Christmas canapés ideas

[Seaside3]

Hello! Im hosting 16 for canapés before we head to another relative for the main meal.
I'd love to do a 'grazing table' of canapés, can anyone suggest things that are

A) easy to make in advance
B) don't require cutlery, so bite sized
C) not too much cheese as there will be a cheese course in the evening
D) no fish
E) bonus points of they use seasonal veg or cheap

Also, welcome cocktails.

So far I've found some on Instagram, im thinking dips like hummus and crudites, root veg crisps (made from cheap supermarket veg), some cured meats, fruit like grapes, chopped apples, nuts, bruschetta. Possibly little sherry glasses of soup... they're pretty so would love to use them if anyone can think of an idea.

Looking forward to some ideas. Thanks!

I always do crostini with various toppings. I buy a few baguettes before Xmas, slice and bake in the oven. They last in a tin for a few days. On the day I arrange on trays with various toppings. These are my staples but obviously plenty of other ideas on the internet.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese
Pate with crab apple jelly
Tapenade
Brie and cranberry (possibly with bacon)

Thanks. A great suggestion. I'll look at some toppings on line too.

I love cocktail sticks for this type of thing although I know many mumsnetters do not approve! Anyway these are some of the things I do.
Caprese skewers/charcuterie skewers
Salami and cornichon Christmas tree skewers
Sticky sausages (this year I'm trying a hot honey version)
Deviled eggs (I hate them but make a version with a spicy topping)
Mini loaded potato skins (these are fiddley but always go down well)
Satay and cucumber skewers with a peanut dip or tikka and peppers with a raita dip.
Either samosa or spring roll depending on what skewers I choose.
If you want to use your soup idea a bloody Mary soup could work well in shot glasses.

This is what I mean by the Christmas tree skewers

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/234433/bacon-wrapped-bananas/

Slice the top off cherry tomatoes and scoop out the pulp.

Finely chop black olive, a bit of garlic, shallot/ sp onion and mix with French dressing.

Stuff the tomatoes with the olive mixture.

If you have a tray of those tiny muffin/cupcakes tin www.robertdyas.co.uk/hairy-bikers-24-cup-mini-muffin-pan-red, make some pizza dough.

Drop little bits into the holes and press to make a bowl shape.

Mix together some chopped olive, salami, onion etc, add some of your favourite jar of tomato sauce, spoon over your dough, top with a little cheese and into the oven.

Wow. I am in awe. The fiddly potato skins too. Being a guest at your house must be a real treat. And I say that as someone who enjoys making an effort for my own guests.

They’re desperately cute. Where did you manage to get the star cutter from? The stars are tiny and really complete the look.

The canapés we’ve had over the years before the main meal have been:

Croustades filled with:

• smoked salmon, créme fraîche, lemon, dill and topped with caviar
• crab, avocado
• tapenade and chopped cherry tomatoes (I wouldn’t advise this one as if made too far in advance is the one most likely to go soggy, but you can also use this topping on crostini which seem to withstand a bit more hanging around)

Puffy pastry:

• small parcels filled with curried leek and potato with cumin seeds
• pissaladiere

Small lettuce leaves topped with prawns and seafood sauce (this one’s a winner)

Sliced Serrano ham off the bone (small pieces)

Tortilla chips loaded with a dollop each of salsa, guacamole and créme fraîche/greek yogurt/whatever else you like that’s creamy

This year might make some mushroom vol-au-vents!

Always on the look out for small bites that don’t take up valuable oven space, or just minutes in there.

Good luck!

Filo parcels, make ahead and cook 15 mins before serving. They can be filed with various things, brie I know you said no fish or cheese but cream cheese with herbs or mushrooms (cook the mushrooms first) brie and mango chutney also works well.

Streaky bacon, brie and dried apricots. Soak the apricots overnight and they will puff up and look like egg yolks.

Stick a bit of brie in each one and use half a rasher of bacon to wrap them, bake for 15 mins.

Garlic beans. You need a base of a cracker or lightly toasted baguette.
Open a tin of beans, butter beans or cannellini beans. You can either just arrange them and sprinkle over some finely chopped garlic.

You can also mash the beans up first, you can also add different seasonings, chilli, paprika, sliced olives.

I may have been known to buy a cheap supermarket cheese and tomato pizza and you a pastry cutter to make mini pizza, then you can add your favourite toppings.

