Christmas Tree Appetizer
Servings 12 people
Easy Christmas Appetizer cuts sandwich ingredients into stars and then stacks them onto toothpicks to create a festive Christmas tree shape! Prep this holiday party appetizer in just 30 minutes!
Ingredients
- 8 slices wheat bread
- 6 slices colby jack cheese ¼ inch thick pieces
- 28 slices summer sausage ¼ inch thick pieces
- 6 cherry tomatoes halved
- 12 Leaves butter lettuce
- toothpicks and star shaped cookie cutters
Instructions
- Cut six slices of colby cheese from a block and 12 slices of summer sausage, all about ¼ inch wide.
- Use your cookie cutters to cut out 24 (12 large, 12 medium) stars out of your bread slices.
- Then take your cheese slices and cut out 36 stars (12 large, 12 medium, 12 small).
- After that, cut out 36 stars from your summer sausage slices (12 large, 12 medium, 12 small).
- Make sure to press down firmly to get a nicely cut edge for each star shape.
- Slice each of the cherry tomatoes in half and dab the cut side on a paper towel to soak up the excess juice from the tomatoes.
- Cut 12 stars out of the butter lettuce (or you can tear 12 small pieces of lettuce if you don’t want to mess with using the cookie cutter for this part, it will look just as nice)
- Place all your star shaped cut outs into the fridge for about 10 minutes before assembly as the ingredients tend to get warm and wilted while they are sitting on the counter.
- Take the start shaped pieces out of the fridge and assemble the appetizers by first turning the cherry tomato cut side down and inserting a toothpick into the center. Carefully layer all the ingredients horizontally on the toothpick in this order: Large sausage star, large cheese star, large bread star, large lettuce, medium sausage star, medium cheese star, medium bread star, then top the toothpick with the smallest cheese star vertically. Make sure to carefully place each of the pieces on the toothpick to avoid tearing and lightly stack each layer, don’t smoosh them down.
- Arrange the finished appetizers on a serving tray and if you have additional star cutouts of any of the ingredients, decorate your plate with them for a festive look!
Notes
- This project can be a little tedious but once you make one app, it's pretty easy to assemble the rest! And if you want to change up the look of some of the appetizers you can just swap a few ingredients - use cubed pepper jack cheese for the base of the trees and top the trees with sausage stars instead of cheese stars!
- Storage Instructions: Keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 2 days wrapped tightly in cellophane.
- What other cheeses would work well for this recipe? You could really use any semi hard cheese which will cut well with a small cookie cutter. Some other alternatives would be monterey jack, swiss, pepper jack, provolone, or gouda. You could also make all of the appetizers using the same type of cheese instead of using a variety.
- Can I make this ahead? It is best to put this together the day you plan to serve it. Otherwise, the tomato may go soft, and the cheese will dry out. It will be fine made early in the day and served later. Just place some plastic wrap loosely over your serving tray and keep it in the fridge.
- I would prefer to make a healthier version of this appetizer - any ideas of what I could use to make something similar? You can use cucumbers, fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes to make the trees, instead of colby cheese, bread and meat! And for the top star, you could cut a star shape out of a bell pepper. Cut the pepper into quarters. Cut off the top and bottom of the pepper and remove the seeds. Then use a sharp knife to slice away the ribs. Place the cookie cutter on the fleshy (inside) of the pepper and press through the pepper. Assemble like the example, just make sure to dap the cucumber and tomatoes before assembly since the water content is much higher!
Find it online: www.sugarandsoul.co/easy-christmas-appetizer/