Styling Your Christmas Table: Six Super Easy Canapes To Impress Your Guests (Edition 8)
Who doesn’t love a canape? There is something about a small bite on a plate that is endlessly appealing, especially if, like me, you could feasibly live your entire life eating only finger food. My family are also big into the joy of a party food dinner. For many years when Ella and Max were at home, we would trial every supermarkets offerings on a Saturday night whilst we watched X Factor - one a week, rated out of ten, scorecards at the ready. Now my older two have left home (albeit temporarily) and X Factor can now be described as vintage television, Joe and I have been continuing this tradition with the half hearted assistance of Leo who has far more interest in FIFA than he does in a breaded prawn. Unable to resist the lure of a 3 for 2 offer, I always buy at least seven times as much party food than is needed for two people and as a result, dinner is ticked off the list for the following three days. Perfect.
The dining room before shot. Joe, never knowingly without Silk Cut in hand, circa 2000.
This year, we are going to my sister in law, Louises, house and we are very much looking forward to it. The entire Dawson family will be there - a total of 18 of us (Joe is one of four) - and as always, I have been tasked with the canape option, about which I am not complaining one bit. Over the last eight years of my blog writing tenure, I have annually posted six of my favourite recipes with the sole condition that they need to be easy; easy enough, in fact, for my husband to make them if he was tasked. Not that he ever is, obvs. Joe can barely use the toaster, let alone serve a platter of homemade nibbles. But that aside, I now have an arsenal of 48 excellent recipes that are suitable for such an occasion. Bring it on.
Christmas at the Dawson family home has been an eventful occurrence in years past, the most memorable of which took place back in the year 2000 and which I am sure I have recounted before in the annals of my blog. Joe’s Nannie Connie had treated my mother in law, Judith, to a Christmas centrepiece, complete with pillar candle, to display on the festive table. The glorious centrepiece was lit, the dinner was served, eaten and finished and eventually, we all retired to the living room to relax, only to be loudly disturbed by the fire alarm going off on the third floor. Back then, we were all partial to a Silk Cut and there were no children around to stop us merrily lighting up wherever we so wished, meaning that we spent much of our time in a haze of smoke. As a result, we hadn’t realised that the centrepiece had, in fact, caught fire - Joe and his dad rushed into the dining room to find flames encircling the ceiling. Carnage and full room redecoration ensued. Lessons were learned, namely never leave a candle unattended, kids (but also, smoking outside is much safer. Jokes, obvs).
Enough reminiscing - let’s move on to the main event and that’s the canapes. This year, I’ve compiled six easy peasy recipes that can be prepared in advance and will make you look as though you’ve spent hours in the kitchen to thrill your guests, when, in fact, you haven’t. And I promise, they are ALL easy and can be reproduced in your kitchen with minimum fuss and maximum impact. If you try any out, please do tag me, I would love to see! And you can check out my previous canape blogs here: Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3, Edition 4 , Edition 5 , Edition 6 and Edition 7. Happy Christmas everyone.
Tapas On A Stick
Tapas is my absolute fave food, above all others. Given the choice, I would eat tapas every day for every meal and never veer from it. There’s something about the combination of cheese, smoky hams and crunchy vegetables that is PERFECTION. This is a very basic, VERY easy canape that can not only takes minutes to put together but also can be made in advance and presented fait accompli to the admiration of your guests. Also, you can basically use whatever you have in the fridge, this is purely a guideline based on what I had in mine.
Olives
Serrano ham
Manchego cheese
Pickled chillis
Stack your tapas items on to your sticks and serve. Barely even a recipe, tbh, simply a stick full of deliciousness. Serve with a jam or chutney in case people want to add.
Tuna Rillettes On Sourdough
Tuna is always my go to lunch with crackers. The day that they introduced the peel back, no drain tins was a game changer, not just because you didn’t have to use a tin opener but also because your hands no longer smelled like fish. I go for spring water but whatever you have is fine. This is a simple combination of tinned tuna with some extras to make it super tasty - I’ve spread on to toasted slices for ease but you could also serve in a dish accompanied by the slices and vegetable sticks.
Tin of tuna
1 x tbsp chives
1 x tbsp of both cream cheese and sour cream
Half tsp of Dijon mustard
Add the tuna to a box and flake it, but don’t mash it. Add the rest of the ingredients, holding back a quarter of the chopped chives for garnish, then season well. Taste to make sure it’s as you like it, then toast your sourdough slices and add the mixture to the top. Garnish with the chopped chives and serve.
