Cookbook Review, Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea (unofficial), Recipes

Celebrate an era gone by with this elegant Classic Cucumber Sandwich Recipe

Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook Expanded Ed_COVERJust in time for premiere parties, celebratory afternoon teas, and pre-movie binges,  The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook, Expanded Edition, will be released September of this year.

I’ve just put down my review copy and can’t wait to prepare many of these recipes myself.  I feel a tea party coming on. More importantly though, I am jazzed that I’m able to share a couple of recipes with you with the permission of Adams Media and Simon and Schuster, of course. The second recipe will be included in a separate post.

This gorgeous expanded edition provide features recipes for more than 150 dishes inspired by the award-winning series. 

Taking inspiration from both the show and the times — and featuring dozens of photos as well as historical insights — the cookbook will delight any Downton Abbey fan as well as home cooks with a taste for the way people (both upstairs and downstairs) ate in a bygone era. From cucumber sandwiches and berry scones for afternoon tea to dinner party fare of smoked salmon mousse and stuffed leg of lamb with almond fig sauce and hearty staff lunches featuring Yorkshire pudding and bubble and squeak, readers will become real life Mrs. Patmores as they turn out food fit for the Crawleys!

…and as an added bonus, everyone who attends the Roaring Twenties Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea, receives a copy of this elegant and delicious cookbook.


Who said it? (answer at bottom of page)
“It’s the gloomy things that need our help. If everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?”

No tea party is complete without this classic finger food. If the Countess of Grantham had tea without this delicacy, she would likely raise many an eyebrow—especially one belonging to her mother-in-law. However, if the Crawleys realized just how common the ingredients were, they might not feel so pleased with these treats.

Classic Cucumber Sandwich

Yields 10–12 Sandwiches

Classic Cucumber Sandwich_FINAL01Ingredients

  • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
  • 24 slices white bread
  • 12 sprigs dill, for garnish

Method

  1. Blend cream cheese and mayonnaise in a blender until smooth, scraping down sides and blending thoroughly.
  2. Combine cream cheese mixture with cucumber, garlic salt, white pepper, and chopped dill. Spread mixture on top of twelve white bread slices, and garnish with dill sprigs. Cover with other bread slices to form sandwiches. Cut and discard crusts from bread, then cut sandwiches into quarters.


Times Gone By

Legend has it that one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting is the creator of afternoon tea. Knowing the Queen felt hungry around four p.m. and perhaps fretted before dinner, her lady-in-waiting started the trend of serving tea with a few breadstuffs. Soon, teatime had taken hold of England.

“Excerpted from The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook, Expanded Edition by Emily Ansara Baines. Copyright © 2012, 2014, 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.”

Who said it?
— Lady Sybil Crawley, Downton Abbey, Season 1