How To Create The Perfect Afternoon Tea At Home 2021

[Music] hi everyone it's so good to see you again for today's episode i wanted to show you how to create the perfect afternoon tea at home now the very first video i ever uploaded to youtube was this very subject so i thought that i would do an updated version for 2021 also in that video i didn't share any tea recipes so hopefully this one will be your one stop shop for the perfect tea party i'm going to share with you how to create the perfect little finger sandwiches how to make delicious scones which just so happen to be vegan plus some easy but absolutely beautiful cakes that will truly impress your guests finally we will set the table together for the perfect tea party that is always guaranteed to brighten the day and create some fun memories for you so let's get started and i hope you enjoyed this episode the first thing that we're going to make for our afternoon tea is finger sandwiches now i have done videos where i've made finger sandwiches before but they were not the best let's just say that and finger sandwiches are supposed to be very dainty elegant and beautiful so i really wanted to do them again so that we can make them perfect for our afternoon tea now you know me i am not so caught up on perfectionism i prefer things to be more real but when it comes to afternoon tea i think that it is quite important to make everything look very beautiful because this is a special occasion so we want it to be proper so i've got three recipes for you actually four recipes and they're very simple and easy to put together and it will just make your afternoon tea really beautiful and delicious the first sandwich that we're gonna make is an egg and cress sandwich and this is a very classic sandwich that you would expect to have in a traditional afternoon tea and the beauty of it is that it's so simple all you need to do is boil some eggs chop up some cress a little bit of mayonnaise salt and pepper and you mix it all together and that is it super simple super easy so i'm just going to start with two eggs i think that might be enough but we'll see if we need to add any more then i'm going to add a few tablespoons of mayonnaise i'm going to add in this crust and this looks so delicious when you put it all together a little bit of salt i love these salt flakes they're much nicer than regular salt and then a little sprinkling of pepper i think i'm going to just add in a little bit more of the mayo because i can tell that that's not enough and now i'm just gonna mash it together with a fork so and that is it so simple [Music] so now it's time to put the sandwich together and what i've done is i've taken my bread and i've cut the crusts off in the last tea sandwiches video i did i used this knife to cut the crusts off and that works pretty well with cutting off the crust but then when you try to slice the sandwiches when they've been filled it oozes out and it looks a bit of a mess a lot of people suggested using a serrated knife i have tried that and it still really doesn't make much difference so the way that i'm going to do it is i am going to cut the bread into the fingers and then i'm going to put the fillings in and i think that is the neatest best way to do it so that you don't have any spillages and so they look very beautiful and pristine so let's go ahead now you can butter your bread if you wish i prefer without butter because i think we've got enough of this here we don't really need to add anything else but if you want to add butter you can so i'm going to put this together and i'm going to take it lengthways and just put a little cut down the middle and now i'm gonna just put start putting this onto here and i think this is the best way to do this testing it out and seeing from before this is the neatest way so i'm just putting a little bit of the mixture onto the bread so as i said we are looking to be as neat as possible so usually when i'm cooking i just throw things together and i'm more concerned about whether it's delicious rather than making it look too perfect but this is a special occasion afternoon tea so let's try and do it as best as we can okay and then just popping that on there and there we have a perfect finger sandwich no spilling it's all beautiful so that is what i'm going to do for all of them and i think that this will work best for you to get the most perfect [Music] sandwich the next sandwich we're going to make is a chicken and tarragon sandwich and again this is super simple all that i've done is i've cooked some chicken breast and i've shredded it down and to that i'm going to add some mayonnaise good tablespoon then i'm going to add in a tablespoon of whole grain mustard the tarragon a little bit of tarragon all of these measurements are on my blog nicolasferford.com so the full recipes are there for you to try and then i'm just going to add a little bit of salt you know i love salt and some pepper and we're going to mix it all together once again and that is it for this sandwich i am actually going to add a little bit of butter because this mixture the chicken mixture of the tarragon isn't as wet as the egg mayo so you probably do want to get a little bit of butter on the sandwich just to give it that bit more moisture and make it a little bit more delicious so i'm just going to add a little bit of butter not a crazy amount and this really does make it even more beautiful okay so let's spread on some of this and this is so delicious you get lots of different textures and flavors in here i'm just going to press this down with the knife there we go super simple easy but very satisfying and it will really impress your guests and friends [Music] okay that is that one done ready to go on our sandwich plate [Music] the cucumber sandwich is perhaps the most quintessentially british of all the tea sandwiches in afternoon tea and even though it seems quite boring and simple it