Smoked turkey and Cranberry Cream Sandwiches

I hosted a Fall Tea today and thought this would be a perfect choice for one of the sandwiches, given that Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  

To me, this was like Thanksgiving in a tea sandwich!  It had turkey as part of the filling, the spread contained cranberries, and I put it all together on potato bread!  All of the ladies in attendance said they really enjoyed this new sandwich.

I began by chopping the dried cranberries very finely.

I put that in a small bowl and added half (4 oz.) of a tub of spreadable cream cheese.  I used the spreadable version because I assembled this spread the day before and then stored it in the refrigerator and I wanted it to be easily spread as soon as I removed it from the refrigerator the next day.

It resembles a dip at this point.  It could be used immediately or stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.

One rule with tea sandwiches is that the crusts must always be removed.  Looking at the shape of the bread, I determined that I would get three rectangular sandwiches out of each one and tried to cut off the crusts to keep parallel sides so the final product would be prettier.  I always cut two slices of bread at the same time, so they will match perfectly when assembled into sandwiches.

Once the crusts were removed, I laid out the pieces like I was opening the sandwiches.  Again, this is so they match perfectly when fully assembled.  Using a spatula, I spread each slice of bread with the cranberry and cream cheese mixture.

I then topped each "bottom" half with fresh baby spinach leaves.

The spinach was then topped with smoked turkey.

I then placed the "top" piece of bread on top, spread side down and cut each sandwich into 3 pieces.

I suppose these sandwiches could also be served at a Christmas tea as they look festive with the green spinach leaves and red cranberries in the spread.  Enjoy!

Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Cream Sandwiches

1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

4 oz. spreadable cream cheese

8 slices potato bread

1/4 pound thinly sliced smoked turkey

1 cup baby spinach

In a small bowl, combine dried cranberries and cream cheese.  Remove crusts from bread.  Lay bread on work surface and spread with cranberry mixture.  Top half of the bread slices with baby spinach, then smoked turkey.  Place top piece of bread over turkey, spread side down.  Cut each sandwich into 3 rectangular sandwiches.