Recipe: Mushroom Turnovers — THM Crossover

My mother-in-law and I were trying to remember how many years I’ve been making mushroom turnovers for family Christmas gatherings. We did not come up with a number, other than “a very long time.” It is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35 years, and I have missed very few of them. (There was that one year I had a heart attack in October — I think I got away with not bringing anything to family gatherings that year! 😉 )

When I started eating the Trim Healthy Mama way that winter, everyone said I wasn’t allowed to mess with the recipe. Also, I’m not allowed to show up without them! So shhhh don’t tell anyone, but I did mess with the recipe. Folks, it was so close, just needed a little flour tweak and it was all good. Well, I don’t think anyone will notice. Truly.

As far as THM goes, this recipe is on-plan but is neither low in fat nor low in carbs. I guess if you had 1-2, the carb count would be low enough for keto folks, but I make these exclusively for parties where there is a full buffet of appetizers, and for those two nights a year (one for each side of the family, and occasionally a third for “just us”), I’m pretty happy if things are on plan. I’m not really worrying about crossovers on these occasions.

I make this as a four-step recipe:
1) make and chill the dough
2) chop, cook, and season the mushrooms/ onions
3) assemble and freeze
4) bake just before serving

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Ready? Let’s get started!

Recipe: Mushroom Turnovers — THM XO

Makes about 36-42 3″ appetizers

Dough
• 1 8-ounce package light cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sprouted whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour (powdered rolled oats)
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Beat until fully mixed. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. You can chill it for longer, but may find it needs to warm up a bit for handling. Less is more (time).

Meanwhile, make the filling!

Filling
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, minced
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1/4 cup butter

Cook together until mushrooms and onions are tender. Then remove from heat and add:
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 2 tablespoons oat flour (powdered rolled oats)

Assemble
Sprinkle a little all-purpose flour on a wide, clean area of your counter. Yes, I know all-purpose flour is not the healthiest. In THM, it is allowed in small bits, and I choose to use it here. Oat flour and sprouted flour are both a little coarser, but you can use one of those if you prefer.

Take a roughly softball-size chunk of dough and begin rolling it with a rolling pin. You are looking for very thin dough, maybe 1/8″. Make sure there is enough flour beneath the dough that it will not stick to your counter.

Use a 3″ cookie cutter and set the circles aside. If your rolled-out dough is thicker in the middle, feel free to remove the outer circles and flatten the middle area further before cutting. Gather the scraps of dough and set them aside under a damp cloth. To prevent over-handling the dough, I save all the scraps and then use them together rather than mixing them in with the next batch as I go. I hope that makes sense!

Now you have a bunch of circles. Dollop a teaspoon-ish of the mushroom/onion filling into the center of each. (Only experience will tell you exactly how much. You want them full but not oozing.) Beat one egg with a fork in a small bowl and, using your finger or a small paintbrush, spread egg around the edge of the circle. Carefully fold it over, pushing the filling to the back, and squeezing the edges closed. Use a fork to crimp about 1/4″ around the half-circle and to stab 2-3 air vents in the top of each. Set them on a cookie sheet. Then proceed with the next softball-size ball of dough until all your dough and filling are used up.

Leftover dough? I fill the remaining circles with sugar-free jam. Just be careful to label them in the freezer so you don’t get the wrong ones!

Leftover filling? This goes nicely on baked potatoes or as a dip for a fondue. Add it to an omelette. The proportions nearly never work out exactly even!

Once the turnovers are frozen, I pop them off the cookie sheets and into sealable containers back in the freezer to await party time. These mushroom turnovers are best piping hot, so I bake them just before serving.

Bake at 450º for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. My family members are usually hanging out near the oven verrrry casually by this point, ready for the first taste! I hope your family enjoys these delectable morsels as much as mine does.

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