Nutty Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches

I love hosting tea parties for the women in my life and I enjoy trying new recipes to serve at these gatherings.  The most recent one being a fall-themed tea, I thought I'd try this new recipe for a tea sandwich in the shape of an acorn.  These little sandwiches were different from most tea sandwiches in that there is no spread on the bread, plus the the nutty mix added to the top end of the sandwich.  Their uniqueness is what made them special enough to share on my blog!

I cut this recipe out of my September/October 2010 issue of Tea Time magazine and have only recently had the opportunity to make them.  These sandwiches are made using pumpernickel bread, which I've found is not readily available year round.  Because I was unable to find Pumpernickel in August, I had expected to have to order the bread ahead of time, but was surprised to find a couple of loaves in the bakery section of my market.  Also, assembling these little treats is a breeze, but the nutty topping needs to be made ahead, in fact, I started the process the day before.

To begin, the recipe calls for toasted pecans.  There are two ways to do this; one way is in the oven with the nuts spread in one layer on a cookie sheet and the other is in a frying or saucepan over medium heat.  I find with this method I have more control.  I place the nuts in a cool saucepan and turn the heat on medium.  I stir the nuts constantly, so they don't burn.  I also get close to the pan and take a good whiff every 15 seconds or so.  Before the pan heats, the pecans don't give off much aroma, but as they toast, the nutty smell gets stronger.  It's easier to use this method with almonds because you can see as the nuts toast and get browned.  With the pecans, I took them off the heat when they had a toasted and nutty aroma.  It's better to under toast them than have them burn even a little bit as they would have to be thrown away.

When I removed the nuts from the pan, I spread them on a paper towel to let them cool.  Because I wasn't using them right away, once cooled, I stored them in a zip-lock bag.

I cleaned out the remnants of the nuts in the pan and put the butter in to melt.  Because the pan was already hot, the butter began to melt immediately.

I melted the butter over medium heat until it began to brown and had a nutty aroma, which was about 7 minutes.

I removed it from the heat and poured it through a strainer to remove the foam and any solids, which I discarded.

A little foam snuck through, but I just scooped it out of the bowl with a spoon.  The result was a nice amber colored melted butter.  This butter needed to sit at room temperature until set, which would be at least an hour, so I chose to do this the day before.

The day of the tea, after slicing the bread (I didn't realize it hadn't been pre-sliced!) I used an acorn-shaped cookie cutter to get two acorns out of each slice.

Using the same cookie cutter, I cut acorns out of black forest ham and fontina cheese slices, placing the ham down first and topping it with the cheese.  As you can see, there was no spread on the bread before placing the filling on top.  The spread was on top of the sandwiches!

I'm sorry I missed getting a picture of how I made the spread.  I added the toasted pecans to the browned butter and added a little bit of honey, stirring the ingredients together to mix thoroughly.  This mixture was then spread at the top of the sandwich to resemble the acorn cap.  Aren't these little sandwiches cute?  I think so!

As I was reading through the recipe before typing it here, I realized I didn't follow it exactly!  I was wondering why I ended up with so much extra pecan/butter spread and now I know it's because I was supposed to spread the bottom slice of bread with this mixture before topping it with the ham!  I guess I was working so quickly to get everything assembled, I didn't read the recipe correctly.  I will type the recipe as it should have been made and will make it that way the next time!  I imagine it will only be that much better with the nutty spread in each bite!  Enjoy!

Nutty Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches

1 recipe Pecan Brown Butter (recipe follows)

12 slices pumpernickel bread, cut into 2 acorn shapes each*

12 slices black forrest ham, cut into acorn shapes*

12 slices deli-sliced fontina cheese, cut into acorn shapes*

Spread approximately 2 teaspoons Pecan Brown Butter onto 1 slice bread.  Layer 1 slice of black forrest ham and 1 slice fontina cheese.  Top with 1 slice bread.  Spread approximately 1 teaspoon Pecan Brown Butter onto top one-third of sandwich (to resemble an acorn cap).  Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 12 sandwiches.  Serve immediately.

* I used a 2 1/2- x 3 1/2-inch acorn-shaped cookie cutter

Pecan Brown Butter

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

1 teaspoons honey

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Continue to cook until butter begins to brown and has a nutty aroma, 6 to 8 minutes.  Remove from heat, and strain, discarding solids.  Let sit at room temperature until set, approximately 1 hour.  Add pecans and honey, stirring to combine.  Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.