How to Make Tea Sandwiches

Elegant tea sandwiches are deceptively simple to make, as long as the ingredients are of the highest quality. The next time you invite friends over for a pot of warm tea, serve these delights alongside some buttery cookies. Follow this recipe to make tea sandwiches with one of several different fillings to make this a delicate, yet delectable meal.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Chef's knife
• Flat spatula or knife
• Above ingredients
• 6 slices of high-quality white sandwich bread
• 1 English cucumber
• ¼ cup cream cheese
• 1 small bunch fresh dill

1. Thoroughly wash the cucumber and dill.
2. Thinly cut the cucumber into slices no thicker than 1/8-inch. The cucumber should be just thin enough to almost see through. If it’s too thick, the cucumber will dominate the taste of the sandwich.
3. Finely mince the dill. You want approximately 2 tsp. of dill once you're done.
4. In a medium bowl, stir the cream cheese with a spoon or a fork until the cheese becomes softened. Add the minced dill and mix thoroughly.
5. Taste the cream cheese mixture and add more dill if you want. Cover the cheese and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours to let it soak in the dill flavor.
6. While you’re waiting for the cheese, stack four to six slices of bread. While lightly holding down the stack, slice the crusts of the bread off with a serrated bread knife. Since the bread is soft, use a gentle sawing motion to cut the crusts off without damaging the fluffy bread.
7. Lay out your slices of bread. Using a flat spatula or knife, evenly spread a thin layer of the dill cream cheese all the way to the edges of the bread. Do this to each piece of bread.
8. Lay four slices of cucumber on every other piece of bread. Close the sandwich by laying the corresponding piece on top.
9. Cut the sandwich into triangles and serve.

Tips & Warnings

• English cucumbers differ from regular cucumbers because they don’t have as many seeds. This means you don’t have to scoop the watery seeds out from the middle before serving the cucumber.
• You can also use wheat sandwich bread. You really want an almost bland canvas for your tea sandwiches so the delicate flavors of the filling are not overpowered by the bread.
• You can also make another filling of water cress and lemon cream cheese. To the softened cream cheese, add a tsp. of lemon zest and ½ tsp. of lemon juice.
• You can make tea sandwiches with any delicate filling. Try tuna salad, egg salad or other types of a creamy filling. See the tea sandwich fillings article in the related articles section for ideas and recipes.