I’ve felt nostalgic of late. My maternal grandmother, Dorothy, wasn’t a great cook. She didn’t even like to cook. But, in spite of that, she passed down some recipes that are family treasures and Dorothy’s Stuffed Mushrooms is one of them. Only four ingredients – mushrooms, bread, cheese and butter – these mushrooms are downright delicious with the nutty flavor of mushroom permeating the cheesy goodness!

When my grandmother taught me to make these, she used white bread, full-fat cheese and butter. The only thing “nutritious” about her recipe is the mushrooms! Over time, I have modified her recipe to make it suit today’s healthier lifestyle model and I use a whole grain bread, reduced-fat cheese and olive oil instead of the butter. Plus, I use less cheese and less olive oil than her full-fat cheese and butter recipe. The result is still delicious and this easy recipe is a keeper!

You can serve Dorothy’s Stuffed Mushrooms as a side dish to go with a meal or as an appetizer. As an appetizer, they can be made a day or two ahead of time. Just don’t bake them but store them, covered, in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Also, while any size of mushroom will work, using white button mushrooms that are on the larger side of normal makes for a faster recipe. The more mushrooms you have to stuff, the longer it takes!

Over the 40 years I’ve made these mushrooms (yes, I said 40 years! She taught me to make them when I was 18 and went to live with her my first semester of college), I have made this recipe hundreds of times and have never measured the ingredients. It’s one of those “eye-ball” thing recipes, so when making this recipe for our readers, I had to measure the ingredients! I’m sharing this tidbit with all of our readers because, even though I’m giving measurements, just know that this recipe is easy to throw together just using the “eye-ball” method!

I don’t always include a picture of the ingredients in every recipe post. That’s because, more often than not, specific ingredients aren’t required to make a recipe. And, they really aren’t in this recipe, either, but I wanted to show you the size of the mushrooms I chose, plus the reduced-fat cheese, multi-grain bread and the type of olive oil. So, here’s why I chose each of these ingredients:

Mushrooms – I purchased this package of mushrooms at Costco. They come in a 24-ounce package and I selected the 12 largest mushrooms from this package and reserved the rest of the mushrooms for another recipe. Note: you can use any size mushroom you like, but the larger the mushroom, the fewer mushrooms you have to stuff!

Bread – I love this organic multi-grain bread that is a Trader Joe’s product. I have a couple of favorite breads and this is one of them. This bread has oatmeal, barley, millet, sunflower seeds and flax seeds. The “nuttiness” of this bread contributes to the “nuttiness” of the finished stuffed mushroom. Note: you can use any type of bread you like, even white bread, but the more nutritious the bread you choose, the more nutritious the finished product!

Cheese – I use a Mexican-blend cheese because it is a reduced-fat cheese, plus it’s already shredded. Note: you can use any cheese you want, but type of the cheese will alter the flavor slightly. My grandmother used mild cheddar cheese and she grated it herself.

Olive Oil – the original recipe calls for butter. And, you can use butter. Butter will give it a slightly richer taste. I use this particular olive oil product as a substitute for butter in some recipes. It’s a mild tasting olive oil and won’t overpower your recipes with an olive oil taste. However, for those of you with a refined palate, you will be able to “taste” the olive oil in the finished product. Note: choose the mildest olive oil you can find or use butter or margarine.

Now with the explanation of the ingredients used covered, here’s what you do:

With a damp paper towel, carefully clean the dirt from each mushroom.
I selected 12 of the largest mushrooms in the package and then reserved the rest for another recipe.
Carefully “twist” the stems out of each mushroom. If you aren’t careful, you’ll break your mushrooms in half! But, that’s okay – just add them to the pile of mushroom stems for chopping! Also, trim the inside of the mushroom to make a “cap” as shown above. This allows for a larger surface area to stuff!
All the stems and trimmed caps, ready for chopping.
Finely dice the mushroom stems and pieces. You can use a food processor for this step, just don’t grind them to a pulp! I enjoy the actual process of dicing – gets out all of my stress and aggression! {grin}
Put all the cleaned and trimmed mushrooms in a rimmed baking dish. This glass pan is 9″ x 7″.

I know that the above collage is a jumble! But, you really don’t have to prepare the rest of the ingredients in any particular order.

Select a couple of slices of bread. I save my ends and pieces in the freezer for use in recipes such as this, so this picture shows the broken piece of bread and the ends. This recipe is a good way to use up ends of your loaf of bread.
Tear 2 to 3 slices of bread into small pieces. Again, you can use the food processor to do this, but don’t pulverize them! You want the bread to have some bulk and if you use purchased bread crumbs, your stuffed mushroom will be too dense.
Measure out one cup of cheese. If you are grating the cheese yourself, use a fine grater to get finely grated cheese. You can use cheddar, Monterey Jack, or a blend. If you use mozzarella, the mushroom will have a gooey consistency, which is good too! If you use other cheeses, such as Gouda or Gruyère, the taste of the mushroom will reflect those cheeses (and, that’s okay!). This is one of those “use what you have” recipes!
Add your finely diced mushroom stems and pieces, the torn bread and the shredded cheese to a mixing bowl.
Toss those ingredients with a fork to combine.
Combined mushroom stems and pieces, bread and cheese.
Drizzle in olive oil, a little at a time, and mix between additions to get all the ingredients thoroughly coated.
Finished stuffing.
Using your clean hands, take a handful of stuffing mix and squish together. Add stuffing to mushroom cap molding it to fit into the cap until it has a gentle, rounded top.
Bake in a preheated, 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Prior to making the mushrooms, I spent some time staging and setting up my display for photographing. I selected certain dishes and linens and arranged them on our kitchen table, so that when the mushrooms were done, I could snap the photographs right away! Here’s what happened:

It was a bright, sunny day in our beautiful, barren valley! The sun was steaming into our home, creating shadows everywhere!

No matter what angle I attempted, the photos were terrible! And, photos are all about “light”, but sometimes too much light is a bad thing!

So after taste-testing a few (Charlie has to give his seal of approval), I quit photographing them and put them in the refrigerator and waited for the sun to change direction in the sky! A few hours later, I got my photos!

I know – wayyyyy too many photos! But, why have one photo when you can have 10? Part of the fun of sharing my recipes on our blog is learning photography, learning food styling and learning to take better pictures! Which photo do you like best?

Hope you enjoy Dorothy’s Stuffed Mushrooms as much as we do!

Here’s the recipe:

Dorothy’s Stuffed Mushrooms

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Cheesy, delicious stuffed mushrooms – serve them at a party or as a side dish to a main meal.

Author: Carole from Toot Sweet 4 Two
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
Yield: 12 1x
Category: Appetizer
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

12 large white button mushrooms (about 16 ounces)
2 to 3 slices of favorite whole-grain sandwich bread
1 cup finely shredded Mexican-blend cheese
1/4 cup light-flavored olive oil

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Wipe mushrooms with damp paper towel, removing dirt.
Remove stems by carefully twisting stem and/or use a paring knife.
Trim around mushroom leaving mushroom cap intact.
Finely dice mushroom stems and pieces (makes about 1 cup of diced pieces).
Add diced mushrooms to mixing bowl.
Tear bread into small pieces and add to mixing bowl.
Measure cheese and add to mixing bowl.
Using fork, combine mushrooms, torn bread and shredded cheese.
Drizzle olive oil, a little at a time, into mixing bowl and mix well to distribute olive oil in mushroom mixture.
Using clean hands, squish a handful at a time (like making a meatball) of mushroom mixture together and insert into mushroom cap, molding to form a gentle, rounded top.
Place mushrooms in 9″ x 13″ baking dish and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Serve.

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