STUFFED MUSHROOM PARCELS (mushrooms en croute)

Sunday 8th January 2017.
Made this today for my roast dinner, each mushroom stuffed with Pateole mushroom spread and Meridian pesto, with cayenne pepper:

Decided to go with three, since they weren't all that big

With the two ends brought over the middle

One side brought up - with the surplus dough removed

Similar wth the other side

Dough squished and pressed into shape around the mushrooms and turned over - the weight keeps it together, and it looks a lot neater. The scraps have been rolled into savoury breadsticks (grissini)

The finished article, ready to serve (caught the top of the dough in our small top oven)
I served up half, initially, the came back for another quarter. It was gorgeous!

Sunday 15th April 2012.

Made this again today. (Full recipe further down the post)

The dough:

1 mug flour

1 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

3 large chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1/3rd mug yeast liquid containing 10g fresh yeast

Large glug of oil from the SDTs

Plus:

2 large Portobello mushrooms and 2 large button mushrooms

Stuffed with mushroom pate and vegan pesto

The dough was mixed and kneaded until smooth and divided into three pieces. These were rolled out and the mushrooms were placed in the middle:

The stalk was sliced and placed over the stuffing

The dough was gathered together over the mushroom, and the excess snipped off

The two button mushroom were stuffed, pressed together with the split stalks between them, then wrapped in the bread dough.

 They were left to prove for around an hour then baked - 20 minutes at 220C.

 The stuffing - just oozing out!

Tonight I had one with roast potatoes, etc, and a spicy tomato sauce instead of gravy.

The mushroom pate and pesto make a wonderful sauce which soaks into the bread base, so the effect is like an enclosed trencher - with trencher and topping cooked together. Simply gorgeous.

26th April 2011.

Stuffed field mushroom en croute - using a bread dough 

(Makes around 3)

Ingredients:                                                                

200g (1 mug) strong white flour                                        

1/4 tsp salt                                                                  

125ml (1/3 mug) lukewarm water                                                               

1 rounded dessertspoon fresh yeast

Splash of olive oil (optional)

Filling:

3 large field mushrooms

Mushroom pate
Vegan pesto

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid, then add the olive oil if using.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5. When you are ready, divide the dough into 3 pieces. Form each piece into a ball and roll out into circles big enough to form a parcel with the mushrooms.

6. Prepare the stuffed mushrooms by removing the stalk, then spread the pate over the mushroom and cover with the pesto. Divide the mushroom stalk into two and place it in the middle of the circle.

7. Place the mushroom, filling down, over the mushroom stalk and bring up the edges of dough in 3 or 4 places to meet over the top of the mushroom. Squeeze the edges of dough together so they stick to one another and place smooth side up on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other mushrooms.

8. Leave to prove until the dough is risen and puffy then bake at 220C, 425F or gas 7 for about fifteen minutes. There should be some colour under the parcels to show that they are cooked right through.

APPLE TURNOVERS (vegan)

These were made by my Special Needs students

(Makes 8)

Ingredients:

400g strong white flour

2 dessertspoons sugar  (granulated is fine)

1 teaspoon fresh yeast

250ml lukewarm water

A good glug of olive oil (optional)

                       

Filling:

200g dried fruit (currants, sultanas or raisins plus mixed peel)

2 large cooking apples, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons sugar (unrefined sugar if you like, but granulated is fine)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

(Mix these ingredients together quickly to prevent the apple browning)

Glaze:

1 dessertspoon sugar, dissolved in 2 dessertspoons of boiling water

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid and then add the olive oil, if using.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary. Remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. If the dough is too sticky, instead of putting extra flour on your worktop, place some in the bowl, put the dough back in and turn it round to coat it all over. That way you keep the flour under control and you won’t be tempted to add too much. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag – all day if necessary - until you are ready for step 5. Or go straight to step 5.

5. When you are ready to proceed, divide the dough into 8 pieces and form each one into a bun shape. Using plenty of flour on your worktop, roll each one out into a circle about 15cm across. Place a spoonful or more of filling on one side of the circle, lift the other side over to cover it and press the two sides together. Form a crimp by pushing your fingertips together – with 2 fingers of one hand on top of the edge of the dough and 2 fingers of the other hand at the side of the dough, so that the tips of the fingers go between each other.

6. Place each one onto a prepared baking sheet and leave to prove until the dough has become risen and puffy.

7. Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 12-15 minutes. Look for some colour underneath the turnovers.

8. Brush with the sugar glaze.

VEGAN CHRISTMAS DAY MENU

Breakfast  

(Although I may miss out breakfast altogether, saving my calories for later) 

2 dessertspoons ground flaxseeds

2 dessertspoons sesame seeds (also ground)

Apple juice

1 dessertspoon flaked almonds

Lunch.

Starter:

French toast with mushroom pate, chilli and onion chutney, cayenne pepper and salad.

Main:

Haggis en croute, with a brioche wrap, along with a rich, spicy tomato sauce. Plus all the trimmings - the roasties, cranberry sauce and all the lovely veg.

Dessert:

Either a trifle, if I can be faffed, or, my new favourite, lightly cooked dried apricots, with their juice, sliced banana, soya cream and a splash of Benedictine.

All this will be washed down with a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape, which my son received for his birthday and he assures he's bring down with him when he arrives this afternoon. :)

Supper.

Bubble and squeak - with added nutritional yeast and curry powder - and fresh wholemeal bread spread with olive oil (keeps solid in my fridge).

MUSHROOM TEAR AND SHARE LOAF

The veg shop didn't have any field mushrooms which I needed for Sunday dinner - I was planning to make stuffed mushrooms en croute.

Instead I decided to experiment with some smaller mushrooms in a loaf.

First of all I made a bread dough - 200g strong brown flour - with tomato puree, dessertspoon soy sauce, teaspoon mixed herbs, teaspoon curry powder , 4 s-d-tomatoes chopped small plus 30g sunflower oil from the s-d-tomatoes. Then I de-stalked 8 mushrooms and cut out a little of the insides, to enable me to include more stuffing.

I divided the dough into 8 pieces, and rolled them out into circles, nicking three triangles out of the dough to help me shape them better:

The dough is then 'cupped' around the underneath of each mushroom

The largest mushroom was placed in the middle, with the others around it:

The parcel at the top was made from the triangles cut from each circle of dough and contains the trimmings scraped from the inside of the mushrooms, with a little mushroom pate and a teaspoon of nutritional yeast 

Then each mushroom was stuffed with a mixture of mushroom pate (Pateole yeast spread - highly recommended!), vegan pesto and tomato puree with a little cayenne pepper mixed in:

The dough is already rising. You can tell I began with the centre one, followed by the one at nine o'clock and so on

The bread was then put to prove for a little while and baked for 20 minutes at 200C:

And served

As you've probably gathered by now, this was in the way of an experiment.

Conclusions:
This was very tasty, indeed, BUT - I have to say the bread was very doughy and undercooked. There was too much bread and not enough filling. Next time I'll use bigger mushrooms and make the dough a lot thinner. Possibly reducing the amount of flour to 150g. And i'll bake it at 180C.