I also want to know this! Have tried to google. Could be icing cutters/stamps? I was also thinking to use the back of an olive(cut into a ring). The side with the star shaped cut out, and use the rest of the olive for something else.

Great thread! I do the toasted bagel with toppings too as they are so easy and cost effective. And the little skewers ..I love the Christmas tree ones!!

I also make cheese biscuits which go down very well and can be made well in advance.

This is a good idea - you could do a tray of houmous, vegetable crudités and some cured meats, with the crostini and let people help themselves.

@Lurkingandlearning sorry I should have made it clear that that isn't my photo, it's from Instagram but I have made them. I used a little cookie cutter from Amazon

Waitrose do mini pastry cases - they are very slightly sweet but this goes great with a bit of Brie and a dollop of cranberry and baked for 10 mins, so quick and they always go down great with everyone.

Get the kind of stuff that people will always wolf down I say! IME when I have the Christmas morning gathering the honey and mustard cocktail sausages, and mini sausage rolls are devoured. I buy the rest of the stuff like mini quiches, and the like from M+S or wherever. Life's too short. Just make sure you've plenty of napkins and cocktail sticks!

I make what the family call "cheesy blobs".
Take a packet of JusRol croissant dough (chiller section in supermarket), cut each triangle in half to make 2 triangles. Pop a lump of cheese on each - I generally use camembert but any cheese works. Pinch the parcels closed and bake in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes.
Eat. They reheat OK as well.

Two of my standbys are by St Delia of Norwich, Blessed Be Her Name.

Tiny cheese onion and olive scones

Ham and cheese palmiers - can't find a link but they are in her Christmas book

I like them because you can make them in advance and freeze them. The palmiers you have to freeze unbaked then bake from frozen to serve warm

Oh just realised you said not too much cheese…. the mini pastry cases from Waitrose are good with pate & chutney in too.

Also if you have a slow cooker, put cocktail sausages in there with a bit of honey & mustard and leave for an hour or so. Yum.

I loved this idea. To answer my own question to make the star I have used a piping bag nozzle pressed into a baby bell cut in half so you have two circles and due to size of my cutter I get at least 8 stars from one baby bell.
I haven’t actually made these yet but I have friends around on Friday and thought it was a good canapé idea, so I got some things today to experiment.

Wow, thanks all! I will have fun trying some of these between now and Christmas.

I've searched and really struggling for none cheese options. But I know thw 1 none cheese person loves meat, so I will serve plenty of charcuterie.

This has feta, but satisfies my weird desire to shoehorn beans into every meal.

This avoids cheese and looks good.

And I'm thinking of swapping capers in for anchovies on this.

Sorry, this! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRQ_jKhjKUa/?igsh=MXM2c3VldHd2em9rMA==

Sorry it's another cheese one, cheese straws.

Ready rolled puff pastry
Dijon mustard
Grated cheese, I like a pre grated parmesan.

Lay the pastry out on a baking sheet.
'Butter' the pastry with the mustard.
Use a butter knife to score the pastry into thin strips.
Sprinkle with the cheese

Bake for 10 - 15 mins.

Once cool break along the score lines.

I know that they scream 1970s but I love a vol-au-vent and you can still buy the frozen cases. Chop up some mushrooms and fry while the vol-au-vents are in the oven.

Mix the mushroom with condensed mushroom soup - fill the vol-au-vents.

Mini Yorkshire puddings. I once tried to do mini toad in the hole but they ended up as mini YP with mini sausages as hats.

You could add some beef and horseradish.

Asparagus with serrano ham and mustard

Lie the ham out and 'butter' with the mustard, roll the ham around the asparagus and bake.

Well cooked pork belly strips, cooked until the fat has mostly rendered.

Cut in to cubes put a topping and pierce with a cocktail stick. the topping can be cucumber, cherry tomatoes, cooked red pepper.

Or you could use a chines sauce to baste the cubes, plum would be good.

Mini meatballs. You could make them and separate them, just put a cocktail stick in half and then put the other half in small lettuce leaves with a chutney or tomato sauce.

Mini baked potatoes, new potatoes, smother in oil, season with salt and pepper and make a cross in them with a knife.

Once cooked if you push the potato from underneath they make little fluffy potato crosses.

In my post above, I linked to a mini muffin pan. I made sweet yorkies in it once and then dredged them in cinnamon and caster sugar.

Good for kids parties.