Brie, Quince & Pistachio Vol Au Vents
Okay, so this is the first time I had ever made my own vol au vents but I figured how difficult could it be? The answer is not difficult at all - all you need is a sheet of puff pastry. You can, of course, also buy ready made cases to make it even easier. I love a vol au vent and all the 70’s vibes they bring. I’ve used a very simple indeed filling here for ease but you can stick whatever you so wish in your cases, or whatever you have in the fridge. I wanted to use the quince jam that my mother in law Judith made from her garden so I’ve teamed it with brie. Fig jam or any sort of Christmassy cranberry jam also would be perfection.
1 x sheet of puff pastry and two circular pastry cutters, one smaller than the other
1 x beaten egg to glaze
A piece of brie or camembert
Quince jam, or whatever jam or chutney you have
A handful of chopped pistachio nuts (substitute with what you’ve got in the cupboard)
Roll out your pastry sheet. Use your larger pastry cutter to make circles, then use your smaller pastry cutter to make second circles inside half of the bigger circles and remove (you don’t need these bits). Egg wash the large circles, then place the wreath shaped circles on top of them (this sounds complicated but it will make sense when you do it, ha). Egg wash all, then put in the oven at 180 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Dice your brie and place inside your case, then top with a small amount of jam. Place back in oven for enough time for the cheese to melt, around 5 minutes. remove and top with your chopped pistachios. Side note: I could totally have stuffed more brie in these, so be plentiful if you wish.
Baby Potatoes With Whipped Feta & Sumac
I honestly do not think there is much that is better than a small, salted, oven baked potato. This is such a simple recipe but these really are mouthfuls of goodness and you will want to eat them all. You can prep most of this well in advance (make the feta topping and prepare the potatoes for cooking) and they’re easy to put together. Serve as hot as you can.
1kg bag of baby potatoes
1 x block of feta cheese
2 x tbsp of Greek yoghurt
1 x tbsp of lemon zest
A pinch of chilli flakes
A few good pinches of sumac
Add your potatoes to a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season well with salt and pepper and shake around so they are well covered in all. Put in the oven at 180 for around 40 minutes until they are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Remove and leave to cool for five minutes, then use a knife to slit the top and open ready for the topping. To make the whipped feta, add the feta cheese, yoghurt, lemon zest and chilli flakes to a mini blender and whizz - loosen with extra virgin olive oil if needed (it should be a smooth but thick consistency). Top your mini potatoes with a spoonful of the mixture, then sprinkle with sumac to finish.
Pizza Twists
This one is perfect if you have kids who look with scorn at your tapas sticks and head straight to the crisps. Again, puff pastry is your best friend here - I don’t think it’s possible to have too much carb focused food pre dinner as you need it to soak up the alcohol drunk before the big event. I asked my own kids which version of this very flexible recipe I should do and they said pizza, but it also is excellent using pesto and grated parmesan for those with a slightly more sophisticate palette than my children.
Puff pastry sheet
Ready made pizza sauce
Grated cheese (I used cheddar but it doesn’t matter which - you can mix with mozzerella if you have it too)
2 x tsp oregano
Roll out your puff pastry sheet, divide into two, then spread one side with pizza sauce, topping with grated cheese and oregano. Place the other half over the top so it’s nice and neat, then slice into long sticks. Carefully remove one by one and twist, then place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Lightly egg wash the pastry, season well with salt and pepper, then place in the oven at 180 for around 20 minutes, until the pastry is cooked and golden. Remove and serve, hot if you can.
Christmas Tree Board
This is a classic Pinterest idea that I’ve adapted with ingredients to suit what my own family like, to be frank. It is SUPER simple but very effective to look at and you can use anything you like to layer it up, really. I also used a little star shaped cutter that I found on Amazon and made cheese stars using presliced supermarket cheese for added festivity. It’s quite time consuming to put together but you can dice all the cheese in advance to make it quicker.
Cheddar and Red Leicester cubes
Brie slices
Salami, folded in half and rolled
Cherry tomatoes, grapes
Stuffed olives
Pecan nuts
Rosemary sprigs
Pomegranate seeds
Pretzel sticks
Find your biggest board and layer up from the bottom, starting with the pretzel sticks to form the trunk. Intersperse vegetables, fruit and nuts with the cheese and finish by sprinkling the pomegranate seeds and little cheese starts. SO SIMPLE, yet looks so good.
