Baby Shower Tea: Turkey Tea Sandwiches

Here is a delicious turkey tea sandwich with a yummy scallion cream cheese.

A couple of tips to help you make beautiful little tea sandwiches…

* Make sure the cream cheese is softened before making the scallion cream cheese

* Try to find a very dense bread — like Rubschlager’s Cocktail Breads — so that the cream cheese spreads on easily and evenly.  I would focus more on finding a good dense bread than the raisin-nut bread called for below.

* Refrigerating the sandwiches before cutting will help ensure a clean cut and an elegant presentation

Turkey Tea Sandwiches
Barefoot Contessa

SCALLION CREAM CHEESE
3/4 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup minced scallions (white and green parts)

SANDWICHES
1 loaf dense raisin-nut bread, unsliced
8 thin slices fresh or smoked turkey breast
Fresh basil leaves

For the scallion cream cheese, combine the cream cheese and scallions in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Do not whip.

For the sandwiches, have the store slice the bread lengthwise on a meat slicer into 1/4-inch-thick slices. (If that isn’t possible, you can slice it crosswise with a very sharp knife.)

Lay out 8 slices of bread and spread them all with a thin layer of scallion cream cheese. Place a single layer of turkey on half the slices, cutting the edges to fit the bread. Place the basil leaves randomly on top of the turkey. Top with the other 4 slices of bread, cream cheese side down. Lay the sandwiches on a baking sheet, and wrap the sheet with plastic. Refrigerate until the cream cheese is cold and firm. Place the sandwiches on a cutting board and, with a very sharp knife, cut off the crusts. Cut each large sandwich in half crosswise, and then cut each half diagonally, twice, to make a total of 8 small triangles. (If the bread was cut crosswise, follow the assembly instructions, then cut off the crusts and cut diagonally, twice, to make 4 small triangles.) Serve chilled.