Pinwheel Sandwiches - for parties, showers, teas

Pinwheel Sandwiches - for afternoon teas, showers and fancy events

Fancy events deserve extra effort and these sandwiches, although somewhat labour intensive, they can be made the day ahead and sliced at the last minute.

Traditional fillings include egg salad, deviled ham with a pickle in the middle, tuna or salmon salad, peanut butter with banana in the centre, and then cream cheese that is usually coloured with food colouring. So I wondered why not use our beautiful jams with the cream cheese so you get the colour plus flavour as well? So we tried it out.

Here is a quick guide to what I did. I made one roll of each of 5 sandwich filling and as I don’t know how much you will be making, I will give you directions for making 1 roll from 1 slice of bread. This will give about 6 – 8 individual sandwiches, depending on the size of your slice.

I found sliced white and brown bread at Superstore called Tramezzini which was easy. In the past I have gone to my local bakery and asked for unsliced sandwich bread, cut off all the crusts and then sliced it lengthwise into long slabs. I use an electic knife as it cuts best. Then use a rolling pin to roll each slice to firm it. This makes the final rolling easier and the whole sandwich holds together in a firmer sandwich. (These steps are already done with the purchased Tramessini).

Step 1. Select your Fruits of Sherbrooke jam based on the colour and flavour you want. I used Blueberry Rhubarb jam, Cherry Heaven jam, Mango Apple jam, Strawberry Apple jam. You could also use Ginger Apple Jam, Gingered Saskatoon and Apple, Mango Orange Rhubarb, Raspberry Pear Rhubarb, Raspberry Apple jam, Saskatoon in Summer Fruits, Spiced Rhubarb jam. Then you could make it a bit more zesty and use some of the condiments such as 3C’s in Balsamic, Balsamic Saskatoon and Strawberry, Hot Pepper Rhubarb or even the Rich Rhubarb Chutney.

Step 2. Assemble fruit to be used as a centerpiece in your sandwich – I does not take much.

Step 3. For each sandwich, put 2/3 cup room temperature spreadable cream cheese into a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of jam. Beat together until well combined and smooth. It is fine to have lumps of the fruits still showing in the mix.

Step 4. Lay out 1 piece of bread on a cutting board and very lightly butter the top side with a thin covering of soft butter. The purpose of the butter is to provide a layer to prevent filling from seeping into the bread. This step should not be skipped.

Step 5. Generously spread cream cheese filling over bread, covering right to the edge of all 4 sides. Then along the narrow end of the bread and filling, arrange the fresh fruit centrepiece.

I chose to use the same fresh fruit as the centrepiece but you can make your own decisions. I added fresh blueberries to the Blueberry Rhubarb cream as the centre of the berry is green and provides a nice bright contrast. Thin wedges of fresh strawberry were put in the Strawberry Apple filling, wedges of black cherry in the Cherry Heaven filling and fresh mango slices in the Mango Apple filling.

Step 6. Then starting at the edge with the fresh fruit filling, carefully roll, keeping it firm enough to not have air pockets and to assure that the sandwich will hold together when cool and sliced. But do not squeeze too tightly or the cream cheese filling will be pushed out the ends. Once rolled, wrap with plastic film, and place in the fridge for 3 – 4 hours, to firm the cheese..

Step 7. Carefully clean the workspace as you do not want the colour from one filling to spread onto the outside of any of the other rolls. Continue creating your sandwiches, following the above steps, wrapping each individually and refrigerating. These can be prepared the day ahead if kept cold. They do not freeze well with the fresh fruit.

Step 8. When the rolls are very well chilled and very close to serving time, take rolls out one at a time, unroll and make sure that the coloured cheese does not get spread over the clean outside of the sandwich. With a thin and very sharp paring knife, cut across the roll into slices about 6 slices. I wipe the knife clean after each cut.

You can turn the end pieces with cut side up and they can all be used.

Step 9. Arrange on serving trays and keep cool. If you have the time, I suggest keeping the rolls in the fridge and only cutting the slices as they are needed. You could keep all the same on one plate or arrange a mix on your serving tray. You see the assortment at the beginning of this article and here is how you can decorate the plate if all the fruit is the same.

Option: I did one roll where I rolled it up from the long side. It did make a very small, single bit sandwich, so this is an option as well.

ENJOY!!!!!

Carol