Help with an afternoon tea menu (including another quiche question)

[ChristinaMason]

OK, so not technically high tea, but I'm having around 7 friends over for coffee and cake on Friday. I'd like to serve one or two savory things for balance (I'm incapable of eating anything sweet without craving salty, and vice versa). One person attending is lacto-ovo vegeterian, and I served mini egg salad croissants last time.

I was thinking about serving the following:

-Coffee, assorted teas, homemade hot chocolate
-Mulled wine (?)
-MIL's banana bread muffins with cream cheese or chocolate glaze
-Mini quiche - Using puff pastry and a muffin tin. Would that work? Hoping to scale down this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
-Spiced mixed nuts / Veggie platter
-German Christmas cookies

Alternative to quiche: mini potato pancakes with apple sauce and sour cream. We are in Germany, after all.

Any recommendations? Has anyone had success using puff pastry and/or muffin tins for mini quiche?

Thanks!

[ChristinaMason]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and input. Everything turned out great, the last guests left 5 hrs. later, and the food was good. Now if I could just learn to accept a compliment rather than confessing X was prefab and I overcooked Y, I'd just about have this hosting thing down.

All in all, a fun time.

[LauraGrace]

This made me chuckle. I'm an erstwhile singer and my father (who is classically trained and has sung professionally) used to make me practice taking compliments for after performances. I can't tell you how many times,and in how many situations, I've parroted "Thank you! How kind of you to say so!" and silently blessed my dad for giving me a script! :)

I'm glad it went well! It sounds so nice.

[Querencia]

Quiche and potato pancakes, that IS a high tea. In the US the term is often misused to denote a highly formal tea. In fact (in the UK) high tea is a substantial tea with meat or egg, usually eaten as an early family supper, most informal. I applaud your choice of quiche, BTW, for your lacto-ovo guest. Variously, a nice sandwich is egg-and-olive (plus mayonnaise) but that's kind of similar to your recent egg salad. Hot biscuits with lemon curd? Cream puffs or chocolate eclairs with custard filling?

[ChristinaMason]

Interesting. You're right that we have it all backward.

So my final menu is shaping up to be:

banana muffins
Zimtsterne (cookies)
crudités with tzatziki
mini quiche florentine
tea, coffee, hot chocolate, mulled wine

I think I'm going to skip the potato dish this time. The last person to host tea for this group of friends only made a cake (it was delicious), and I don't want to look like I'm trying to show her up. But thanks for all the suggestions, I'll be trying them soon!

[chowser]

Sounds good. If I were there, I'd be putting tzatziki on my quiche.

[buttertart]

It's a very appealing assortment of things - and I wouldn't worry about the prefab dough, would be nice to have that on the market here! I think of Zimtsterne as the German Ur-Christmas cookie. (Are there any other varieties of dough available?)

[ChristinaMason]

there are also Vanillakipferl, Dominosteine, Murbeteig (like a general sugar cookie, I think), and something with almond and chocolate flecks whose name escapes me. they turned out pretty well, considering (I ended up dipping mine in chocolate and crushed toasted almonds on one side).

[Junoesq]

I have done potato kugel cut into 1" squares as an appetizer with sour cream and salmon and people were wild for them. It has the saem falvor profile as a potato pancake without the tedium of peparing dozens of silver dollar pancakes!

[buttertart]

Sounds great. Just wondering, which German Christmas cookies?

[ChristinaMason]

I'm making Zimtsterne/Zimtplaetzchen. Full disclosure: I bought pre-fab refrigerated dough. I figured the first time I make them, I'd like to know approximately how they are supposed to taste. And since I'm making several other things, this is a concession I'm willing to make...

[GretchenS]

These are in the spirit of potato pancakes but might be easier to pull off for a party. http://www.chow.com/digest/2007/01/li...

[kookiegoddess]

Have you ever seen Croustades in the shops in germany? Crisp little cups for serving canapes in, they are perfect for quiche without the hassle of pastry. I did mini spinach quiches in them and they were yummy - need to be served fairly promptly tho. Another nice savoury item is gougeres. Also you could do little rosti with smoked salmon and herbed creme fraiche. Have a lovely tea!

[chowser]

That sounds great. I think mini quiche would be fine but in a regular muffin tin, not a mini-muffin tin, right? I think the pastry puff dough ratio would be too high in mini-muffin tins. I'd roll the puff pastry a little thinner than you would for a big quiche.

[ChristinaMason]

Ok, great., Yes, I meant a regular muffin tin.

I'll give it a shot and report back.

[Stuffed Monkey]

I've sucessfully done mini quiches made with pie dough (pate brise) in mini muffin size.

[chowser]

I do the same, my favorite with a cream cheese pastry. But the OP asked about puff pastry and I wouldn't do that in a mini-muffin tin.

[AussieBeth]

I have done mini muffin tin quiches with puff pastry and it worked a treat - good sugestion about rolling out the puff pastry a little thinner though for a good ingredient ratio though.