Easy Appetizers in a Pizza Oven

Stuffed Mushrooms

After cleaning off your mushrooms, scoop out the stem parts to make vessels and put them aside. Toss the mushroom tops lightly in avocado oil and place in your oiled oven pan. Mist a little water into the pan and cover; put in the oven when it’s at least 450F.  Lower temp means a longer cook time, but about 8-10 minutes is all you should need, less with a higher heat.

While the mushrooms are par-baking, make the filling.  Roughly chop the mushroom stems, some spinach and artichoke hearts, combine with cream cheese and season to taste with salt, pepper, and Mediterranean spices such as thyme, rosemary, or any seasoning you have and like.

You can hold the mushrooms and cream cheese filling separately in the cooler, covered.  When you’re ready to eat, simply stuff the mushrooms with the filling, put some shredded cheese on top and bake, uncovered, until they are bubbling in the middle, around 5-6 minutes, less if the pizza oven is hotter.  Finish with a drizzle of balsamic crema and parmesan shavings.

Brie Board with Roasted Grapes 

Roasting grapes brings out even more sweetness as the grapes soften in the higher temperatures a pizza oven can provide. Plate a wheel or triangle of brie or camembert packed with loose seedless grapes (we use a porcelain fired small plate), and place in the pizza oven nearer the door where the heat is lower.  Score the top of the cheese slightly and it will come off easily after baking.  Bake for 4-7 minutes, Keep closer to the door to keep an eye on it if your oven is over 500F.  Serve the hot plate on another plate with bread, crackers, and other treats, like pitted dates, pickled sweet hot peppers, and apple slices.  To add some spice, add a spoonful of Roasted Cranberry Pepper Jam.

French Onion Bread Braid with Roasted Cranberry Pepper Jam

Make Filling:

Slowly cook 2  onions, evenly sliced, uncovered in your oven skillet with:

1 Tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of avocado oil 

1 teaspoon of thyme

½ teaspoon salt or 1 tsp kosher salt

Cook in a medium low heat placement of your pizza oven and stir frequently, allowing the onion slices to carmelize.  When they become the color of medium brown sugar, take them out of the oven and cool completely in the cooler.

Prepare a handful of swiss cheese chunks or tear strips of slices

For the Bread Braid:

Place a rectangle of puff pastry on an oiled cookie sheet with the short sides at the top and the bottom.  Cut horizontal strips an inch or more wide in the left outer third of the rectangle. Match those strips on the right outer third of the rectangle, leaving a solid chunk in the middle, top to bottom, to lay your filling. 

Spread the cold filling evenly in the middle third. 

Scatter the swiss cheese chunks over the filling.

Starting at the top, gently bring the right strip up and over the filling and then the left strip over that, like a braid.

Continue all the way down.

Brush with egg wash.

Bake at 400F until Pastry is done, 8-12 minutes.

Pizza dough or bread dough can also be rolled into a rectangle and used instead of puff pastry. Adjust the cook time a bit depending on the oven temperature you need.

Roasted Cranberry Pepper Jam

12 oz. of lightly roasted cranberries, roughly chopped

12 oz. of red bell pepper (or any mild red pepper) roughly chopped

2 large Jalapeno peppers, finely minced

2 serrano peppers, finely minced

6 cups sugar

2 cups plain white vinegar

1 green (sour) apple, medium sized, cored, but not peeled, roughly chopped 

Combine ingredients in a big deep pan and bring to a boil over high heat on the stove or induction.

Keep a roiling boil for 1 minute then remove from heat and allow to set, do not stir. It should start to look set by 15-20 minutes. Transfer to sanitized jars, date and store in the fridge for 6-8 months, in the freezer for a year.