Food: Stuffed Mushrooms

This Christmas season I want to increase my stable of party-worthy appetizers. So far, I can pick out a great cheese plate, but after that I’m just standing there with a fistful of carrot sticks and melon balls.

For my first attempt at going appetizer-legit, I chose stuffed mushrooms – this recipe is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen. The ATK recipe uses equal parts goat cheese and cream cheese, but the below ratio is more mild, and thus a little more crowd friendly.

Stuffed Mushrooms
2 oz goat cheese, softened
6 oz whipped cream cheese, softened (the whipped gives a lighter texture)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh tarragon
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Topping:
1 thick slice bread (italian or sourdough)
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil

Mushrooms:
24 large white mushrooms, stems removed
1/4 cup olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp salt

For filling:
Throw all ingredients into a food processor, pulse until smooth. Put mixture into a zip lock bag and smoosh into a corner of the bag, you will cut off the tip and pipe this into the mushrooms later. Refrigerate filling until time to use.

For topping:
Throw all ingredients except for oil into food processor. Pulse until you have coarse crumbs. Put mixture into a bowl, drizzle with oil, mix with fingers until coated, set aside.

For mushrooms:
Pre-heat oven to 425. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, and salt into a bowl, coat all mushrooms in this mixture. Place mushrooms, grill side up, on baking sheet lined with tin foil. Roast for 10 minutes, then flip mushrooms, roast another 10 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes. Pipe filling into mushrooms, then press each cap (filling side down) into the crumb topping. Bake (filling side up) another 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Voila.