by We are hosting a small cocktail party this weekend or, as they call it in Switzerland, an apéro, where the evening will be fueled by lots of small canapés and finger food. Hubby is rather excited by all of the possible wine pairings and I have been quite content to bury myself amongst hefty volumes of cookbooks in the late evenings, comparing and choosing recipes for our little soirée.
With a small child at my heels most of the day, a cocktail party might seem like an outrageous idea. But with some careful planning and a good selection of recipes which can be made ahead of time, there’s hope that I might also be able to join in on the conversation rather than be stuck in the kitchen assembling trays of tiny canapés at the last minute whilst simultaneously negotiating with a 10-month old to eat his specially and lovingly prepared beef curry purée.
On the menu will be Roasted Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup served in little coffee cups, a generous tray of Little Aussie Meat Pies with some homemade Cherry Tomato Relish, as well as some Chicken Liver Pâté with a Sauternes jelly to kick off the evening. Seafood will also feature on the menu and which hubby has offered to grill on the barbeque, weather permitting (shrimp on the barbie, anyone??).
In the lead up to this event, I have been experimenting with a few recipes for our vegetarian friends which would also be substantial enough for our meat-loving guests. These dainty little mushroom tarts will hopefully please both camps.
This recipe comes from Pete Evans’ My Party, a beautiful collection of appetisers and other small bites for whatever themed party you might have in mind. Pete is the first person to admit that these mushroom tarts are not the most appealing to look at, but I think that if you make them small enough and dot them with some fresh herbs to provide a contrast in colour, they will look as elegant as they are delicious.
These little morsels are fairly simple to put together, but the only ingredient I couldn’t find was porcini powder which I imagine would have added a bolt of savouriness to the mushroom filling. So I substituted with some crushed porcini stock cube but I think a vegetable stock cube could also work just as well.
Mushroom Tarts
Ingredients
- 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) brown mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 2 teaspoons porcini powder, or half a porcini stock cube
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon crème fraîche, or sour cream
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- fresh marjoram, oregano or chives
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (without fan).
- Place the mushrooms on a baking tray and drizzle over the olive oil. Bake the mushrooms for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden.
- Place the mushrooms into a food processor and blitz until they are finely chopped.
- Add the sea salt, black pepper, porcini powder, Dijon mustard, crème fraîche and egg yolks. Blitz again until you have a smooth mixture.
- Cut out circles from the puff pastry sheets to fit the holes in a mini muffin tin or mini tart tin. If you are not using non-stick tins, make sure you lightly grease the tins first.
- Spoon the mushroom mixture into the pastry cases.
- Bake the tarts for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden.
- Remove the tarts from the tin and garnish with fresh marjoram or oregano leaves, or even some finely chopped chives.
- These tarts taste best straight from the oven, but they are also good at room temperature, which is good to know if you wish to make them a bit ahead of time.
Kitchen Notes
- RECIPE CREDIT
Recipe adapted from My Party: Canapés and Cocktails by Pete Evans - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Love the look of these! I’m thinking slightly bigger, baked in small loose-bottomed tart tins, as a starter.
Great idea!! I think these would work really well as larger tarts with a nice, green salad on the side. But the main advantage of these tiny tarts is you get more pastry 😉
I love those events!! 🙂 And so exciting to prepare!! 🙂
I’m sure it will go great, who are not going to like your delicious and cute food?? You’ve choosen really well the recipes!
So please, don’t get nervous and enjoy the party!!!
I really like these tarts, when I saw them on Facebook, I thought it was black pudding, prefer mushrooms 😛
I wish I was invited, please, save me some leftovers!! 😛
Oh no, these are not black puddings! Ha ha 😉
I’m looking forward to our little party, although I think it means I will be quite busy in the next few days preparing. But the more I do now, the more I can enjoy the evening with our friends 🙂 If I get a chance, I will take some photos for you!
As a vegetarian myself I know that these will be a hit! I bet the meat eaters will love them too. I’m menu planning at the moment too as my parents are going to be in town for the weekend and it’s my Dad’s birthday so I want to put together some delicious dishes to celebrate.
I hope your cocktail party goes off without a hitch!
I’d love to hear what dishes you have come up with for your dad’s birthday! I’ve done most of the grocery shopping today and will get started tonight on some of the dishes … fingers crossed the evening will go well!
A vegetarian option is always welcome. I am thinking of making these soon for a dinner party at my place. I hope your party was fantastic
Rather than serving food for the vegetarians and separate food for the meat-eaters, I like to make something which can be eaten by all. There will be a few dishes just for the carnivores but hopefully the menu will be to everyone’s liking 🙂
Oh I adore dinky! I love canapes too, but, I always want more..like the entire tray’s worth!! You could play with the ingredients a fair bit too I think. Lovely! 😀
I know what you mean about eating a whole tray of canapés! We were at a party recently where the food spent most of the evening in the kitchen, perhaps forgotten by the hosts. By about midnight, I was famished and sat down to a tray of mini toasts and tapenade and almost finished the lot! Thankfully, I think most people were too tipsy to notice 😉
I love little tarts! 🙂
These little tartlets are so cute. Such beautiful presentation. I know I could polish off a whole lot too. Love love love the menu you’ve come up with and I hope your apéro turns out to be a roaring success! 🙂
Thanks Rushi! It was a fabulous evening!! Everyone had a lot of fun and the food was flowing seamlessly the whole evening. It was the first time we hosted a cocktail party where dinner was served in canapés, so we over-estimated the food a little, but I prefer to over-cater than to under-cater 🙂 And I managed to prepare everything in advance so there was only minimal time spent in the kitchen once our guests arrived. Overall, hubby and I were very pleased with how the evening turned out 🙂 I’ll try to post some pictures and recipes on the blog very soon!
Bookmarking this recipe for Christmas canape season! 🙂
Is there any way to make these ahead of time? Could I complete the recipe and freeze them after they’ve been baked and then reheat?
Hi Leah,
I haven’t made them that far ahead of time, so I’m not sure how they would taste reheated, especially from frozen. You could definitely make the mushroom mixture in advance.
To get ahead of time, I would be inclined to make the mushroom filling the day before and to line the tin with the pastry and to keep the tin in the fridge or freezer. Then, when it is close to serving, all you would need to do is to fill the pastry cases and then bake. However, this method would only work if you have enough mini muffin or tart tins to bake everything at once.
Otherwise, my recommendation is to bake the tarts on the day or serving, and to simply reheat them in the oven later.
Let me know if you do try this recipe. It’s really delicious!
These are so delicious! I made them a bit bigger than in the photo and they were addictive! Thank you for the recipe!
What a tasty looking dish! This is a great idea. I have to try this!