Mushroom Palmiers

When I was visiting my parents recently I went through my mom's cookbooks and stole her Australian Women's Weekly Finger Foods cookbook. It's mostly filled with appetizers that are perfect for entertaining but I saw several recipes I wanted to try just for my husband and I.

The first recipe I've attempted from the book is Mushroom Palmiers. They looked so cute in the cookbook and seemed like the perfect use of the huge bag of shitake mushrooms I bought at 99 Ranch Market.

My first attempt at this recipe was almost a disaster. I prepared the mushroom filling by chopping and mixing the ingredients and then put them in the puff pastry just like I was instructed to do so in the recipe. While I was doing this I kept wondering why they don't have you cook the filling. Everytime I've made anything with mushrooms they need to be cooked first. I figured I would just follow the recipe and I couldn't go wrong. Well, not cooking the filling was my first mistake. I hadn't noticed that the instructions for the filling were at the end of the recipe (which makes NO sense to me). I didn't realize this until I had taken the rolled up puff pastry out of the fridge. That's when I realized that I had misread the recipe. My second mistake was that I had folded the puff pastry logs in half vertically rather than horizontally.

Fortunately I was able to open the pastry logs up and take the filling out. While I didn't cook it according to the directions (it was too late, I had combined everything at once) the cooked mixture turned out fine). When I fixed the pastry logs they were pretty pathetic looking but I was not about to waste food. Especially since the puff pastry cost me $5 at the store (okay, you can tell how poor I am since I'm complaining about $5). I miss Jon's up in Los Angeles. They have great puff pastry for cheap.

So, long story short, they turned out pretty well despite all of the mistakes I made. The picture below on the left is my first attempt and the picture on the right is my second attempt. The second ones turned out perfectly (with some changes that I made to the recipe; see below).


















Mushroom Palmiers
from Finger Food by The Australian's Women Weekly
c. 1998

Makes about 70.

(translated into American measurements with added notes)

12 oz. package of puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling:
1 T. oil
1 T. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
1 T. plain flour
2 T. water
1 T. chopped fresh chives

To make Filling:

1.) Heat oil and butter in pan. Add garlic and onion and cook, stirring, until soft.
2.) Stir in mushrooms, cook for about 4 minutes or until mushrooms are soft. Stir often.
3.) Add flour, stir over heat for 1 minute, gradually stir in water, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.
4.) Remove from heat; cool. Stir chives into mushroom mixture.

To make palmiers:

1.) Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees (When I baked them at 375 they took forever to brown).

2.) Roll pastry on lightly floured surface to 10"x13" rectangle, cut in half lengthways to form 2 rectangles. Spread half the filling over 1 rectangle; repeat with remaining filling and rectangle.

3.) Fold in the long sides or each rectangle so they meet in the center, brush along center with some of the egg, fold in half, press lightly; cover, refrigerate 30 minutes. Cut rolls into 1cm slices and place with cut side up on lightly greased oven trays.

4.) Bake for about 12 minutes (it took me more like 30 minutes at 375 degrees) or until well browned. Serve hot.