Stuffed Mushrooms

 

Classic Stuffed Mushrooms

I was first introduced to stuffed mushrooms by my brother-in-law George who was a Michelin Star Chef when he asked me to help one weekend at his restaurant. I had never tasted these delectable treats before, and boy was I hooked once I tasted them. He made his with sourdough breadcrumb and brie or Swiss cheese. Absolutely delicious.  

No matter how many we made there never seemed to be enough, and they were always gone once introduced on the nightly special menu.   

For the nightly menu, we’d make about 200 stuffed mushrooms, and I’d steal at least 20 as soon as they came out of the oven.   Since that time, I’ve made them for holidays and special occasion dinner parties, and everyone loved them. Try them and see if your guest enjoys them too.

These classic stuffed mushrooms are a total crowd-pleaser! Serve them up as a quick and easy party appetizer or as a vegetarian side dish for the holidays.

Ingredients

24 oz whole button mushrooms (stems reserved)

¾ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I use sourdough breadcrumbs)

5 Tbsp butter plus extra as needed/desired

¼ cup finely minced yellow onion

2-3 cloves garlic (smashed and minced)

½ tsp garlic powder to taste

1 tsp parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Cheese topping (optional) Brie or Swiss

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. That’s if you are cooking them immediately.

You can make these stuffed mushrooms ahead of time and keep in fridge for up to 24 hours before cooking. Be sure to spray fridge mushrooms with a bit of water or melted butter before cooking. Be sure to also bring them up to room temp by taking them out of fridge about an hour before you start cooking them.

Brush mushrooms clean with a slightly damp paper towel. Do not rinse as that will result in soggy mushrooms.

Remove the stems from your mushrooms. Finely mince and set aside.

Next, add butter to a non-stick frying pan and adjust to medium heat.

Add garlic, mushroom stems, and onion. Sauté until fragrant.

Next, add your breadcrumbs. Mix well to coat with butter and season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

I like to mush the ingredients down, flip, and repeat. Mushing the stuffing will coat every inch evenly with butter. Overly dry stuffing will burn, so add a little extra butter as needed. Sometimes I'm good with 5 tablespoons of butter and other times I'll add a few extra to moisten the mixture.

Now start tasting! This is where you get to do your own personal magic and season away til your tastebuds are happy. You can add any extra salt, pepper, garlic powder as you'd like. Depending on how seasoned your breadcrumb mixture is, you can even any other Italian seasonings you have on hand. Taste again, repeat, and all that jazz. I use a LOT of garlic powder because I love mine garlicky!

Ready to stuff 'em? Let your stuffing cool down a bit, like a thin cookie sheet with foil, and grease the foil lightly with olive oil (a tiny dab will go a long way!). Line up your mushrooms 1-inch apart and stuff! If you prefer your stuffing to be really crunchy, you can pack it in a towering mound a top the mushroom. Most of my friends/family prefer softer stuffing, which means when you stuff the mushroom, push it as far down into the mushroom as you can, and keep it level with the top of the shroom.

Bake at 350 degrees F until the mushrooms turn golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Remove and sprinkle with cheese then bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese melts.  Enjoy!

Elizabeth Kilbride is a Writer and Editor with forty years of experience in writing with 12 of those years in the online content sphere. Author of 5 books and a Graduate with an Associate of Arts from Phoenix University in Business Management, then a degree. Mass Communication and Cyber Analysis from Phoenix University, then on to Walden University for her master’s in criminology with emphasis on Cybercrime and Identity Theft and is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in Criminology. Her work portfolio includes coverage of politics, current affairs, elections, history, and true crime. Elizabeth is also a gourmet cook, life coach, and avid artist in her spare time, proficient in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, Gouche, and pastels. As a political operative having worked on over 300 campaigns during her career, Elizabeth has turned many life events into books and movie scripts while using history to weave interesting storylines. She also runs 6 blogs that range from art to life coaching, to food, to writing, and opinion or history pieces each week.