Inspired by the winter snow storm that immobilized much of Georgia this week, I wanted to see if I could make a tea sandwich using my snowflake cookie cutters. I found the perfect one to try, the Mascarpone Ham Tea Sandwich featured in the 2007 book "The Tea Experience" from Hoffman Media. Cutting the ham with cookie cutters was a bit of a challenge and I'm not sure it's worth the effort, so that's the reason you also see one plain, cube-shaped sandwich on this plate!
This recipe's use of mascarpone cheese is what made it so appealing to me.
In color and texture it seems very much like regular old cream cheese, but it has a much sweeter flavor.
This recipe called for the mascarpone to be mixed with honey, and thanks to my friend Belinda I had some special "tea friend honey" I used in the recipe.
I'm also exploring different breads this year, so I chose to pair the mascarpone cheese/honey mixture and smoked Virginia ham with this nice Seed Bread from Publix. Delicious! Here is the recipe as I made it:Mascarpone Ham Tea Sandwiches
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
2 teaspoons honey
4 slices Seed Bread
4 (1/8-inch-thick) slices smoked Virginia ham
Mix mascarpone and honey, spread on bread, then top with ham. Yields 16 open-faced tea sandwiches. (Note: The book "The Tea Experience" calls for you to spread the bread slices with butter, but I forgot and certainly didn't miss the butter! With a lighter bread, though, it might be useful in keeping the sandwich from getting soggy. The book also suggests topping the sandwich with arugula, but I don't care for arugula so I skipped that as well.)
The sandwiches look delicious and pretty. I haven't tried the Publix seed bread (my favorite is English Muffin bread) - I'll have to look for it next time I shop.
ReplyDeleteI am sure this was yummy....marscapone cheese and honey as a spread, what a deliicious idea. Thanks Angela
ReplyDeleteAngela, these look delicious!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to try your recipe, I like this series, Joanie
I've never had the marscapone cheese, but I'm going to watch for it when I go to town. New recipes are fun to share and try. ♥♫
ReplyDeleteI love mascarpone!
ReplyDeleteEven if the snowflake ham was hard to cut, it did turn out pretty. Just a thought: If you were going to do this again you could cut the bread with the snowflakes. For the ham you could cut it with a knife into thin strips that would fit on the "arm" of the snowflake. Once the sandwich was put together no one would know what shape the ham was cut.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of the snowflake sandwiches even if it was hard to cut the ham. Very pretty and sounds yummy! I love marscapone and honey piped into tart shells with fruit on top too.
ReplyDeleteYour snowflake sandwich is very pretty, but since it is so time consuming to make, I would probably stick with a more traditional shape. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I love the photography in this book, but had completely overlooked this easy recipe!
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