This is a must-have appetizer for Thanksgiving. It looks elegant and at first thought, it probably looked to you like a difficult and time-consuming appetizer to make. Well, like I said last week, for Thanksgiving or any dinner party, I prefer simple elegance. I don’t want to slave away in the kitchen for two hours on one dish. Simple and delicious is my middle name.
While everyone is waiting for the big meal, have everyone snack on these. You should probably make a double batch, too, because I guarantee you they will not last long. The caramelized onions give this appetizer a sweet flavor but when paired with the sautéed mushrooms and tart apple it completes the palette in your mouth. Mixed together with the earthy taste of gruyere cheese – you have yourself a perfect appetizer everyone will love. Since the gruyere cheese is mixed into the onion, mushroom, & apple mixture, it melts beautifully together when baked. It’s bubbly and cheesy goodness.
I loved how the puff pastry acted like a light, buttery pillow for the filling on top. They just paired so well together and the flavors are out of this world. They’re the perfect size for the perfect bite.
As an after-thought, adding chopped up bacon on top of these would make these even more enticing. Next time I make these for guests, I will definitely be adding pieces of bacon on top or pancetta would work well too.
You need these next Thursday.
Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites
Yield: approx. 30-32 bites | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 65 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 granny smith apples, cubed into 1/2″ cubes
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 oz. grated gruyere cheese
2 tbsp. chives, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 package (1 pound) of frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Set side.
- In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil and cook the onions (with 1 tsp. of salt) until they’re golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove and set aside in a large bowl. In the same skillet, sauté mushrooms until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside in the bowl with the onions.
- In the same skillet, melt the butter and add in the apples with the sugar. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and add to the large bowl with onions and mushrooms.
- Add the cheese, chives, and thyme to the bowl and stir to combine the mixture well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- With a pizza cutter, cut the puff pastry into 2-inch squares and place them on the lined baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, brush beaten egg on the squares.
- Using a tablespoon, place filling in the middle of each puff pastry.
- Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through and switching the baking sheet on the top rack to the bottom and the bottom to the top, until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.
- Let the tarts cool a bit before serving, you don’t want people to burn the roofs of their mouths!
Source: Williams-Sonoma
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Caramelized onions make everything better! Great flavor combo!
Totally drooling this morning. Love everything about this recipe!
Oh my, this is such a great flavor combination, and it compliments beer and football so well!
How would these taste if left at room temperature on the buffet table. Would it be better to put them in a chafing dish to keep warm or just best right from the oven? Looking for appetizer size food that can be kept on buffet line in chafing dishes. Thanks
Whoa! I want! These would be perfect for Thanksgiving! I’m cooking for my in-laws & parents this year—pray for me! haha
This would be great to keep in a chafing dish! Room temperature would be great too – to be honest, after I photographed these, they were already room temperature and my fiance and coworker still devoured them :)
Man, I love little bites of food like these and this is such a great flavour combination. So delicious!
I looooooove gruyere, especially paired with onions and/or mushrooms, so I’d be all over these. YUM!
yumm these look amazing!!
Oh yes, this is my kind of appetizer! Puff pastry is so heavenly and that combination of toppings is to die for!
Yes. I would bathe in gruyere if I could.
These look amazing!!! How do you think they would turn out if made a few hours ahead and then reheated right before company comes? Space is limited in my oven on Thanksgiving and I feel these are a must!
Julie, these have me floored!!! Such amazing flavors here.
They’d definitely work out that way. I’d say for the reheat, cover it in foil so the puff pastry doesn’t brown too much on you and burn!
I am all about simplicity and easy appetizer especially if you have a lot of guests coming over..plus i love the fact its such a flexible recipe. absolutely love it.
Truth be told, I SO would not mind if this was my Thanksgiving dinner alone. They look perfect, Julie! And I love that “simple and delicious” is your middle name. :)
I agree with you on making a double batch — these would good super fast!
Oh yum! These flavors sound glorious!
Looks delish! And the bacon added to it would make it heavenly.
You mean I need these right now.
Oh my goodness, this looks wonderful! What a perfect app for Turkey day.
I totally agree – this is a must-have appetizer on any occassions. I love caramelized onions and mushroom, and apple will make it a perfect bite.
The photographs make the food so appealing that I just want to pick one up and eat it right here.
Puff pastry is just the bees knees!
Love apples + thyme together too, and caramelized onions are amazing on pretty much everything. This app has it going on!
Gorgeous! I was thinking of making something like this for Thanksgiving – love the apples!
Julie, those flavors sound amazing! Perfect party appetizer.
