Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Mushroom Tarts

Last time I gave you the pastry recipe I use for these tarts. These are very rich and totally delicious, bound to be the hit of your cocktail party!

Mushroom Tarts

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese Pastry formed into tart shells

2 tbsp butter

16 oz mushrooms (can combine various types), chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup chopped green onion

¼ cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F

Heat butter in skillet, add mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cream, bring to boil

Add lemon juice, green onion and parsley and season with salt and pepper

Spoon into prepared pastry shells

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until pasty is golden

Turn out of tins and cool. These freeze well so can be made ahead for your party. Reheat from frozen at 350 F for 15 minutes.

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These tarts are very rich, and absolutely delicious, so perfect for party appetizers or finger foods. The pastry itself is made with cream cheese, making them rich but not sweet, thus perfect for a savory filling but wouldn’t work so well for a dessert tart.

Next time I’ll give you the recipe I use for the perfect filling to create the mushroom treats

Cream Cheese Pastry for Savory Tarts:

Ingredients:

2 Cups all purpose flour

½ tx[p salt

1 cup cold butter, diced

1 cup cold cream cheese, diced

Directions:

Prepare 18 small tarts or muffin tins. I used cupcake papers tucked into muffin tins.

Place flour and salt in food processor. Add butter and cream cheese and combine until blended.

Remove from processor and form into ball. Cover ball with waxed paper and chill in fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes prior to slicing and filling.

This pastry doesn’t need to be rolled out as you should do with most pie pastries. it works fine by breaking off a ball of about 1 inch and patting directly into the prepared containers. However, I like to give some sharpness to the edges so I cut the circle using a floured glass.