In the spirit of Royal Wedding week, I thought I would share some wonderful recipes and instructions for making all sorts of tea sandwiches. My grandma was a wonderful hostess, and would often host an event at her husband's electric organ shop called "fun night" She would set out an amazing buffet of desserts, tea sandwiches, and fruit and cheese centerpieces, the whole nine yards. The customers loved it, and it was a very fun event. Of course us kids didn't attend, but we still loved fun night because we got all the leftovers or what I called "leavings". Even the crusts trimmed from filled sandwiches were a real treat.
Along with my grandma's beautiful buffets,and growing up hearing tales of Grandma's trip to England, it's no wonder that I get excited about beautiful events like The Royal Wedding. I had the great blessing of a lesson in making tea sandwiches from my grandma when I was a young homemaker- they come in handy for all sorts of entertaining. I thought I would share some of these recipes with you.
Number one tip- Get a nice brand of spreadable margarine with a pleasant taste- all pieces of bread that are in contact with filling should have a very thin layer of margarine first- it seals the bread and keeps the bread from becoming too moist from the fillings.
Rolled Tea Sandwiches
White Bread, Cream Cheese (softened), deviled ham, bell peppers in various colors, milk, mayo, margarine, green olives.
First mix with a hand mixer mix your softened cream cheese with a tablespoon or two of milk until it is soft enough to spread smoothly.
Then slice the crusts off three slices of white bread, and overlap like shown in picture, then press overlapped layers together, and then press down the bread so it flattens a bit.
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The spread a thin layer of margarine over bread.
For the Cream Cheese Bell Pepper Pinwheels- spread a layer of cream cheese mixture, then lay alternating colored slices of bell pepper evenly along sandwich.
Then carefully roll sandwich, then roll in wax paper and chill for 2-3 hours- great to make the night before. When they have chilled carefully cut into slices.
Green Olive and Deviled Ham Spiral
Mix a can of deviled ham with a table spoon of softened cream cheese mixture and slightly less than a table spoon of mayo until well blended. Prepare bread just like the Bell Pepper Spirals, spread with margarine, then spread with deviled ham mixture, along one end of sandwich lay green olives end to end like shown, then carefully roll, and wrap in wax paper and chill for 2-3 hours or overnight, then carefully slice slightly more than a 1/4 inch slices.
Mini Cream Cheese Egg Salad Sandwiches
whole wheat bread, hard boiled eggs, softened cream cheese blended with a tablespoon or two of milk until spreadable, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, paprika.
Make up your egg salad the way you like it- be sure the cut the eggs very small- I like to use an egg slicer both directions to get a nice even cut egg- I make my egg salad with mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper. I never measure- just make it to taste- start with a smaller amount of mayo & mustard, add more if needed.
Thinly spread margarine on slices of bread, and use a small biscuit cutter- or any small round glass (I used a mini coke glass)- and cut out three rounds from each slice.
Then fill a piping bag or tube with star tip, with cream cheese mixture, and squeeze cream cheese mixture around the edge of sandwich round as shown.
Then fill center with a scoop of egg salad, top with a little star of cream cheese mixture and a small sprinkle of paprika.
Radish Sandwiches
Dark Rye Bread, Margarine, cream cheese softened and blended with a tablespoon or two of milk, thinly sliced radishes.
This is an easy sandwich- and my daughter Sarah's favorite- she even used to bring these in her school lunch.
Spread dark rye bread with margarine, then cream cheese mixture- cute off crusts, and slice into 3-4 long slices (like Shown) then layer 3-4 slices of radish.
Layered Tea Sandwich
Sandwich Spread, Pinmemto Cheese Spread, White and Wheat Bread, green food color, a little cream cheese mixture from other recipes, margarine.
Scoop out some sandwich spread into a bowl ,add a table spoon of cream cheese mixture to it, and stir until combined, then add a few drops of green food coloring, and stir until combined.
Then spread a thin layer of margarine on a slice of wheat bread, then a thin layer of green sandwich spread.
Then spread margarine on one side of white bread, and put it spread side down onto green filling, then spread margarine on top, and a thin layer of pimento cheese spread. Then spread margarine on one side of another slice of wheat bread.
Put Wheat bread slice, margarine side facing cheese spread. Trim crusts. Wrap in Wax paper and chill for an hour or two, then slice into quarters. When you make a lot of this sandwich make some with two white and a wheat, and others with two wheat and a white slice- that way they will have a checkered effect.
Here is the platter I will be using.
Here it is full of these tasty tea sandwiches.
Hope everyone can find a time to make some of these wonderful sandwiches- they are perfect for birthday parties, buffets, or make just a few and invite a friend to tea.