I am SO making these next week sans shrooms. My mom is allergic. Then again – if I poison her I get ALL the lobster. Kidding kidding!! No poisoning of anyone. In all seriousness I can’t wait to make these!
Oh these are so pretty and I bet they are delicious too! I’m with you on the simple elegance and these are the perfect appetizer for that! My husband is in love with gruyere cheese so I know he would love these!
If I took these bites to a party, I would be standing over the table, hoarding them. They look mouth watering!
These look fantastic!! And really, what’s not improved by bacon? So stealing this recipe, I will be a big hit at christmas bringing this!
How awesome are these?! I love using puff pastry for these little finger foods. :)
This is exactly the kind of appetizer I love! A little sweet and savory!
These look so beautiful Julie! How did you come up with all of these amazing Thanksgiving sides? I think I need to have Thanksgiving with you!!!
Oh gosh, these look amazing, Julie! I think I could just eat them for my Thanksgiving dinner!
My mouth is watering just looking at your pictures!! This looks incredibly delicious!
I love these bites, the flavors are perfect!
These look amazing, Julie!!! I’m such a sucker for appetizers..and cheese..and caramelized onions. Holy cow. Yum!
You had me at buttery pillow lol. I’d need to make a double batch because I’d eat half myself :o
you ain’t lying Julie! this IS a must have thanksgiving appetizer! Or really, ANY party appetizer. one bite has nearly everything i love – apples, caramelized onion, mushroom, yummy chives, and of course… the winning ingredient… gruyere cheese!!!! they are so cute. i don’t think i could be trusted around these lol.
Oh yum! I bet I could eat the entire batch of these. They look AMAZING.
[...] Caramelized Onion Mushroom Apple Gruyère Bites – Table for Two Blog. Yes to this, a thousand times over! I could demolish this all on my own. [...]
O.M.G. These look insanely good!
P.S. I love your middle name! :)
[...] Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites – Table for Two [...]
You are a Thanksgiving machine! I could eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
this does look like the perfect appetizer…and perfect that we are doing apps at 11:00 – ya know pre-dinner eating then eat more. lol
These are to die for, they look so good and contain every thing that I love under then sun haha. This is exactly what I’m going to be making this weekend for a Thanksgving dinner I’ve been invited to – first time too! It’s not much of a thing here in Australia but working with Americans means you get such perks ;)
[...] Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple, and Gruyere Bites – Table for Two [...]
I just made these and they are absolutely amazing!! Can’t wait to share them with my family. Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m not sure how I missed these the first time around…thank goodness I caught them from your roundup! These are so right up my alley and could be made all winter! They look delicious.
I am eating these right now! They are delicious. I used smoked gruyere since that’s all I could find and they turned out wonderful. Perfect combo of sweet, tart and savory.
[...] wondering if I can convince my mom to add this recipe to our Christmas Eve dinner. How YUM do they look? Share this:FacebookTwitterEmailPrintGoogle [...]
I think I’d make these even if it wasn’t Thanksgiving! =)
[...] Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites from Table for Two [...]
I made these for a party yesterday and they were so delicious! I left the puff pastry to thaw for too long (and couldn’t unroll it), so mine ended up a little more puffy than yours, but it was still delicious! Great flavor combination, so thanks for sharing the recipe!
Oh great! I’m glad they worked out for you :) puffy puff pastry isn’t a bad thing! ;) Thanks for coming back to share!
These look INCREDIBLE!!!!!! Would they be AS good if I used cheddar, or does it taste best with Gruyere? Thanks!!!
I definitely think gruyere is better because of its unique taste and how it compliments so well with caramelized onions!
[...] Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites [...]
Made these today and OMG! They are so good!!
Made these tonight and 3 people asked for the recipe! I made them on baguette slices to save some time. Came out awesome!
What kind of onions did you use?
Yellow onions.
I made this and I thought it was delicious! Some of the party girls said it was too oniony.
Help! Got stumped with the phyllo sheets….one to a baking sheet seemed too flimsy. Do you use just one or do you stack a couple? These sound delicious but need help with the phyllo….have always been intimidated by phyllo dough. Thanks.
Phyllo dough was not used in this recipe. I used puff pastry sheets, which are two different things that, if used interchangeably, can give different results.
I want to try to make this appetizer for a work snack day this week, but would like to prepare it the night before then bake it at work the next day. Will this work out? Or will all the ingredient be sitting to long on the uncooked dough?
I would keep the filling and the puff pastry separate otherwise your dough would get way soggy.
Thanks Julie! That makes sense!