (29° celsius) return mixture to the double boiler
    
12. Heat mixture back up to 88° (31° celsius) and immediately remove from heat. At 88 degrees, the chocolate is in temper and will yield the best result
    
13. Pour chocolate mixture into your molds, allow to sit and become solid, either at room temperature or by placing molds in fridge

Piña Colada Shroom Truffles: White Chocolate Mushrooms

For something fancier, you need to not look further than The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook, by Dr. K Mandrake and Virginia Haze, mycologists who work with DoubleBlind.

This is an adaptation from their Ginger Lime Shroom Truffles, but given a summery twist. Based on the flavor profiles of a classic piña colada cocktail, this uses dried pineapple and desiccated coconut to mask the taste of the powdered shrooms. The lime juice helps to balance the flavors and also serves to help turn the psilocybin into psilocin, which is the form that your body actual uses. And all of this is coated in a lush white chocolate, so these wouldn’t be out of place served with a coffee after a gorgeous meal. In fact, is that the perfect way to eat them? You tell us.

You will need a truffle mold for this recipe, but these can be bought for very little money online. You can use molds of any shape, though the half-sphere silicone molds are perfect for this recipe.

Six grams of dried mushrooms in 12 truffles gives a dose of 0.5 g per truffle, more than a microdose and less than full dose for journeying. Dose accordingly with this in mind. For a more moist filling, you can exchange the dried pineapple here for frozen pineapple chunks, though be aware that the filling will be slightly harder to work with.

Shroom Chocolate Ingredients

• 60 g (2 oz) dried pineapple
• 10 g (½ oz) desiccated coconut
• Zest of ½ a lime
• Juice of ¼ a lime
• 100 g (1 ¾ oz) white chocolate
• 6g (¼ oz) dried mushrooms

Method

1. Slowly melt the white chocolate in the double boiler.
2. Cover the bottom of each mold with melted chocolate, allow it to slightly cool, then flip the mold over onto an oven rack to allow the excess chocolate to drain.
3. Set the coated molds aside in the fridge to cool.
4. Blitz the dried mushrooms in your coffee grinder and set aside.
5. Blitz the dried pineapple and desiccated coconut until it takes on a paste-like consistency 
6. Add in the lime zest, lime juice and blend/mix again.
7. Add the powdered mushrooms and stir well to combine. Wet your hands and roll this mixture into a sticky dough ball. Roll this ball into a long log and cut into 12 equal sized pieces, then roll each one into a ball. 
8. Remove your pre-filled chocolate shells from the fridge, add the ball of the mixture then top with more white chocolate to cover completely.
9. Place into the fridge to set for 30 minutes. After unmolding, add an blob of melted chocolate to each truffle, and sprinkle on some desiccated coconut.
10. Consume within a week for best effects!