Oh how I love mushrooms. One of my favorite appetizers is the stuffed mushrooms at Olive Garden. I know that all the cheese, butter, cheese and breadcrumbs takes away from the nutritional value of the shrooms, but I don’t care. Mmmmmm delicious. Tomorrow we’re having an all day Star Wars Marathon with our small group for my hubby’s birthday. I made up a batch of these babies for the occasion – bonus, this recipe can be made ahead so all you have to do during your event is pop them in the oven! Baked up a couple to taste test and am now struggling to not just make the whole batch and eat them for a late night snack. Must resist….
Here’s a little trick to getting your mushrooms to stay put when you put them on the baking sheet. Put your baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes, then melt a few tablespoons of butter and dip the mushroom tops in the butter before placing them on the chilled baking sheet. The cold pan causes the butter to re-solidify, basically gluing the mushroom to the sheet. Fabulous!
24 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or bacon drippings)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 5 cloves)
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
slice of bacon, crumbled
1/4 C breadcrumbs
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Discard half the stems and cut off the tough end of the remaining stems. Chop stems extremely fine.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
- When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a ziplock bag filled with the mixture (snip 1 inch off corner), fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.
Bakerlady 
Yummy, yummy, yummy! Mushroom, garlic, cheese, bacon, – can’t go wrong with that.
🙂 Mandy