Candy Caps & Bourbon

I devoured two very delicious, very different bread puddings recently. Following a tasting menu heavy on mushrooms, we found ourselves waiting for dessert - Candy Cap Bread Pudding with a Maple Sugar Anglaise. My companion was incredulous when I suggested that candy caps were mushrooms, but our waiter confirmed that candy caps were a sweet mushroom infused with a maple flavor. However, so cleverly were the mushroom morsels incorporated into the pudding, that I'm hard pressed to comment upon any flavor specifics. Suffice to say that the pudding, less that two inches square, was divine. Floating in a pool of maple scented cream, the pudding disappeared in quick bites and conversation soon turned to delirious fantasies of more pudding appearing at the table. It didn't happen.

A week later, dinner ended with bread pudding once more. This time, a gigantic square dripping with bourbon sauce. Within minutes, everyone's plates were clean and we all sat idly tapping our forks against the porcelain, discretely ignoring the half pan of pudding that remained in the kitchen already warmed. And then someone announced her intention of having seconds. And the conversation stopped. We migrated to the kitchen, empty plates in hand, soon full, and sooner still, empty again.