March, 2010's Recipe of the Month: Mushroom Puffs

This mild winter is transforming itself into a mild spring with trees and flowers bursting into bloom.  How wonderful...and that's just how we'd described Sunset's Mushroom Puffs:  wonderful!  We made our version with the plentiful hedgehogs that even now are fruiting in the forestlands.  But we suspect that some dried mushrooms from this past fall would be equally tasty.

These tasty appetizers disappeared fast!

Mushroom Puffs

1/2 tablespoon butter

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced shallot, about 1 small

1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1-2 cloves

1/2 pound button mushrooms, clean, trimmed, and finely chopped

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Madeira

1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 pound chilled puff pastry

1 egg

1/4 cup heavy cream

• Melt butter with olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook 30 seconds, stirring. Add mushrooms and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms stop giving off liquid and start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add Madeira and soy sauce and cook just until liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured work surface and with a floured rolling pin, roll out pastry sheet to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut pastry into rounds with a buttered and floured 2 inch biscuit or cookie cutter with fluted edges and arrange rounds 1/2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets.
• Press the middle of each round with your finger to make a depression, leaving a 1/4 inch wide rim. Poke each center once with a fork and top with a teaspoon of mushroom filling. Whisk egg and cream together and set aside.
• Bake pastries until gold brown and beginning to puff, 8-12 minutes. Remove from oven and lower heat to 350 degrees.
• With the end of a small funnel, carefully punch down center of pastries while spooning about 1/2 teaspoon egg-cream mixture through funnel (to guide the liquid) and into pastry (spoon in more if the pastry will accept it without overflowing). Bake pastries another 10-15 minutes, or until deep gold brown.