Mushroom and carmelized shallot strudel

I hosted dinner for my best friend, her hubby, and my BF before we all went home for the holidays. I found this recipe on CL and thought it would make for an elegant vegetarian entree. Since the recipe called for 8 servings I halved the ingredients for this recipes. The servings are not that big so if you are not serving other sides, then I would suggest 8 servings for four people.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups sliced shallots (about 8 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
4 (8-ounce) packages presliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons dry Marsala or Madeira
2/3 cup low-fat sour cream**
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Cooking spray
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs, divided
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.


Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sugar; cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Sprinkle with water; cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until shallots are soft.

Add mushrooms; cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat 20 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring frequently. Add Marsala; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat, and cool. Stir in sour cream, parsley, salt, thyme, and pepper.
(I actually am not a big fan of sour cream so instead of sour cream I added two slices of the laughing cow light swiss cheese wedges, it gave it a creamier consistency and added a bit more flavor than I thought the sour cream would have given it)


Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board or work surface (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), and lightly coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle with about 2 teaspoons breadcrumbs. Repeat the layers with 3 phyllo sheets, cooking spray, and breadcrumbs, ending with the phyllo. Spoon 1 3/4 cups mushroom mixture along 1 long edge of phyllo, leaving a 1-inch border. Starting at the long edge with the 1-inch border, roll up jelly roll fashion. Place strudel, seam side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Tuck ends under. Repeat the procedure with the remaining phyllo sheets, cooking spray, breadcrumbs, and mushroom mixture. Brush strudels with butter. Bake strudels at 400° for 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Cut each strudel into 4 slices.

In the reviews, some stated that they had trouble with wrapping the mushroom mixture in phyllo. Phyllo is pretty forgiving if you are encasing food in many layers of phyllo, if it rips while you are wrapping the phyllo, just add another layer on top and no one will notice. You just have to make sure to move quickly as phyllo dries quickly which causes it to rip faster. Also, I would check the strudel about after 10 minutes, it might not need as much as 20 minutes in the oven

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