Home › Sandwiches › Tutti-Frutti Sandwiches
Tutti-Frutti Sandwiches
Butter thin slices of white bread cut in rounds. Fill with lemon jelly that has been filled very full of chopped nuts, dates, chopped figs, sliced bananas, and any other fruit at hand, and made very firm. Turn the jelly out of the mould and slice and place between the slices of bread. After making, they must be kept in the refrigerator until ready to serve, or the jelly will become so soft as to soak into the bread. They do not, therefore, lend themselves readily to a picnic lunch, but are a novel accessory to the Sunday-evening lunch on a hot day, and the jelly may be prepared the day previous and left on the ice until a short time before the meal.
A sweet sandwich built around a slice of firm fruit-studded gelatin. The whole thing depends on the jelly being stiff enough to cut clean and cold enough to stay that way.
- Set the jelly firmAn ordinary dessert-strength lemon jelly will slump the moment it meets warm bread. Use roughly one and a half to two times the gelatin a soft dessert calls for, so the loaf can be unmoulded and sliced with a wet knife without weeping.
- "Lemon jelly" hereThis means a clear gelatin set with lemon juice, sugar and water, not lemon curd and not preserves. Powdered unflavoured gelatin works; bloom it in cold liquid, dissolve in hot, then cool to the thickness of raw egg white before folding in fruit so the pieces stay suspended rather than sinking.
- The mouldA small loaf pan is easier than a fancy mould, since the point is to get flat slices the width of a bread round. Rinse it with cold water before filling and the jelly will release with a brief dip in warm water.
- Fruit choicesFresh pineapple, kiwi and papaya contain enzymes that prevent gelatin from setting (mango is sometimes listed as well); use them canned or cooked, or leave them out. Bananas should be sliced at the last moment into the cooling jelly, as they darken quickly.
- "Left on the ice"The icebox of the period ran warmer and damper than a modern refrigerator, so a modern fridge works in your favour here. Chill the jelly at least four hours, and overnight is better.
- Assemble lateButter both cut faces right to the edge, which slows the jelly's moisture from soaking in, and build the sandwiches no more than an hour before serving. Keep them covered and refrigerated until they go to the table.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. A small loaf of jelly cut thin will give roughly ten slices, and so about ten sandwiches, depending on how large you cut the bread rounds.