Go to Sam's Club or Costco and buy yourself the biggest package of whole mushrooms you can get. When I get them at Sam's Club, the mushrooms are easily twice the size of the ones from the grocery store. If you can't go to Sam's or Costco, buy 2 packages of whole mushrooms from your regular grocery store.
First, get your 9x13 pan ready to go. Lightly spray with non stick spray. Open up the package of mushrooms up and start by gently cleaning them and removing just the stems. Grab the stem and rock it back and forth slightly with a little tug. It should pop right out. Put the stems in a bowl. Don't throw them away... you will use them. Put the mushrooms into the pan with the tops down. You should see a little bowl where the stem was taken out.
Next, chop up the stems into small pieces. Not quite minced, but finely chopped is good. Dice 1/2 of a medium onion into the same size pieces as your mushroom stems. Put these all together into the bowl where you placed your stems.
Now, get about 6 pieces of bacon out and cut them into small pieces. I usually just lay it down on my cutting board and cut into 1/4" pieces or so. If you find yourself sawing back and forth and back and forth, either you are using the wrong type of knife, or your knife is dull. Grab your kitchen scissors and cut the bacon into 1/4" pieces and save yourself the headache.
Go pre-heat your oven to 375.
Start cooking the bacon by itself in a large skillet. If you cook your bacon too fast on too high of a heat, you will get a lot of burnt areas. Cook on a medium setting to get a nice crispy bacon that's not burnt. Do not drain the fat. Add in your mushroom pieces and onion. Cook for another few minutes or until the onions are starting to turn opeque. Now, sprinkle in some granulated garlic. At the very end, add 3 TBL butter and let it melt. Turn off the heat.
Now here's a semi tricky part. You need to add some bread crumbs. I can't tell you exactly how much. I would start with about 1/4 cup and go from there. You want everything to hold together just enough, but still be full. Does that make sense? Pour this mix back into the bowl you were using for your cut up stuff.
Using a small melon baller, scoop up some of the mix and place it into each mushroom. For larger mushrooms, use two scoops. Once every mushroom has some of the filling, go back and add more to the tops of each one. It's okay if a little bit falls into the pan. Really! I don't pick my mushrooms up at all during this stage. I just scoop and place. BUT, towards the very end, I will use my fingers to get some more of the filling and place it on the mushrooms. Gotta get it all you know!
Now, bake for about 30 minutes. This may take as long as 45 minutes sometimes. Maybe less, maybe longer. It all depends on the size of the mushrooms. The larger the mushroom, the longer it will take.
Take them out and let them cool for a few minutes before trying to bite into one. I know... it's really hard to wait since they smell SO delicious and they look so good!
I bet they are the first thing gone from the appetizer table!
Enjoy!
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