Escargot and Mushroom Hors d'Oeuvres Recipe

Herb Butter: With fork, mash together butter, garlic, shallot, parsley, chives, vermouth, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Soak porcini mushrooms in just enough warm water to cover until soft. Drain and chop finely; set aside. Trim off any hard ends of white mushroom stems. Carefully break off stems and, with small spoon, hollow out caps, reserving stems and trimmings. Place caps on parchment paper–lined baking sheet, hollow side up. Mince stems and trimmings; place in bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Wrap in double layer of cheesecloth or paper towel and squeeze out liquid. Mix drained mushrooms with porcini mushrooms; set aside.

Roll out puff pastry to 1/8-inch/3 mm thickness. With 2-inch/5 cm round cutter, cut out 18 rounds. Place on baking sheet with mushroom caps. With 1-1/2-inch/4 cm cutter or tip of sharp knife, score a circle on pastry, 1/8-inch/3 mm in from outside edge and cutting halfway through.

Pick through snails for any shell fragments. Mound generous 1 tsp/5 mL mushroom mixture within each inner circle of pastry circles and top with 1/2 tsp/2 mL Herb Butter; top with snail, pressing down lightly. Fill each mushroom cap with generous 1/2 tsp/2 mL Herb Butter; top each with snail.

Bake in 425F/220C oven until pastry is golden and mushroom caps are tender, 16 to 18 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 32 pieces, or 8 servings.