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Apple Sandwiches
Spread thin bread with Apple Cheese (see recipe) or chopped uncooked apple mixed with nuts.
A one-line formula from the era of the afternoon tea sandwich, where the filling did all the work. Two points decide whether it succeeds: the thickness of the bread and the wetness of the filling.
- "Apple cheese"No dairy involved. Fruit "cheese" is apple pulp cooked down with sugar until stiff enough to hold a shape when cut, the same family as quince cheese or membrillo. It spreads like a firm jam and, being low in free moisture, does not soak the bread.
- If you use raw apple insteadChopped uncooked apple weeps. Chop it fine, toss with a little lemon juice, then drain it in a sieve for ten minutes and press lightly before spreading, or the sandwiches turn grey and sodden within the half hour.
- "Thin bread"A day-old close-crumbed white loaf, sliced as thin as it will hold together, on the order of an eighth of an inch, and buttered to the edges. The recipe does not mention butter, but butter was usual in tea sandwiches of the period and it seals the crumb against the filling.
- NutsWalnuts or pecans, chopped small rather than ground. Toasting them briefly at 350F improves the flavour considerably and helps them stay crisp against the moist apple.
- Apple choiceFor the raw version use a firm, sharp apple that does not go mealy when cut, such as Granny Smith, Braeburn or Winesap.
- Assembly and yieldCrusts trimmed after filling, then cut into fingers or triangles. Roughly a cup of filling covers a dozen slices, giving about 24 small sandwiches. Assemble within an hour of serving and keep them under a damp cloth.
Sandwiches like this belong to a specific late-Victorian and Edwardian genre: the sweet tea sandwich, made on thin buttered bread and cut small, served at afternoon receptions where cake would have been too substantial. Fruit recipe collections of the period, which were often written to promote the use of a single abundant crop, sometimes seem to have paired a preserve recipe with a list of ways to spend it, and this entry reads as one of those spending suggestions rather than a dish in its own right. The cross-reference to "Apple Cheese" points to the older English tradition of fruit cheeses and butters, thick sugared pastes made in autumn as a way of holding a windfall harvest through the winter; the word cheese is generally taken to refer only to the firm, sliceable set, a usage that survives today mainly in damson cheese and quince. The addition of nuts reflects an American habit of the same decades, when chopped walnuts were a common sweet sandwich filling in print.