is so refreshingly delicious that it will become a favorite if you haven't tried it already now the last cucumber sandwiches that i made were probably the worst ones that i made in my last video and i always like to improve so what i have done this time is i have really sliced the cucumber very thin i used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin first and then i just sliced the cucumber very thinly and this way we can layer it up on the sandwich and you'll have a much more neat sandwich rather than being like a wedge door stop so i've already butted the bread i'm just going to take slices of this and put them onto the sandwich now what i did with this when i sliced it i salted it and then put it into the fridge and you can leave that for about two hours so that you get the best possible cucumber and you only need a few layers of this you don't want it too thick the key here is to have a nice thin sandwich and then i'm going to put on two mint leaves and that is a very beautiful combination fresh delicious goes perfectly with your tea especially earl grey and that is it and i love this one the most because you've got the white bread the green cucumber the darker mint and it just looks so elegant and beautiful [Music] do [Music] [Music] it is always nice to have something from the sea on an afternoon tea sandwich and the usual choice is salmon well this recipe i like because it's a little bit different and not something that you would usually see i'm going to use prawns with avocado and i think that is just a little bit more different than the traditional salmon that you would have so we're going to do this it's very simple again so i've got a ripe avocado and i'm just going to pop that into here i'm just going to use half for now and if we need to add more we can then i'm going to put the prawns in here these are cooked prawns i've got a tablespoon of lemon juice i'm going to put salt some pepper and lastly i'm just going to add in some of this mayonnaise this is actually vegan mayonnaise truffle mayonnaise which is so delicious so i'm just going to probably add the whole of this into here and now i'm going to mash it all together [Music] i am going to add in the rest of the avocado i think it will really benefit from having more it's a little bit wet this mixture so this will thicken it out and just improve the texture [Music] and there we have it four very simple easy delicious and dainty finger sandwiches which will really impress your guests now you can pop these into the into an airtight container into the fridge at least two hours before serving and that way they'll stay really fresh you can also put them into the fridge overnight and serve them the next day and they'll be perfect i am going to do that and next we're going to make some scones scones are a quintessential part of afternoon tea they are a real delicious sweet treat that you serve with your tea and they just complement the whole meal and make it that bit extra special they're so easy to bake you just need to remember when you're baking scones that you have to work very delicately you have to work with your hands so make sure that you're using light pressure and treating it like you would a very like a newborn baby i suppose it's a good way to think about that but yes scones are delicious they are served with jam and cream and they are just so wonderful people love scones so these are an important part of afternoon tea so let's make these together in this bowl i have a self-raising flour and to it i'm going to add one teaspoon of baking powder just about a level teaspoon i'm going to add three tablespoons of caster sugar so they're not too sweet but just the right level of sweetness and i'm finally going to add in a quarter teaspoon of salt there we go and then to this i'm going to add butter and actually this is a vegan recipe so this is dairy-free butter this is a vegan spread that i've been using for many years and this recipe i created when i became vegan because i wanted to have some scones but i couldn't find any vegan ones so i created this recipe and i will continue to use it now even though i'm no longer plant-based or a vegan because it works really well so if it works well always do it a good tip for what we're going to do next is to make sure your hands are cold i've just washed my hands with cold water and now what we're going to do is we're going to crumble this together with our fingertips until we have fine bread crumbs now this is my absolute worst nightmare i hate putting my hands in this bowl it's something about the flower uh it just makes this horrible noise which i don't know whether that's just a strange thing that i have but yes it makes me kind of go a little bit cold but anyway you need to make sure that you're using the lightest touch and at first you're going to find that it seems like nothing's happening and maybe it's not going to work but then eventually it all comes together and you get these very fine breadcrumbs so it doesn't matter by the way of just putting the salt the sugar the baking powder into the bowl without stirring it through this will do that now as we're working and as i said because we want to keep everything light it's best not to stir things too much the most beautiful scone will be light and fluffy and that's how we get this by being very delicate so i'm just taking it in my hands massaging it through and it is starting to come together and look more crumbly but i can still feel the clumps of butter so we want to get rid of those combine them into the flour and just carry on until we do that [Music] as you can see we have now got fine breadcrumbs so we're gonna move on to the next stage now this would be the point that if you were using fruit you would add that i'm just gonna be doing plain scones today so i'm not gonna be adding anything else and the next thing we're adding in is oat milk so i'm gonna pour this into here and