Afternoon Tea Part 1 - Cream Cheese, Shallot and Smoked Salmon Sandwiches
As part of a full afternoon tea, allow three to four finger sandwiches per person. You can prepare the filling ingredients first and assemble the sandwiches up to 2 hours before they are to be eaten. When assembling the sandwiches make sure you arrange the filling to the crust or just beyond the crust on all sides. This way, when the crusts are removed your sandwiches will look generously and evenly filled. To store sandwiches for up to 2 hours before serving, arrange on a serving plate, loosely cover with damp kitchen towel then cling film and store in the fridge. 20 minutes before serving, remove the sandwiches from the fridge to bring up to room temperature and only remove the cling film and kitchen towel just before serving. For extra colour, garnish your sandwiches with full sprigs of fresh watercress.
- Serves 4 (1 finger sandwich each)
- Preparation time: 5 - 10 minutes
- Cooking time: 0 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 slices of Genius brown bread
- 50g-75g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1/2 shallot, peeled, cut in half lengthways and thinly sliced
- 50g-100g good quality smoked salmon slices
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Arrange 4 slices of brown Genius bread on a board.
- Spread each slice with an even, generous layer of Philadelphia cheese.
- Cover 2 slices of bread with smoked salmon slices arranged close together in one layer.
- Sprinkle the salmon with slices of shallot and season. Place the 2 slices of bread, spread with cream cheese only, on top of the salmon and shallots and press down gently.
- Place the salmon sandwiches on a plate, cover with damp kitchen paper and cling film and refrigerate.
- Please see Afternoon Tea Parts 2 & 3 in the Recipe section to complete your afternoon tea.
- To present the finger sandwiches:
- Remove the cling film and kitchen towel from the sandwiches.
- On a board, make a stack of three sandwiches with one of each variety, with the Avocado and Chicken sandwich in the middle, making sure that the crusts are perfectly aligned.
- With a sharp serrated knife, cut off the crusts.
- Cut the pile of sandwiches into three equal “fingers”, cleaning the blade of the knife between each cut.
- Carefully transfer each finger shaped pile of sandwiches to individual plates, garnished with a sprig of watercress or arrange each group of three finger sandwiches in lines on a larger serving plate and serve immediately.