Proper Afternoon Tea Party
Source of Recipe
(wiccadwoman)
Unless you're wild about baking, I'd suggest that you limit the offerings at your first tea party. What fun will the party be if the hostess is stressed out over the chocolate hazelnut torte that flopped, the cookies that are a little too "crispy," or the cake that stuck to the bottom of the pan?
I'm not going to give you a lot of step-by-step recipes here because those are available in so many other places. In your own collection of cookbooks, for instance, you probably have half a dozen recipes for scones. So what I want to do, instead, is offer you some hints and shortcuts. Then I'll share a few specific recipes at the bottom of this page.
If you haven't yet seen my Preparing and Serving a Proper Afternoon Tea page, you should read that first. If you've already visited that page, here's a quick review: Afternoon tea is traditionally comprised of three courses. Sandwiches and savories make up the first course. The second course is tea breads, muffins, or scones, and the last course is (hooray!) dessert.
TEA SANDWICHES
If you're making more than one kind of sandwich, be sure to vary textures and colors for visual interest. Use one light bread and one dark. Or make an open-faced sandwich and a "lidded" one.
You can get creative and invent new sandwiches, or you can use popular fillings like tuna, ham, chicken or egg salad and dress them up with special breads, shapes, and garnishes. (No big chunks of celery and such in the chicken salad, please, because you'll be spreading this stuff on thinly-sliced bread and cutting tiny sandwiches that can be consumed in about three bites.)
Avoid overpowering flavors like onion, garlic, and hot peppers. Those foods don't really work for tea, which is meant to be a light refreshment. Freshly-snipped chives are a good choice for adding subtle flavor and color to tea sandwiches.
Here's my very favorite sandwich, the embarassingly easy, classic cucumber. I can never resist wolfing down several of these as I make them:
One or two "seedless" cucumbers, peeled and sliced thinly. Spread them out on a linen tea towel and salt them. This will draw out some of their moisture, so after a few minutes, blot them in the towel. Now spread your very thin white bread (I like Pepperidge Farm's thin sandwich bread for this) with soft, unsalted butter. Arrange cucumber slices on the bread, then cut or trim the sandwiches as desired. Yeah, it sounds like a really boring sandwich, but try it. Sometimes simple things are the best.
One sandwich I really like is crumbled smoked salmon with a little cream cheese mixed in. Spread on dark bread, leave open-faced, and garnish with snipped chives and maybe a couple of olive slices.
Here's another one to try: turkey with a slice of avocado. You'll want to spread a bit of mayonnaise on the bread, both for taste and to hold the sandwich together.
BRENDA'S CHERRY SCONES
These are a bit lighter and not as crumbly as traditional scones, but they're my favorite. I "invented" this recipe.
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 to 1-1/4 cups heavy cream
Optional: a good handful or two of dried cherries or other fruit, chopped.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. Combine the dry ingredients and the fruit, then add 1 cup of cream, or more, until you can gather a soft dough. (Depending on the humidity in your kitchen, you might not need all of the cream.) Knead on a lightly floured board for about half a minute, then pat to about 3/4-inch thick and cut.
I usually make two balls of dough, pat into circles, then cut each circle into eight wedges. But you might prefer larger, round scones, and that's okay. Plan on getting a dozen out of this recipe.
You'll want to bake these for about 15 minutes. Considering that it will take you less than ten minutes to stir up the dough and cut the scones, this is an easy last-minute recipe. But the scones can also be made a couple of hours ahead, then served at room temperature.
Serve these with strawberry preserves and a generous blob of very thick, unsweetened whipped cream. (Or splurge and buy a little jar of Double Devon Cream, which you'll read about a couple of paragraphs from right now.)
CLOTTED CREAM
In the British Isles, scones are frequently accompanied by something called "clotted cream." The rich treat that Cornwall and Devon are famous for can't really be duplicated here in the United States, because it involves gently heating unpasteurized cream (not easy to find, unless you're related to a dairy farmer) and then waiting for hours and hours, until a thick, yellowish crust forms on the top. I have come across several recipes that claim to approximate clotted cream, but I imagine that's about like trying to find a perfect substitute for table sugar or for chocolate--it can't be done!
I have found two things that taste great on scones. Unsweetened heavy (or "whipping") cream, whipped well past the usual "soft peak" stage until it almost turns into butter. (Very easy to do if you chill your cream, your glass or stainless-steel mixing bowl, and your beaters beforehand.) Or you can purchase a product called "Double Devon Cream." That can be very expensive and difficult to find, but look for it in specialty markets.
By the way, the traditional British "cream tea" is not tea with cream in it. "Tea" in this instance is a reference to the meal, not the beverage. The "cream" is, of course, the clotted cream which is slathered onto scones along with a generous dollup of good jam. Whenever you serve scones with jam and cream, that's a "cream tea."
LEMON CURD
Much is made of spreading lemon curd on scones, but in my reading I have found that the British, who love lemon curd, never ate it on scones. I must admit that the idea is not very appealing to me, but why shouldn't you serve it with scones if you want?
Traditionally, lemon curd has been a filling for tarts. (Make or purchase small tart shells and fill with the curd just prior to serving.) I also like serving it on small squares of gingerbread.
Grated zest of 2 large lemons
6-7 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 pound butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
Put everything but the eggs into the top of a double boiler (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering--not boiling--water.) Give it an occasional stir. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, then spoon a little of the hot lemon mixture into the eggs (to "temper" them so they don't curdle.) Slowly pour the egg mixture into the lemon mixture, stirring constantly, and cook until the curd is thick. (It could take 15-20 minutes.) Cool it to room temperature, then refrigerate the curd until needed.
CHOCOLATE-DIPPED FRUIT
Melt a good-quality chocolate over a double-boiler and have some fun. I like to dip strawberries or Bing cherries, but you may have some better ideas. Leave the "greens" on your washed-and-dried strawberries, and do not dip the fruit all the way--they'll look prettier with a bit of red peeking out. If you use cherries, the stems are very handy for dipping. They also serve a subtle notice to your guests that the pits are still inside the cherries!
After dipping, lay the fruit on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. (Do these the night before your tea party and refrigerate them.)
If you have any leftover chocolate, dip some pretzels, too.
BRENDA'S PARTY PUNCH
For a large tea party, you might wish to serve punch along with the tea, especially if there will be youngsters in attendance. A sticky-sweet punch with floating blobs of sherbet won't go very well with tea sandwiches and cookies, so try this light, refreshing drink: Mix equal parts cran-raspberry juice and 7-Up. The punch will be a lovely pink, and it will look even better if you float an ice ring decorated with fruit or flowers in it.
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