then what we will do is stir it round with a knife and this is a tip that i got from a pastry chef in the cotswolds who works at a beautiful hotel and i think it just stops the mixture from being overworked so we're just going very gently stirring through just to make sure that the milk is combined and then what we're going to do is some more messy work of putting our hands in the bowl and performing a dough with our hands okay so once the milk is pretty much incorporated into here that's when i'm going to put my hands in now and start making the dough ball [Music] so as you can see sometimes it doesn't come together as you planned so if it's not coming together quite well you can just keep add a little bit of flour until it starts to form into a ball and conversely if it's too dry add a touch of milk and it should start come coming together it should be a little bit sticky and then adding the flour will just bring everything together so i'm just going to take a little dusting of flour onto my work surface and now we're going to roll out the dough until it's about an inch thick okay so as you can see it's a nice firm dough but it feels quite soft and light and i'm just going to roll this through hell about an inch thick not too flat i think that is fine nice round circle we're going to cut this out and then put it onto a baking sheet so starting from the outside i'm just going to press down firmly you never want to twist it like that that you don't need to do should just pop out and then you can lightly just give it a little tap and it should come out of the uh the cutter there we go so that is a lovely beautiful scone here we go i usually make about 8 to 12 of these but i'm trying not to make too many because i can't have that many guests in the house and i will just end up eating them so i'm just gonna make a few today maybe i'll give some to the neighbors i can tell these are going to be very delicious because they're so light and they're really easy to cut out and then when you get to the end of your your pastry you can just pop it back together with your hands give it a little bit of a shape back into a ball and then we're gonna do exactly the same thing roll it through until it's about an inch thick and do exactly the same thing again and i'm just with the last one this is always the biggest one i'm just going to use it like all that also what you can do if you do not want to have a vegan version or you're not too bothered about not having a vegan version you can brush the top with eggs to give it a glaze otherwise you can use oat milk to do that as well these will go into a preheated oven at 180 degrees for between 8 to 12 minutes just keep checking on them until they're nice and golden brown and then take them out of the oven well my scones are out of the oven and i'm very pleased with how they've turned out as you can see they've got this slight little rim here you can see it more on this one this ridge and this is exactly what you're looking for because with a scone you're supposed to break them in half and with this you can do that very easily so that will break apart really well now remember the one at the end which i just did with my hands that is this one and it has lost its shape but it's okay because it's nice for me to be able to break it and show you what we have inside so there you can see it's a very nice soft texture what with crumbs inside and that is what you're looking for so yes i hope that these scones were useful as you can see they're very simple it's all about just taking your time and working slowly and delicately and then they will always turn out very well this recipe has never ever failed me never ever so i think you'll find it useful so yes get yourself some jam and clotted cream and these will be heaven so we've made our sandwiches and scones and now it's time for our pastries now i've made these meringues yesterday and you can just see that they've got this beautiful raspberry color in them and that is from this this is from waitrose and it is a little powder that you put through them around when it's wet and then when you bake them you get this glossy raspberry coloring through which i think is very nice so i'm just going to show you how to assemble these together now so we're just going to take one of the meringues and as you can see it's got this hollow middle i'm going to fill this with some cream just a little bit of cream then we're going to add in a little mound of this chopped strawberry on top and finally you can take a little uh leaf of mint and pop this on the top and that will give you a little meringue nest that looks very pretty and satisfying even though it's very easy to make so the next little cake that we're going to make is a coffee and walnut cake which is one of my favorites i love anything with coffee and especially coffee cakes and coffee ice cream now what we do is we've got these little sponge cakes and we're just going to cut off the top piece here so you need a nice sharp knife to do that and then we're going to cut through the middle so that we can make a sandwich now this is coffee icing which i made with espresso powder and we're just going to take some of this with a palette knife and spread on as you can see it's very simple but the end result looks very pretty on your tea table a little bit more okay and then we're going to pop on the top add some more of the coffee cream to the top last bit it's actually very relaxing doing this and then we will finish with a little bit of these chopped walnuts just going to sprinkle them on the top that is your coffee and walnut cake so i always think that it's good to include a chocolate cake in afternoon tea because most people love chocolate and this is a very rich dense chocolate cake so you can cut this into you bake it like this and then you can cut it into any shapes that you want because most of these things that i've made around i'm going to