Lobsteries – Lobster Appetizers in Pastry
Lobster appetizers are easy, yet elegant appetizers for any occasion! They have a mixture of lobster, cheese, spinach, and mushroom, in a puffed pastry or phyllo crust!
Sometimes, the old adage is right: necessity breeds invention. I came up with the idea for these delicious appetizers when cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator one day. They became an instant big hit, so since then, we make them a couple of times per year.
They feature lobster, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese wrapped in flaky phyllo or puffed pastry crust. They are unique, so when we bring them to parties, they are some of the first food gobbled up.
As I mentioned, this was a conglomeration of leftovers. Although not difficult by any means, it may be easier to make the spinach mushroom filling ahead and then add the rest of the ingredients the next day to finish them off.
If you need an easy appetizer that will impress the masses and taste like you slaved all day long to prepare them, this is the appetizer for you.
What you need
- Lobster meat – use tail or claw meat leftover from a previous dinner or purchase good quality canned lobster meat.
- Gruyere cheese, grated
- Sharp cheddar cheese
- Mayonnaise
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Two packages of puff pastry sheets
- Water
- Egg
For the Filling
- Bacon: cook 8-10 pieces of bacon until nice and crispy. We prefer to use pancetta
- Onion, finely chopped. Use white or yellow onion.
- Garlic: fresh, grated, or minced finely or substitute one teaspoon garlic powder.
- Unsalted Butter
- Fresh parsley, chopped: if you’d like to substitute dried parsley, use half of the indicated amount in the recipe below.
- Thyme, minced: if you’d like to substitute dried thyme leaves, use half of the indicated amount in the recipe below.
- Mushrooms: use any mushrooms you have on hand. Button mushrooms, Chanterelles, Shitake, anything really.
- Spinach – use fresh spinach for the best flavor.
How to make lobster appetizers in pastry
Prepare the Spinach-Mushroom Filling
Step One:
Sauté the onion and garlic in butter and olive oil until tender. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium-low heat until lightly browned.
Step Two:
Add pancetta. (You can substitute finely chopped bacon, but crisp that up first.)
Step Three:
Add the spinach.
Step Four:
Cook and stir just until wilted. Remove from the heat.
The spinach and mushroom mixture can be made 3 or 4 days in advance and refrigerated.
Prepare the Lobster Filling
Step One:
Prepare the spinach mushroom filling. (See recipe above.) Chop lobster into bite-sized pieces. Add to a bowl.
Step Two:
Grate cheeses.
Step Three:
Add the cheese and mayonnaise to the bowl.
Step Four:
Mix the filling well.
Prepare phyllo dough or puff pastry according to package directions.
Step Five:
Cut into squares. Brush with egg/water mixture for phyllo.
Step Six:
Add the filling to the center of the square.
Step Seven:
Fold diagonally and brush tops with egg mixture. Bake 15-20 minutes at 375°F until golden and bubbly.
Can you freeze these lobster appetizers?
Both the mushroom spinach filling and the completed lobster filling will freeze well in a freezer bag for a couple of months. When you are ready to make the appetizers, just thaw pastry sheets and filling in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with step number 4.
You could substitute shrimp or even salmon for the lobster in this recipe and it would be excellent.
There you go. Make these delicious Lobster in Pastry Appetizers for your next get-together, and watch them disappear!
More Recipes with Lobster
Other delicious appetizer recipes on BCC
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Lobsteries – Lobster Pastries
Ingredients
For Lobsteries
- 2/3 c chunk lobster
- 1/3 c gruyere , grated
- 1/3 c sharp cheddar
- 1/4 c mayonnaise
- 2 package puff pastry sheets
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 egg
For Spinach Mushroom Duxelles
- 8 slices bacon
- 1/2 c Onion
- 2 tsp garlic
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, minced
- 3 c mushrooms
- 6 c spinach
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For Spinach Mushroom Duxelles
- NOTE: This recipe makes a large batch. Easily freezes for another recipe, or cut down
- quantities accordingly.
- Slice 8 pieces of bacon fine.
- In a large, heavy bottom skillet, cook bacon on medium, breaking up pieces occasionally until lightly browned. Remove browned bacon with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towel.
- While bacon is cooking, finely dice onion and garlic. After removing bacon from pan, drain all the bacon grease from pan except approximately 1 Tablespoon.
- Add the butter to bacon grease and let melt. Then add onion and saute until soft and translucent. Add garlic and saute a few more minutes.
- While the onions and garlic are cooking, rough chop the mushrooms. Strip thyme leaves.
- Chop parsley and thyme.
- When onions are just starting to brown, add mushrooms. After 7 to 10 minutes, mushrooms will start to lose their juice.
- Turn heat up on burner to speed up evaporation of liquid. Once most of the liquid has evaporated and mushrooms are tender, add parsley and thyme.
- Cook along for a few more minutes. Add Spinach all at once. Turn over and stir just until spinach is slightly wilted. Immediately remove from heat.
For Lobsteries
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove Lobster from shells. Rough chop lobster.
- Grate Cheeses. NOTE I have tried this recipe with Swiss cheese rather than Gruyere and it holds no comparison. It is just not as good.
- Chop chives and thyme.
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with the mayonnaise, and the Duxelles.
- Roll out puff pastry dough on a lightly floured board to approximately a 9″ x 12″ rectangle. Cut into desired shape. Use a 3-4″ round cookie cutter for circles or half moons. Cut 3″ squares for ‘puffs’ or turnover. **See notes for phyllo sheets
- Fill with lobster filling, pinch edges with finger or a fork to seal edges.
- Mix 1 tablespoon water and 1 whisked egg together and brush on top of pastries.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your Lobsteries, until golden brown.
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Nutrition
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Originally Published October 13, 2014. Updated May 16, 2024.
Can I prep and assemble, then freeze them completely assembled, until I want to bake them off for a dinner party?
Sorry for the late response. Yes. You can freeze them after assembling and then bake from frozen. It will probably take 5-10 longer to bake.
If you use phylo dough how many sheets you use?
If you use sheets, use 6-8 sheets of dough. Sorry, I will add that to the notes on the recipe. Thanks Loreta!
Is this cooked lobster or raw ?
The lobster is cooked.
This looks like such a unique idea for an appetizer! I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
Oh, man! Now that I look at hese again, I must make some more! Thanks, Donna!