Cookie cutters make these festive Christmas Tea Sandwiches much easier to make than they look!
The only special equipment you will need is a #67 piping tip and a piping bag for the cream cheese decoration. You will also need some green food colouring. A little food colouring goes a long way so start with a very tiny amount and add until you get the tone you want.
I made a pineapple cream cheese filling that was quite juicy. The creaminess of the filling is a nice contrast to the cream cheese 'icing' because it is fairly stiff in order to hold its shape.
Chef's Tips for Christmas Tea Sandwiches
Start with thinly sliced sandwich bread. The number of sandwiches you will get will depend on the size of your cookie cutters. The one I used for the Christmas trees was big enough that I got only one pattern per slice of bread.
Note that the recipe says it makes 16 sandwiches - four are the Christmas Tree size and 12 are the dainty Holly leaves. I would count 1 tree and 3 holly leaves per person assuming you are serving other items alongside like salad, soup or other kinds of sandwiches.
The Holly leaves were much daintier and I got about 3 patterns out of each slice. If you are keen preserve the leftover crusts and make homemade bread crumbs!
I will provide the quantities that I used but be prepared to be flexible to match up with the size of your cookie cutters.
These dainty sandwiches are perfect for a Christmas Tea, a Holiday brunch, a buffet table or just to fancy up a Christmas lunch!
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If you are really avid consider making the Yule Sandwich Log filled with Chicken Cranberry Pomegranate Salad to go along with them. After all, you will already have the cream cheese, piping tips and food colouring out and handy!
FAQs
if you don't have the pastry equipment you could simply frost the top of the sandwiches with the green icing and decorate with pomegranates.
You could use mandarin oranges or cherries finely chopped for example. Or you could use your favourite filling. The frosting is a neutral flavour so you could use something like a salmon, tuna or egg filling.
Cream cheese does not retain its texture very well when frozen so I wouldn't recommend it.
Related Recipes
Christmas Tea Sandwiches
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Save Print Pin FacebookIngredients
- 16 slices thin white sandwich bread
- 8 oz cream cheese divided 4 oz + 4 oz
- 3 Tbsps crushed pinapple with the juice
- 2-3 Tbsps sour cream or mayonnaise
- green food colouring
- pomegranate seeds for decorating
Instructions
- Cut out 8 Christmas tree shapes from the center of 8 slices of bread (assuming your cookie cutter size just about fills the center of the slice). Cut out 24 Holly leaf shapes from the other 8 slices or bread (or as many as you can get based on the size of your cookie cutter.)
- Divide the cream cheese in half. Mix 4 oz cream cheese with the crushed pineapple. Add more if you like til you get the consistency you like. Spread the cream cheese over one half of the bread cut outs. Top with the remaining bread shapes.
- Mix the remaining cream cheese with the sour cream or mayonnaise until spreadable but holds its shape. Mix in the food colouring, starting with a tiny amount and adding tiny amounts until you get the desired tone.
- Using a #67 piping tip pipe a strip along the center of each Holly leaf. Position a couple of pomegranate seeds at one end to mimic holly berries.
- With the #67 piping tip pipe green strips from the top/center of the sandwich out to each tree tip to mimic sweeping boughs of an evergreen. Position a pomegranate seed at the tip of each bough to mimic decorations.
- Keep chilled until ready to serve. Enjoy!
- Sandwiches can be made a day ahead of time and refrigerated air tight overnight.
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