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Cheese and Orange Marmalade Sandwiches
1/2 cup cream cheese 1/4 cup cream 1/2 cup orange marmalade Spread half the slices with seasoned cheese, softened with the cream and mixed with seasoning if desired, the other half with orange marmalade to which is added a little French mustard, and fit slices together.
A tea sandwich in the plainest sense: two spreads, one savoury and one sweet, meeting in the middle. The quantities given fill roughly six to eight rounds of thinly sliced bread.
- Cream cheese measured by cupHalf a cup of cream cheese is about 4 oz, or half a standard block. Bring it fully to room temperature before you try to beat the cream into it, or it will stay lumpy.
- How much creamA quarter cup of cream to 4 oz of cheese gives a very soft, loose spread. Add it a spoonful at a time and stop when the mixture spreads easily without running; too thin and it will soak straight into the bread.
- "French mustard"In British usage this meant a prepared, vinegared mustard, milder and darker than English mustard powder and not a coarse grain; a Dijon or Bordeaux type is the closest modern match. A scant teaspoon stirred into the half cup of marmalade is enough to cut the sugar without announcing itself.
- "Seasoned cheese" and "seasoning if desired"The original leaves this open. Salt and a little white pepper are the obvious reading; a scrape of orange zest into the cheese is in keeping and ties the two halves together.
- BreadThin-cut white or a fine-crumbed wholemeal, crusts trimmed after assembly rather than before, so the fillings do not squeeze out at the edges. Butter the bread lightly first if the sandwiches must stand.
- MarmaladeA coarse-cut Seville marmalade fights the soft cheese texturally. Use a fine-shred or chop the peel down before mixing in the mustard.
- Holding and servingAssemble no more than an hour or two ahead, cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate. Cut into fingers or triangles at the last moment.