My Academy Awards menu continues with more tantalizing finger food. Yesterday I posted a very healthy Paleo Pizza topped with tomatoes and pesto. Today, I wanted to post something a little more decadent. As I mentioned before, a night of finger food needs to have a variety of texture, taste, and temperature. These little babies are made of puff pastry dough, which is flaky and buttery, and filled with a mascarpone and mushroom filling. They are rich, creamy, and have a nice earthy flavor. My dear fiance, who “hates mushrooms” to the point of picking them off a pizza, ate about a dozen of these himself. Make more than you think, they will go off your serving dish in a hurry!
Makes: 24 pieces
Prep Time: 40 minutes Baking Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 55 minutes
1 sheet puff pastry dough, room temperature
1 1/4 cups mixed mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg + 2 tbs water
4 chives
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Put the mushrooms, garlic, and shallot into a food processor. Pulse the mix until it is nearly minced. This is the filling, so it should be very finely chopped so that it fits into small pieces of puff pastry.
- Heat a saute pan to medium heat. Add the olive oil, mushroom mix, thyme, and rosemary. Saute for 3-5 minutes, or until most of the liquid has released from the mushrooms and they are soft and tender. Drain excess moisture from the pan and remove from the heat. Add the mascarpone and fold with a spatula so that everything is combined. Cool until it is at a temperature you can touch. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roll the puff pastry on a lightly floured cutting board so that it is roughly 12 x 18 inches and 1/4 inch thick. Use a pizza cutter or paring knife to cut the dough into 3 x 3 inch squares, so that you get 24 squares.
- Spoon a heaping teaspoon of filling into one of the pastry squares. Bring the four corners together and fold each corner over to create another fold. I prefer to fill one square first, so that I know how much filling the square can take without over stuffing it. Put a dollop of filling into each pastry square and repeat the folding process to create little purses.
- Whisk the egg and water together in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash around the outsides of the pastry squares. Place them onto a cookie sheet that is lightly sprayed with cooking spray.
- Cut the chives into 2 inch pieces. Tie the chive strand around the top of each purse so that it settles around the top. It doesn’t have to be pulled tight, it’s more for aesthetics than function.
- Bake the purses for 12-15 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crispy. Serve hot.
Other Fancy Finger Foods:
Cooking In Red Socks 