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Pumpernickel Radish Tea Sandwiches

This recipe was part of our Sunday Afternoon Tea menu at the tea room. While I'm not a big fan of either radishes or pumpernickel bread, I actually love this recipe.



Pumpernickel Radish Tea Sandwiches


Ingredients:

8 radishes, cleaned, trimmed and shredded (or diced fine)

6 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons room-temperature butter

1 T diced fresh parsley

1 tsp. Diced fresh chives

1 tsp. +/- fresh lemon juice

ground black pepper, to taste

salt

6 -8 slices pumpernickel bread


GARNISH

4 radishes, washed, trimmed and sliced thin


Filling:

  1. Sprinkle the shredded (or diced) radishes lightly with salt and place into a colander, lined with a paper towel, to drain for 5-10 minutes. The salt will help to draw water from the radishes. Then blot with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.


  2. Place the softened cream cheese and butter in a bowl and cream with a hand mixer.


  3. Add the shredded (or chopped) radishes, parsley, chives and lemon juice (start with a teaspoon, add more to taste or if your cream cheese spread is too thick), ground pepper and a dash of salt, and cream together.


  4. Spread the filling onto one side of the slices of pumpernickel bread.


  5. Garnish with radish slices.


Notes:

  • Assembling a full afternoon tea can be rather stressful, and takes more time than you might think. The filling can be made up the day before to save some time. However, preparing the whole sandwich too far in advance can result in a soggy sandwich.


  • Pumpernickel bread, at least where I live, is generally only available in short wide loaves. These lend themselves to a more rustic, open-faced sandwich than is traditionally served for afternoon tea. For this reason, I generally cut the bread slices in halves or thirds to serve, so they are still a finger-sized sandwich.


  • If you can’t find pumpernickel, rye or marble rye work well too. For those who don’t like radishes (me), or pumpernickel bread (also me), I encourage you to try this recipe anyhow. I actually love it, even though I don’t love radishes or pumpernickel on their own.


  • While red-skinned white radishes are the most common variety at grocery stores, there are yellow, purple, pink, green (yes, those are radishes, not cucumber slices in the photo above!) and even black varieties available from seed stores. If you’re fortunate enough to find them at a local farmers’ market (or in your own garden), they can make a beautiful addition to this recipe.


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