How To Choose The Best Canapés For Your Party

20 May How To Choose The Best Canapés For Your Party

With the longer days and lighter evenings, now is the perfect time to throw a canapé and cocktails party, and this week we’re going to be talking about everything canapé related!

Canapés are a great way to please all your guests at your next dinner party as these versatile nibbles are an easy way to ensure all your guests’ dietary requirements are covered by choosing a range of canapés. They are also great as guests can decide how much they’d like to eat and are a great catering solution if you are looking for a more relaxed party.

Our top three tips on choosing the best canapés for your party are:

1. As we mentioned, try and choose a range of canapés to cover all your guests’ dietary requirements. It may be worth asking round to see what will be needed along with numbers as you don’t want to overdo the veggie canapés if most of your guests would prefer meat.
2. Don’t go for any ‘marmite’ love-hate ingredients, you want to please the masses! Plus if you choose something that most people don’t like you could end up with a load of waste at the end.
3. Treat your guests with a dessert canapé. Everybody loves a sweet treat so make sure your guest’s sweet tooth is satisfied with a dessert canapé option.

Along with the above, we would also recommend a Goat’s Cheese and Red Onion Jam Savoury Cheesecake as a perfect addition to your canapé cocktail party! If you’re brave enough to make your own canapés then why not try out our recipe for the savoury cheesecake below.

What You Will Need:

Red Onion Jam

400g Of Red Onion, Finely Sliced

1 Garlic Clove, Minced

Oil

1tsp Of Salt

2 Cloves

2 Juniper Berries

3 Sprigs Of Thyme

Muslin Cloth

50ml Of Balsamic Vinegar

350g Of Redcurrant Jelly

120g Of Puff Pastry

20g Of Sesame Seeds

20g Of Poppy Seeds

120g Of Unsalted Butter

250g Of Bosworth Ash Log

100g Of Cream Cheese

150ml Of Double Cream

1 Gelatine Leaf

1 Handful Of Micro Cress

What You Will Need To Do:

1. First, you will need to make the red onion jam, to do so, first finely chop your red onions and mince your garlic. Next, pop some oil in a large pan and add the red onions, garlic and 1 tsp of salt. Cook until they have softened and you can see their juices.
2. Get the cloves, juniper berries and thyme and wrap them in a muslin cloth and put them into the pan along with balsamic vinegar and redcurrant jelly and simmer for 30 mins.
3. Take the muslin cloth and its contents from the pan and put the contents of the pan in the fridge to chill, you will come back to this later.
4. Preheat the oven to 175°C/gas mark 4.
5. Next, you will need to make the cheesecake base. Start by rolling the puff pastry so it’s 1/2cm thick then pop in the oven for 10-15mins, you want it to be golden brown. When ready, remove from the oven and leave the pastry to cool. Once cooled, flake the pastry and mix it with the sesame and poppy seeds, add salt to season and use the butter so that the ingredients become like a pastry again.
6. Again, roll the pastry so it’s 1/2cm thick, line a baking tray and put the pastry on it making sure it’s even and flat. Put the pastry in the fridge for an hour to set.
7. For the topping, get the Bosworth Ash Log and cream cheese and beat together until smooth. Take the cream and bring it to the boil in a small pan then set aside.
8. Prepare the gelatine by soaking it in cold water for 4 minutes, then squeeze out any excess water and add to the cream, whisking to dissolve. Whisk in the cheese also so the mixture becomes smooth.
9. Once the cream and cheese mixture is ready, pour it on top of the pastry base and then let it set which should take 2-3 hours.
10. You can use a knife or a 2.5cm pastry cutter to now make your individual canapé cheesecakes. Once cut into your desired shape, top the cheesecakes with the red onion jam you made earlier and a sprig of micro cress.
11. Voila! They’re ready.

Armed with our canapé tips and our savoury cheesecake canapé recipe, we are sure your next canapé and cocktails party will go down a storm!

You can take all the stress out of the organisation of your canapé and cocktail party by contacting Chef’s Compliments today to see about getting us to organise and provide everything you need!

We can provide everything from the chef to the waiting staff to a mixologist if you’d like to make your party that extra bit special. On top of this, we can create a bespoke canapé menu based on exactly what you and your guests want.

So contact us today to get your quote for your next party!