make this one round two so i've just got this little cutter and i'm just gonna simply push it into the sponge and then there we go tap it out so yes we push this out got a nice round cake there just so that you can see and now here we've got some chocolate ganache which is very simple to make again all of these recipes are on the website on the blog so you can head over to there and check them out so i'm just going to top this with the ganache spread it over here now you don't need too much of this ganache because as i said this cake is quite rich and then to add to the final decadence we're just going to put on a little bit of gold leaf which will really impress your guests there we go so i'm about to set the table before i do i'm just getting a few things prepared so i've got out my teaware i've got this teapot and teacup and saucer set from wedgewood so we have the teapot teacups and sauces the milk jug and the sugar bowl i've also got these little plates which i think are quite cute these are from john lewis they were only 12 pounds so real bargain but very pretty i've got these little bud vases that i'm going to put on the table i've just put two peonies in here and i think that will do the peony such a beautiful flower you don't really need to embellish it and guild the lily so these budvases are from an online store called rebecca udall and she has online homewares for the table unique beautiful things and i'm actually setting the table with most of her things today so i'll show you that so i'm just going to do these so i've got the peonies here that i've had in a vars i'm just going to take some of them i think i want to take this one because it's open this will really fill out this so i'm just going to pull off this leaf and this one and give it a cut at an angle and there we go pop that there maybe i'll have a little closed one just for contrast again just pulling off the leaves cutting at an angle very simple i'm thinking maybe we should add one more here we go to each perfect and shall we go for this one okay and i think this pop of pink will really set off my table i'm using mostly green today so that will really uh give a lovely contrast and make it look very very pretty the sandwiches out they've been in the fridge all this time so they're nice and fresh and i'm just going to put them on both of these let's have a look so let's put these egg ones here and then we'll have a chicken actually i'm gonna put one of each on here so then we've got a mixture so we've got a cucumber a chicken and an egg on here and then the same on here okay and i'm much more pleased with these ones they are a lot more delicate and how sandwiches are supposed to be i think they look very pretty on these plates so that is all ready to go and then with this little cake plate i was going to use them for the sandwiches but i'm now going to put the scones onto here dude just to finish off is just add a little bit of icing sugar over these this will just give them a dusting so i'm just going to put a little bit into this little sieve and then just dust and it just makes them look a lot more pretty beautiful and they actually give a nice sweetness and freshness so that is good okay that is that and then perhaps we'll put a few strawberries here just to liven up the plate okay and then in this little dish we've got some uh strawberry jam and you should serve also clotted cream i am struggling to find that this week so i'm just going to be serving jam you could also if you really wanted to serve some cream you could just get some whipped cream and serve that so that is all ready to go i've got my cakes here perhaps i'll put some strawberries in here too just to jazz this up a little bit perfect so we've got sandwiches pastries scones everything's ready i'm going to set the table and i think this will look very beautiful this table in my living room is really useful because it has two purposes i use it as a place to put books and plants for more of like a display table when i'm not using it to dine and then when i want to have guests around and have a more intimate evening with friends where we can enjoy ourselves outside of the kitchen i take off everything and then i use it as a dining table so that is what i'm gonna do i'm gonna remove everything off here and then we will set the table for tea i always start by using placemats or charges to set each setting then you can see how much space you have for everything else i love these linen placemats from rebecca udall which are water resistant you won't have to worry about spilling your champagne [Music] these plates also from rebecca udall have a basket weave design with a green rim i really love them [Music] this bamboo cutlery set from rebecca udall really works well with the green elements [Music] these water glasses are fun and add a pop of bright color next i will add the champagne glasses and finally the teacups and sauces and then it's just a case of adding the flowers and the food then our tea table is all complete [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well thank you so much for watching i really hope you've enjoyed this episode and found it useful if you are looking to have your own tea party at home before i go i just want to thank everyone who joined me for my live celebration at the balmoral hotel last sunday it was so fun and i really enjoyed having such a close-knit chat with you all and i'll definitely be doing more in the future just with better lighting well i will see you next friday for the next episode until then have a really great weekend and a wonderful week ahead bye you

Channel: Nicolas Fairford

Views: 378,916

Keywords: afternoon tea recipes, nicolas fairford, afternoon recipes, tea sandwiches recipes, table setting afternoon tea, afternoon tea scones recipe, afternoon tea vegan ideas

Id: 9TzMN3cILJg

Length: 35min 5sec (2105 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021