Easy tea sandwiches make adorably elegant party bites

Bacon-tomato finger sandwich recipe

Yields 40 mini sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 8 slices bacon
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 3/4 cup room-temperature whipped cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 20 slices white bread
• 10 thin, large tomato slices
• 1 small can pineapple chunks

Directions:

1. Cook the bacon until crisp, and drain on paper towels.
2. Chop or tear the bacon into 1/4-inch pieces.
3. In a bowl, stir together the bacon, mayonnaise, cream cheese and mustard.
4. Spread the mixture on 2 slices of bread.
5. Place 2 slices of tomato on 1 piece of bread, and make into a sandwich.
6. Repeat, making 10 sandwiches.
7. Remove the crusts with a sharp knife.
8. Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles.
9. Garnish with a chunk of pineapple, securing it with a toothpick.

Tips on making homemade tea sandwiches

There’s no need to spend a lot of money on tea bread or other more expensive types of bread. Buy several loaves of very inexpensive, thin white or wheat bread.

For several of these recipes, you will need to cut the bread into various shapes. Using large cookie cutters, cut the bread into circles, ovals, hearts, triangles or whatever suits your fancy. Try to use cookie cutters that are close to the size of your bread so that you do not waste much. You can also just cut the sandwiches into quarters if you don’t want the special shapes.

Set aside the crusts and excess bread (you can feed it to the birds or save it to make stuffing at a later date). You can make the sandwiches appear fancy by combining simple ingredients and garnishing with a colorful complement, such as a slice of mandarin orange or chunk of pineapple.

More sandwich recipes for entertaining

Sloppy Joes and potato salad
Low-carb appetizers
Appetizers for easy entertaining

Updated by Bethany Ramos on 3/1/16