Turning Wild Mushrooms into All Natural Sour Patch Kids?!
But why?
In the summer of 2020, I was bit by a Lone Star Tick and ended up with the little known Alpha Gal Syndrome. The bite caused me to form antibodies to a sugar found in most mammal meat: galactose-α-1,3-galactose.
I was mostly vegetarian before I contracted Alpha Gal, but the sugar is also found in byproducts like lard, tallow, animal rennet, and gelatin. So even though I don’t miss meat, I seriously miss candies like marshmallows and gummies!
I gave up on basically all store-bought gummies, and though I learned after figuring out this recipe that Sour Patch Kids are gelatin-free, I can honestly say that even though they’re a lot of effort these are actually better and way more wholesome. And I really can’t help but to make weird stuff out of mushrooms!
Meet Our Mushroom: 𝑳𝒆𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒂 𝒍𝒖𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂
Leotia lubrica are also known as Jelly Babies. They’re small and yellowish, with wavy caps and a smooth surface where you might expect gills. They can be a little bit slimy or sticky, and they have a bouncy, gelatinous texture making them ideal to ‘boop’ on nature walks.
They are members of the phylum Ascomycota—the ᗯEIᖇᗪ mushrooms—and so their spores emerge from the top of their fertile caps rather than the underside.
They’re saprobic, meaning that they decompose dead plant matter (most often leaf litter and duff), and they grow under both conifers and hardwoods. I most often find them in dark, wet creek beds and on mossy slopes.
They’re quite small, so you’re going to have to gather a lot, but they’re quite gregarious, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a couple handfulls. They’re best harvested when the cap is about half the size of a dime.
Most guides refer to Jelly Babies as insubstantial or not worth eating because they are small, taste bland/watery, and would be pretty terrible fried in butter. Some guides go so far as to label them as inedible for that reason—this does not mean that they are toxic. Before developing this recipe, I did deep research: they are absolutely safe to eat.
Making the Gummies
After cutting off the bases of the mushrooms and thoroughly washing them, I juiced one lemon and one lime, added a bit of the rind, mixed in water and sugar, then turned the stove onto high heat.
Once the mixture reached a rolling boil, I added the jelly babies and let them bathe in the sweet and citrus-y mixture for 10 minutes.
At this point you can taste them, but the texture might be off-putting if you’re not accustomed to eating jelly fungi—at this stage they’re both springy and chewy, maybe something like bursting boba, but significantly firmer.
Then I strained the mushrooms, laid them out on a mesh tray, and dehydrated overnight at 110 degrees. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you could put them in a turned-off oven with the light on, or you could always try one of Michael Kuo’s classic mushroom drying methods. You don’t want them to be completely dried, but the exteriors must feel mostly dry and a bit sticky so that they can keep their sour sugar coating.
The secret ingredient for sour sugar is citric acid. You might think of it as another nebulous ingredient in all your packaged foods, but it’s a basic ingredient for many canning projects, and you can buy it from (ew) 4m@zon, in the canning aisle at the grocery store, or even at the hardware store.
While developing this recipe, I first tested citric acid and sugar at a 1:1 ratio, which was WAY too sour! I found that a 1:10 ratio of citric acid is still a little more sour than it is sweet.
Lastly, I rolled the mushrooms in the citric acid and sugar mix, then sifted the sugar away. Had I thought ahead, I would have found a wide mesh sieve, but instead I sifted the extra sugar mix through my fingers. And that’s it!
Ingredients
For the Gummies
2 cups of Jelly Baby mushrooms (Leotia lubrica)
1 lemon
1 lime
3 cups water
3 cups sugar
For the Sour Sugar (Makes Extra)
3 TBSP + 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp citric acid powder
Instructions
- Find Jelly Baby mushrooms*, cut off the bases, and wash thoroughly. They can last in the fridge for 3-7 days.
- Juice the lemon and the lime into a small pot, then add water and sugar. Bring to a boil.
- Add the Jelly Babies and boil for 10 minutes.
- Strain, and spread out on a dehydrator tray. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 12 hours. The exteriors should be slightly sticky and mostly dry.
- Mix sugar and citric acid.
- Toss the candied mushrooms in sour sugar, then sift out the mushrooms.
- Enjoy!
Disclaimer:
Never eat any mushrooms unless you’re 100% certain of their identity. I’d suggest using mushroomexpert.com to confirm your ID. Please use text descriptions in addition to pictures—dangerous mistakes are made when making identifications using only photos. If you’d like my help confirming the identity of your Jelly Babies, send me a direct message on Instagram.