Posted by ehme on August 30th, 2008 in Appetizers, eggs

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Every winter I throw a big ole weekend long party, and this year I decided it would be smart for me to make appetizers ahead of time, so that when it was two am and we were all drunk and hungry, I could just pop some frozen appetizers in the oven and everyone would think I was a hero.  It worked.  All my friends think I am some kind of superhuman Martha Stewart.  Ha!  Fooled you!  These were the biggest hit, and this year I will make a million more.  My drunk friends apparently don’t get fed often.

• 1 pkg refrigerated pie crust or one recipe pastry crust
• one portabello mushroom
• 8 oz. button mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, or whatever other mushrooms are on sale that week
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1/2 c. whipping cream
• 1 egg ( or the equivalent amount of Egg Beaters.  These are just as good if you just use the egg whites)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 c. shredded swiss cheese
• bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled.  ( I didn’t use the bacon in all of them, because I have vegetarian friends.  In fact, I don’t think the original recipe even called for bacon, but I don’t have it any more and I have no idea where I got it.  I just found this scribbled mess on my dining room floor.)

Preheat oven to 375

Let crusts stand at room temp for 20 mins, roll out into 12″ circles.  Wash mushrooms (yes, with water people.  It doesn’t hurt them.  MYTH! Just dry them off after you wash them, or the next step will take longer)  Chop up in food processor or with knife.  Place butter and olive oil in skillet and cook mushrooms over medium heat until all liquid is evaporated and mushrooms are brown and tender.

Spray 24 muffin cups with Pam the wonder Spray.  (I wrote down 1 3/4c. but I just used standard size cupcake pans.)  Using a pint glass, cut 24 circles from pie crust (12 from each crust) rerolling if needed.  Press into muffin pans.  Divide mushrooms between cups.

Combine egg, cream, salt and cayenne pepper and beat well.  Pour mixture over mushrooms, about 2 tsp. per cup.  Sprinkle each with grated cheese.

Bake for 18-20 mins or until center is set.

These freeze awesome, and the recipe doubles fantastically.  I have zillions of cupcake pans, so it was easy for me to do a quadruple batch in a short amount of time, if you don’t have a lot of cupcake pans this might not be so easy.

When you freeze them, cool them to room temp first, then put them on a tray and freeze them on the tray, then put them in a zip lock bag.

These were not as popular as the bite size ones, but they were pretty darn tasty.

Oh to reheat, bake at 350 for 12-14 mins.