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Harlequin Sandwiches
Use for each sandwich a layer of white and a layer of brown bread. Butter the bread, and spread with a mixture of chopped nuts and cream cheese, or a layer of tart apple sauce sprinkled with nutmeg or cinnamon, and moistened with whipped cream.
A two-tone tea sandwich from the era when sandwich fillings were judged as much on colour as on flavour. The construction matters more than the quantities, none of which are given.
- Brown breadIn American books of this period "brown bread" usually means a whole wheat or graham loaf, not the steamed Boston brown bread. Any close-crumbed wholemeal sandwich loaf gives the intended contrast against white.
- Cream cheeseThe cream cheese of 1900 was a fresh, soft, unripened cheese, closer to today's farmer cheese or a whipped block cream cheese than to firm brick cream cheese straight from the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature and beat it smooth before adding nuts, or it will tear the bread.
- NutsWalnuts or pecans, chopped fine rather than coarse. Large pieces make the layers slide apart when cut.
- The apple sauce versionThis is the filling that fails if rushed. Use a thick, well-reduced sauce from tart apples and drain off any free liquid; the whipped cream is there to loosen it slightly, not to thin it. Wet apple sauce soaks the crumb within minutes.
- Butter as a sealThe butter is structural, not seasoning. Spread it soft and edge to edge on both slices so it waterproofs the crumb against the filling.
- Cutting and holdingChill the assembled sandwiches under a damp cloth for twenty minutes or so, then trim the crusts and cut into fingers or triangles. Assemble the apple sauce sandwiches close to serving; the nut and cheese ones will hold a few hours refrigerated.
- YieldNo quantity is given. Reckon on about 4 oz of cream cheese and 2 oz of chopped nuts filling six sandwiches, which trim into two dozen fingers.