Place dried porcinis in a medium bowl and pour two cups of room temperature water over them to hydrate them - let them soak at least 1/2 hour.
Clean all the mushrooms. Finely chop 1/2 of the mushrooms. Slice the other half of the mushrooms, and set them aside in a separate bowl.
Saute the shallots in 1/4 cup of butter in a large soup pot until tender, but not browned.
Drain the porcinis, saving the water. Run the porcini water through a paper towel into a bowl, and set it aside. Rinse the porcinis individually and roughly chop them. Add the chopped porcinis and the finely chopped mushrooms to the shallot butter mixture. Saute until tender but not brown.
Combine the chicken broth and the strained porcini water and heat it until hot, in the microwave or on the stovetop in a separate pan. Set aside 1 cup of the heated broth/water. Add the remainder of the hot broth/porcini water to the sauteed mushroom mixture.
Mix the 1/2 cup of flour with 1 cup of heated broth and mix it thoroughly with a whisk, until all lumps disappear. Stir it into the mushroom and shallot soup mixture , stirring constantly.
Bring the soup to a boil , then lower it to a simmer, still stirring with a whisk. If you feel the soup is not thick enough you may add more flour, but it must be mixed with hot broth and stirred with a whisk before adding it, or you will get lumps. If too thick, add more broth.
Separately, saute the sliced mushrooms in the remaining 1/4 cup butter and add them to the soup. Add the fresh thyme and the sherry or port. Add the whipping cream and season to taste with salt and pepper.
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