Easy Christmas Canapé Ideas with Mini Pastry Cases
Christmas party season is canapé season. Every December your customers go looking for bite-sized food they can make ahead, plate up fast and hand around without cutlery. Ready-made pastry cases solve most of that problem before they start, which is why they are one of the easiest seasonal lines to range.
Why ready-made pastry cases sell in December
Making mini tart shells from scratch is fiddly, slow and easy to get wrong. A box of pre-baked cases turns canapés into an assembly job: fill, garnish, serve. The Confiletas range covers both savoury and sweet, so one bay can serve the cheese-and-chutney crowd and the dessert table.
- Mini vol au vent pastry shells (x 12): the classic party bite.
- Large vol au vent pastry shells (x 6): for a more generous entrée.
- Mini savoury round pastry cases (x 12): crisp, neutral and good with anything.
- Mini sweet round pastry cases (x 12): dessert canapés in minutes.
Easy savoury canapé ideas
These easy Christmas canapés take a few minutes each and need nothing more than mini pastry cases and two or three jars from the pantry.
- Cheese and chutney: a cube of aged cheddar topped with Mrs Bridges Chutney for Cheese or Daylesford Condiment Co Tomato Chutney.
- Goat's cheese and olive: whipped goat's cheese, a spoon of Belazu Black Olive Tapenade and half a Kangaroo Island kalamata olive.
- Smoked salmon: salmon, a little crème fraîche and a fleck of dill in a mini vol au vent.
- Prawn cocktail: chopped prawns folded through Peachy Sweet Whole Egg Truffle Mayonnaise.
- Green harissa chicken: shredded roast chicken, Greek yoghurt and a swirl of Ottolenghi Green Harissa.
- Christmas leftovers: turkey or ham with a dot of VPC Luxury Festive Cranberry Sauce.
Sweet canapé ideas
- Brandy butter tarts: fill sweet cases with VPC Luxury Festive Brandy Butter and top with a raspberry.
- Peppermint cream: whipped cream finished with shards of VPC peppermint bark.
- Lemon curd and berries: a spoon of curd, a blueberry and a dusting of icing sugar.
Make-ahead tips
Prepare fillings up to a day ahead and keep them chilled. Fill the cases no more than an hour before serving so the pastry stays crisp. Wet fillings such as chutney or curd are best added at the last minute. Allow four to six canapés per guest for pre-dinner drinks, or ten to twelve if the canapés are the meal.
For stockists: build a canapé bay
Pastry cases sell best when the filling sits beside them. Range the cases next to your chutneys, tapenades and festive sauces, add a recipe card with two or three of the ideas above, and you have turned a single SKU into a basket. See the full pastry shells range, or if you are not a stockist yet, apply for a wholesale account.