Cheese-y Mushroom "Danishes"

These danishes are made with puff pastry instead of the traditional yeast raised Danish dough. For this recipe I used half of the batch from the puff pastry dough I made for Sausage Rolls, you can check out that recipe if you would like to make your own puff pastry or you can just use the puff pastry from the freezer section of your grocery store! These little danishes are buttery and full of flavour! You can fill your danish with anything (sweet or savoury!) and they make an awesome and impressive appetizer! I am filling mine with some caramelized onions, mushrooms, ham and swiss cheese!

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Cheese-y Mushroom “Danishes”

Yield: 9 large sized danishes

Preheat your oven to 400*F

• 1 sheet of puff pastry (if buying premade) or 1/2 batch of my puff pastry dough (see Sausage Rolls recipe)

• ~1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

• ~1 cup grated Swiss Cheese (or your favourite cheese!)

• 2 slices of Ham Deli Slices (or your favourite thinly sliced meat), cut into quarters

• Egg Wash - 1 egg whisked up with a pink of salt and sugar

Mushroom Filling:

• 1 Tablespoon Butter

• 1/2 an Onion, diced

• 1-1 1/2 cups of Mushrooms, chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon Dried Thyme

• 1/2 teaspoon Dried Rosemary

• 1/4 teaspoon Salt

• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper

• 1-2 Tablespoons Wine (white or red), or both or water - anything you have on hand!

• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (optional)

1. In a frying pan melt your butter, then add your onions, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until onions start to brown and caramelize.

2. Add your mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms start to brown and release their juices.

3. Deglaze your pan by pouring a tablespoon or two of wine into the pan and scraping the bottom to release any of those bits that have stuck on. Add your Worcestershire sauce.

4. Cook for a minute or so while stirring until most of the liquid has bee absorbed. Pour into a bowl to cool and Taste and season to your liking!

5. Roll out your puff pastry into a large square about 1/8” thick.

6. Using a pizza cutter or knife, trim the edges and then cut into 9 portions, I did 3 rows horizontally and 3 rows vertically.

7. Going diagonally from on corner to the other, smear a thin layer of dijon mustard down the middle.

8. I sliced my deli ham into quarters, then placed one quarter on top of the dijon mustard.

9. On top of the ham but keeping to the centre area of your square, scoop about 1 tablespoon of the mushroom mixture.

10. Then place a large pinch of shredded cheese on top of the mushrooms.

11. Now you can bake the danish just like this, or make it into a shape!

12. To shape, grab the corner with the least toppings and fold it over so it’s reaching across the cheese and filling. Lightly egg wash, then grab the opposite corner and fold it on top of the first one, so they are “hugging” your filling. Egg wash the other side.

13. Sprinkle the tops of your danishes with coarse salt or pepper (optional)

14. Bake in a preheated 400*F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown!

15. Eat!

Puff Pastry with a side of Sausage Rolls!

Puff pastry is a super delicious flaky pastry dough with hundreds of buttery layers! Perfect for making sausage rolls! The puff pastry we are making is the SLIGHTLY faster “quick puff” or “rough puff” which is a little easier! Yay!

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Look at those flaky layers of puff pastry in our sausage roll!

Puff Pastry

Yield: about 1 pound of puff pastry dough - good for 12 large sausage rolls, or 2 tart tatins!

Preheat your oven to 425*F once you are ready to bake your puff pastry

• 1 3/4 cup Flour

• 1 cup Butter, cold - cut into large cubes

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1/2 cup Water, cold

1. In a bowl mix together the flour, salt and cold butter, rubbing the butter into the flour but leaving large nickel sized chunks - we want to keep lots of big butter chunks so we can roll them into layers on our next steps!

2. Pour the cold water into the flour mixture and stir it together until it can be pressed into a ball. You might need to add a little more or less water depending on how your dough is working! I like to dump the dough out onto my counter and press it together into a rectangle shape, then saran wrap it and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Once your dough has rested, roll your dough out into a large rectangle, then fold it into 3rds like a brochure, so the bottom one third of the dough folded up, then the top one third folded down on top of it. This is called a “3 fold”

4. Roll out your folded dough and repeat the 3 fold again, then wrap in saran wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Once chilled, you will repeat the 3 fold 2 more times, then wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

6. Now your puff pastry is ready to go! You can store it in the fridge or in the freezer. I cut my puff pastry in half, used one, and popped the other into the freezer for another time!

Sausage Rolls

Yield: 6 large ~3” long rolls

Preheat oven to 425*F

• 1/2 batch of Puff Pastry

• 2 Sausages (I used Spulumbos Chicken Apple Sausages but use your favourite!)

• 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard

• Egg wash (one egg with a pinch of salt and sugar wicked together)

1. Roll your puff dough out into a long rectangle about 18” long and 5” wide.

2. Using a sharp knife cut slits down both sides of your puff dough about 3/8” wide and about 1.5” long on each side leaving a 2” wide UNCUT section in the middle, this is where the sausage is going to go.

3. Smear a little mustard down the middle of your dough where you didn’t cut and then scoop your sausage down the middle from top to bottom, but not going on top of the cut strips on either side.

4. Starting at the top you will grab one of the cut strips and pull it across the sausage towards the other side, then grab the top strip from the alternate side and pull it across in the other direction so the strips are criss-crossing. Continue down the entire strip of sausage and pinch them together at the bottom.

5. Using a sharp knife cut the sausage roll into 3” long pieces, or whoever she you would like!

6. Place your sausage rolls onto a lined baking tray, then paint the tops with egg wash.

7. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown and the sausage is fully cooked through.

8. Eat!

Crispy puff pastry is as easy as 1-2-3!