Many parties call for serving sandwiches. Then, the question becomes how can you do it in style. A popular plating technique in casual parties in France is the Surprise bread. You can even buy Surprise breads in many stores in France, especially during the Holidays. You can serve a Surprise bread if you are invite your friends to take the apéro at your place (that is, you invite them for a drink), at a picnic or a casual party.

If you use the round Swedish bread, a cooked unrisen dough bread, making your own is quick and easy. The Swedish bread (called “pain polaire” in France) is characterized by its moistness and slightly sweet taste.

What is a Surprise Bread?

Imagine a tower that stands 4 to 5 sandwich tall and cut in 6 to 8 pieces. The thrill is that you take the piece of sandwich on top, without knowing what is inside. The Swedish bread is ideal for that since it is thin, it is easy to grab without being messy. And it does not dry out as ordinary bread would.

Select complementary recipes for the fillings.  Since the tower cannot be too high, keep the fillings fairly thin for each sandwich.

Step by step instructions:

1. Prepare 4 or 5 sandwiches as usual; each one has a different filling.
2. On a serving platter, put the sandwiches one over the other. Try to create a striking color palette when it is assembled.
3. Once, you assembled the column, you cut the bread in 6 or 8 pieces

Typically fillings included cheese cream and salmon, hummus, guacamole, pesto and prosciutto, brie or goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes, ham and cheese or egg mimosa and chives. For a family event, you can create a second tower with an assortment of children’s favorite recipes.

Make it Stylish

I spoke this afternoon with Sophie Rayes at Gastronomia to know more about the surprise bread. You do not have to stop there. You can decorate further the surprise bread. For example, create a cylinder to wrap all or part of the surprise bread. You could add ribbons or affix decorative elements for a baby shower, a tea party or a big family picnic.

In Montreal, you can buy round Swedish bread at the warehouse store of Gastronomia. For the rest of my Canadian readers, Gastronomia sells online and ships across Canada. To get the free shipping, you could stock on frozen appetizers and get a pack of Gratin Dauphinois.

SOURCING:
+ Swedish breads at Gastronomia $3.35 CAD for a bag of 5 units
+ photos: Pain surprise recipe at Pain Concept

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Sandwiches are the ideal food for many occasions. To raise the bar, why not serving them in a more fashionable way?

One definite way to grab your guests’ attention is to reproduce at home how they serve your sandwich at Sandwich Box in Toronto.

Ever since my last trip to Toronto, I am dreaming of Sandwich Box. I could not eat there at that time because I just ate lunch minutes before. So I had to skip.

An upscale sandwich

The concept behind Sandwich Box is to serve gourmet sandwiches at a fast food price. But before I spot the freshness and the excellent quality of their ingredients, what strikes the designer in me was the way the sandwiches are served?

Again you see that attention to details goes a long way. A white, logo free rectangular carton box hosts your sandwich and apparently, a small mesclun salad. The more elegant clear plastic cutlery and an extra-thick paper napkin complete your place setting.

Setting up a buffet table

I would pre-make the gourmet sandwiches, place a piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) and layout inside the box two sandwich pieces so we can see the toppings. Neatly arrange the boxes in row and columns. You can label the boxes, if you want to be more ornamental. You can do the same for a picnic.

Install a self-serve salad bar next to the sandwich table. Prepare between one and three salads, depending on the number of guests. Vegetable platters are always popular, especially with sandwiches. Insert the veggies into individual paper cones. Shooters can be used as private dipping sauce.

If you want, you can serve a soup before, on a self-serve manner. Either way, your guests should be impressed with all these details.

The menu at Sandwich Box

The pre-made sandwich menu is the tip of the iceberg at Sandwich Box. They carry 14 kinds of bakery breads (zoom on the picture to list the list), 7 spreads, 7 meats, 7 vegetables and 7 cheeses. Since a custom made sandwich is composed of 1 type of bread, 1 spread and 3 toppings, Sandwich Box proposes to you exactly 130,340 possibilities.

Prices vary between $3.50 for a simple egg salad to $6.25 for a grilled vegetables, pesto and Asiago cheese sandwich up to $7.35 for a made to order sandwich. Next month, I am going twice in Toronto. So hopefully I can tell you if the taste matches the look.

Sourcing:
Learn more: Sandwich Box

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