Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mushroom Crescents


While I really love baking, I don't often bake savoury things - and I really should more often. At least I can eat the savoury things as part of a meal, plus savoury baked goods are often delicious. Like these mushroom crescents. And delicious doesn't begin to describe them. Unshareable would be a better description (and I'm sure that isn't actually a word) as it will be hard to part with even one of these yummy little things.

The mushroom/onion/herb filling is extremely addictive. It's yummy as the filling in these little pastries, and it's yummy just eaten with a spoon. The pastry is really easy to make and easy to work with, which was great for me because usually I hate rolling out dough. And the pastry was super tasty and slightly flakey and really good. Combine the filling and the dough, incredibly yummy as I've already said.


I know I'll be making these again, and I'll be making the filling again for other purposes and trying other fillings as well. So far the ones I want to try are brie & pears, roasted garlic & feta, and caramelized onions and aged cheddar. Let me know if you have any other suggestions! Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the crescents.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Pasta with Portobello Mushrooms in Wine Sauce
Portobello Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto, Roasted Peppers and Romano Cheese
French Barley Salad
Caramelized Onion, Sage and Cheddar Muffins

Mushroom Crescents
Adapted from The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book

Makes about 40 pieces.

Filling
2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried thyme
3/4 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups finely chopped portobello mushrooms
1 1/2 cups finely chopped button mushrooms
1/3 cup white wine

Pastry
4 oz (125 g) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup all purpose flour
1 egg, beaten

In large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; fry onion, garlic, thyme, sage, pepper and salt, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add portobello and button mushrooms; fry, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in wine, scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan. Cook until liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

Pastry
In large bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until fluffy. Stir in flour until dough begins to form; knead in bowl until smooth. Divide dough in half; flatten into 2 discs. Wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

On lightly floured surface, roll out each disc into 10 inch (25 cm) circle. With 2 1/2 inch (6 cm) round cookie cutter, cut out circles, rerolling scraps. Working with 6 circles at a time, brush edges lightly with egg. Place 1 tsp (5 mL) of the filling in centre of each; fold dough over filling, pinching edges to seal. Place, 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart, on baking sheet. (Can be frozen at this point.) Brush tops with remaining egg.

Bake in centre of 400F oven until light golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are gorgeous! All of your eats look divine!

Chris said...

Sounds like a fantastic pastry puff recipe. (I never say no to extra garlic). And they're so cute! I also like how you can freeze them until you need them if you're making these for a party. I would even go so far as to say that making the filling in advance isn't optional seeing as the flavors marry so well in the fridge overnight :)

Pearl said...

sounds like a great recipe! thank you for sharing!

Elyse said...

Yum. My only fear is that I might eat all of these little bites at once--all by myself. They look addictively good. Mushrooms and puff pastry get me everytime.

Anonymous said...

Those look really good!

They kind of remind me of the frozen appetizers you get at M&M's and the grocery store........but probably way tastier!

Anonymous said...

Oh yum! I love mushrooms. Bookmarked!

EvilDucky77 said...

making the dough tonight. . .and the crescents tomorrow! thanks!

Anonymous said...

These sound perfect. I love anything with mushrooms! I hope to make these soon.

Amy said...

Mmmmm these look awesome!

Dana Treat said...

Wow, those look awesome and have some of my favorite flavors. The perfect shape for picking up.

Anonymous said...

These look delicious! Bookmarked it to try it out.

Snooky doodle said...

nice!! you should do more savoury recipes. this one is awesome !!

Eat It Brooklyn said...

They look so beautiful! Very inspiring, although it still seems like it would take me a lot to venture into making these myself! Are they really "make-at-home"???

eatme_delicious said...

eat it brooklyn: Thanks! They're not as difficult to make as it might seem. It's just sauteeing onions, mushrooms and herbs. And then the other part is making a simple dough that's easy to roll out. So it's a little time consuming but if you separated it out over a couple of days it would make it seem less stressful. =)

Anonymous said...

Those are so cute! I bet I could eat about 100 of those.

Lisa said...

I remember making these and they are so good! I wonder why I haven't made them in such a long time? Thanks for reminding me.

Anonymous said...

Mushrooms make us smile big smiles! These little 'shroom babes are perfect to pop into your mouth.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

My ears perked up when you said mushrooms! They do look good and I am drooling over the other variations you described too! What great party food these would make.

Anonymous said...

omg these are so cute! they sound so yummy... i wish i could cook and make these! haha maybe i can convince my mom to make these..

Steph said...

I don't bake enough savoury stuff too, but that' mostly b/c that usually involves pie crust and puffy pastry, which are things I'm not too crazy about. You know what I love, I never thought I'd find someone who was as obsessive as me when it comes to texture than you. It's just that I can't help but think that it can always get better. After the WS pans though, I can really say that part of the reason for some of past failures really had to do with the pan esp brownies, which have a tendency to becomes over dry at the edges (suprisingly since they're all fat!) Since you use chicago metallic, I wouldn't worry too much b/c I was comparing with Wilton, which are really bad in my opinion (no wonder they ahve those magic strips... you actually need them if you're using a wilton pan)

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, I think I want to make these and then not share them!

Cakespy said...

Oh, hello delicious. These would be perfect for a party hors d'oeuvre. YUM! I love mushrooms.

Lisa Turner said...

I must try this recipe, as I am a mushroom fiend. I love the cream cheese in the pastry.

Anonymous said...

Just pulled my first batch out of the oven. Delicious!

Amelia said...

Hey, I wanted to try out one of the variations you suggested... either brie/pear or feta/roasted garlic. Not sure exactly how to alter the recipe though... suggestion? or would you leave it the same?

eatme_delicious said...

He4Mei2: I can tell you what I'd do but I'm not sure how exactly it'd turn out. Let me know what you end up trying and how it works! For pear/brie, I would chop up the pears and sautee them in butter then add some sugar and vanilla. Maybe 2 or 3 pears? As for how much brie, I'm not sure. I think I'd chop it up and add maybe 1 piece to each crescent. For feta/roasted garlic, I would roast garlic bulbs (you'd need a lot if you're only using garlic though so maybe I'd also add some caramelized onions to this one). And then crumble in some feta - again maybe 1 chunk per crescent? Sorry this may not have been very helpful! Definitely you need to just throw away the original recipe though when doing the brie/pear one. You could try the herbs with the roasted garlic one though...

Anonymous said...

These look lovely! When you put mushrooms into a pastry something good always comes of it. To enhance the earthy mushroom flavour I would add in some fresh chopped shittake mushrooms with the portabellas, and perhaps some Italian seasoning, I love the blending of the thyme, rosemary, and basil with mushrooms. Ohhh or maybe a nice Italian herbed sour cream dip... You have my wheels turning, thanks for the inspiration.
- Brittany

Anonymous said...

Definitely going to make these. I have all the ingredients already and I love any pastry recipes that involve my two favorite things....mushrooms and garlic. Thanks!!!

Anonymous said...

I love pastry recipes that ask for you to make your own pastry. These sound perfect - thank you for posting it!

Anonymous said...

Is yhis is the same recipe as the one in the Jean Pere cookbooks?!Sure looks the same...if it is ...its delicious!!

eatme_delicious said...

anonymous: I'm not sure. This is from The Canadian Living Baking Book.