Valentine’s Day is in just a few days which means that soon it’s time to pamper your loved ones from head to toes! To keep their tummies happy, too, I wanted to provide you with these simple yet festive appetizer sandwiches. These savory bites are really easy to make and you can just let your imagination fly when decorating them. Hope you will have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with the people you love most!
Tips for making this low-carb appetizer for Valentine’s Day
Feel free to use your favorite bread, however I recommend to use bread from which you can cut thin slices and which holds well together. I’ve used my Simple and Fluffy Low-Carb Bread because you can basically slice as thin slices as you want to.
But let’s take a look how to make these adorable appetizers:
Slice the bread into thin slices.
Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut out heart shapes from the bread slices. Set the heart-shaped slices aside for a while, you’ll need them soon. Actually, you can use quite small cookie cutter as small, bite-sized appetizers are easier to eat than larger ones, which might be messy.
Combine the cream cheese, smoked paprika, onion powder and the cayenne pepper (and the salt if you use it) in a deep and narrow bowl. I used an empty and cleaned yogurt container.
Mix with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes…
…until smooth and fluffy.
Fetch a piping bag with your preferred piping tip from the kitchen and find a cat on the table when you return.
Bring the cat to other room. Place the tip in the piping bag. You can use a coupler if you have, but I’ve lost mine… anyway, it didn’t seem to matter in the end.
Fill the piping bag with the cream cheese spread. If you don’t have piping bag and piping tip, you can also fill a plastic bag with the cream cheese spread, close the bag tightly and cut off a tiny piece of one corner of the bag.
Pipe nice decorations on the heart-shaped bread slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
I placed also some cucumber slices in the center before piping, but the result looked a bit too… hmm… interesting. I bet something red — like tomato or bell pepper in the center — would make the most charming appearance. It’s a pity that I didn’t realize that when I was taking the photos!
- gluten-free low-carb bread of choice (I used Simple and Fluffy Gluten-Free Low-Carb Bread)
- 8 oz = 230 g full-fat cream cheese without food additives
- 1 1/2 teaspoons organic onion powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 pinch organic cayenne
- (unrefined sea salt to taste)
- Slice the bread into thin slices.
- Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut out heart shapes from the bread slices. Set the heart-shaped slices aside for a while, you'll need them soon.
- Combine the cream cheese, smoked paprika, onion powder and the cayenne pepper (and the salt if you use it) in a deep and narrow bowl.
- Mix with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes until smooth and fluffy.
- Place your preferred piping tip in a piping bag.
- Fill the piping bag with the cream cheese spread.
- Pipe nice decorations on the heart-shaped bread slices.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Tips for variation
You can naturally season the cream cheese as you like, however after some serious testing and pondering I found the spice combination used in the recipe really great. Smoked paprika gives great, smoky taste and beautiful, salmon-like color. Onion powder is there to give some delicious flavor and cayenne the needed gentle kick. I bet homemade taco seasoning or ranch seasoning would work as well. Or, if you are a fan of blue cheese, that would also make a flavorful touch. Just remember to mix it properly that the result is smooth and pipeable.
This spread is great in the sense that you can use it also all year round, whenever you like. Just spread it on low-carb bread or use it for filling low-carb tortillas. For example.
Oh, and since there is so much leftover bread after cutting out the heart shapes, you can use those leftovers for example as croutons, or dry and crumble the pieces and use as breading. Well, or how about some low-carb bread pudding, Apple Brown Betty or breakfast casserole? Yum!
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