Crispy, creamy and earthy, these delicious 15 minute mushroom & mascarpone puff pastry squares make the perfect snack or light lunch.

Perfect Puff Pastry

I am seriously in love with pre-made puff pastry!

You can easily buy it in blocks and in sheets from all good supermarkets. Puff pastry is one of my absolute favourite quick cook ingredients. It’s delicious & incredibly versatile. It pops up beautifully in the oven and creates a crisp, flaky and buttery base for virtually any toppings you want to pop on top, wether sweet or savoury.

Making your own puff pastry from scratch is always an option, of course, but not a quick cook one! It’s notoriously tricky and time consuming so I fully advocate purchasing the pre-made type to make life quicker and easier.

Ready-made puff pastry can form the basis of literally so many quick cook recipes. That’s probably why I love it so much and why I’ve used it in these super easy, 15 minute mushroom & mascarpone puff pastry squares.

Check out some of my other puff pastry inspired creations for further yummy options! Such as these 15 Minute Goat’s Cheese, Red Onion & Walnut Puff Pastry Squares, these 15 Minute Smoked Salmon & Asparagus Puff Pastry Squares and finally, for a more sweet-toothed option, these gorgeous Quick Puff Pastry Cinnamon & Raisin Twists.

One roll of ready-to-use puff pastry makes 6 individual pasty squares. This serves 6 people as a snack or 3 people as a more filling meal. All you need to do is unroll the pastry, quickly mix the filling, slice the mushrooms, pop everything on top of the pastry squares and let the oven to the rest of the work!

Marvellous Mushrooms

Mushrooms form the main topping in this puff pastry square recipe. I really think more of us should be eating mushrooms these days, especially as so many of us are looking more towards a plant based diet. Mushrooms are most certainly very ‘meaty’ in texture and flavour so they offer the perfect alternative for people wanting to cut down or stop their meat consumption.

It’s also super important to note that mushrooms are a fantastically healthy option to choose! They contain a range of different important nutrients including B vitamins, vitamin D and antioxidants that help to maintain our health.

There are also so many types of mushroom to choose from! From tiny button, through to exotic shiitake and giant portobello, the range of mushrooms on offer is huge so you can always be sure to find the perfect variety to suit each particular recipe.

For these 15 minute mushroom & mascarpone puff pastry squares, I’ve chosen to use portobello mushrooms. These gorgeously large, fleshy mushrooms slice up well and look very attractive atop the golden puff pastry base. Don’t worry too much though if you can’t get hold of portobello mushrooms near you – any large mushroom will work just as well for this recipe.

Marvellous Mascarpone

I just want to take a moment to appreciate the silky-smooth loveliness that is mascarpone cheese!

Mascarpone is a classic, creamy Italian cheese and is often used in desserts such as tiramisu. I think this is because not only is it deliciously creamy, it also has a slight sweetness. Other soft cheeses like ricotta and cream cheese don’t have quite this same flavour which makes mascarpone wonderfully unique in my book.

This doesn’t mean however that mascarpone can only be used in sweet recipes, as it pairs so wonderfully with mushrooms which is you’ll find it happily featuring in this creamy, buttery puff pastry recipe.

Full of Flavour

Aside from the mushrooms and mascarpone, these super quick puff pastry squares have a whole array of other flavours to really crank up the taste.

Probably the most classic of these flavours is the garlic! Mushroom and garlic go together like two peas in a pod so it’s no surprise you’ll find garlic in this recipe.

Although freshly chopped garlic is a lovely thing, regular readers to my blog will know that I’m all about saving precious time where at all possible. This is why I use pre-minced garlic that can be easily purchased in a jar or a squeezy tube. All you do is pop in the recipe without the need for time consuming chopping. Perfect!

The other flavours in this 15 minute mushroom & mascarpone puff pastry square recipe include Worcestershire sauce, dried thyme and sweet smoked paprika. These three flavours combine together to really make the earthy, creamy and slightly sweet combo of mushroom and mascarpone cheese really sing! They are the perfect finishing touches for sure.

Now, lets have a little look at a step by step guide to making your perfect mushroom and mascarpone puff pastry squares, with some helpful photos included…

15 minute mushroom & mascarpone puff pastry squares– step by step method

Makes 6 – sufficient as a snack for 6 people or for a more filling meal for 3 people

STEP BY STEP

Step 1

Start by pre-heating your oven to 220°C / 200 C fan (430 F / 400 F fan)

Step 2

Take one 350g (approx 12 oz) ready-made puff pastry sheet. Note that I’m listing the approximate weight of the sheet…the actual weight will depend on which brand of puff pastry you choose. This is not a problem – a little more or less will still work fine!

Unroll the pastry sheet onto a clean surface and then slice it with a sharp knife into 6 equally sized squares. Place these squares onto a large greased baking tray, with a small gap between each square to allow for expansion. Note, you may need 2 baking trays if one is not large enough.

Step 3

In a medium bowl, combine 175g (6 oz) mascarpone cheese, 2 teaspoons of garlic puree (I use the pre-minced variety from a jar to save time), 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika and a generous pinch of salt to taste. Stir it all together until nicely mixed up.

Next, dollop this mascarpone mixture evenly into the centre of each uncooked puff pastry square, an equal amount per square. (This works out at roughly a rounded tablespoon per square). Spread it around with the back of a spoon until evenly coating each square, leaving about a 1cm margin all around.

Step 4

Take 2-3 very large mushrooms (I use Portobello) and thinly cut these to slice around 2-3mm thick. Place these slices on each uncooked pasty square.

Importantly, the mushrooms will shrink slightly as they cook so you can be generous when putting them on! Have them overlapping a bit and reaching right to the edges of the pastry square- they’ll reduce in size and appear nice and neat in your final, cooked squares.

Step 4

Pop the baking tray into the oven and bake for around 12-13 minutes, until crispy and turning a little golden at the edges.

Note that the squares will appear super ‘puffed up’ after removing them from the oven – don’t worry, they’ll soon flatten down as they cool a little.

Serve warm ideally – I love eating them with a crispy side salad drizzled in olive oil and balsamic. Yum!