Flower and Star Cookie Cutter Sandwiches

It's day 3 of Sandwich Week here on the Eats Amazing blog and today's new sandwich idea is flower and star cookie cutter sandwiches!

Every day this week I'm bringing you a new quick and easy fun sandwich idea for kids, all of which are perfect for popping in a bento box or lunch box ready for back to school.

I promised you easy ideas for sandwich week and fun sandwiches don't get much easier than this - just dig out some cookie cutters and you've got everything you need for these cute kid-friendly sandwiches! I used flower cutters and star cutters, but you can use any shape at all. Got dinsoaurs, butterflies or cars? That will work! Or maybe just plain old round cookie cutters? That will work too!

I used two simple techniques to make these fun sandwiches - layered shapes with cut-outs for the flowers, and layered open sandwiches for the stars.

Ideally for the layered open sandwiches you'll need some kind of nesting cutter set, or similar cutter shapes in different sizes, but it is possible to cut the layers out free-hand too if you don't have any matching or nesting cutter sets.

Flower Cookie Cutter Sandwiches

Ingredients: 

• 2 slices white or brown bread
• cream cheese
• jam (or other fillings of your choice)

Method: 

Cut as many flower shapes as you can from one of the pieces of bread using flower shaped cookie cutters.

Using a smaller cutter, cut a small flower from the centre of each bread flower if you can.

Cut the same sized flowers from the second piece of bread, but don't cut the centres out this time as these will form the base of your flower sandwiches.

Spread a layer of cream cheese over each flower sandwich 'base' piece.

Using a teaspoon, drop a small dollop of jam in the centre of each sandwich base and spread it around a little with the back of the spoon.

Pop the top piece on to finish off each sandwich. You should be able to see the jam peeping through the pieces with the centre cut out, making a nice contrasting pattern.

Pop into an air-tight lunch box or serve.

Note: You can use any fillings for these sandwiches, I do like the pretty effect you get from the jam (and my kids LOVE this sandwich filling!) but other sandwich fillings will work equally well. If you'd like more filling ideas, check out my ultimate list of sandwich filling ideas!

Layered Cookie Cutter Star Open Sandwiches

Ingredients: 

• 1 piece white or brown bread
• butter or spread
• 1 piece ham
• 1 slice cheese

Method: 

Cut stars of varying sizes from the piece of bread using star shaped cookie cutters.

Lightly butter one side of each star.

Cut stars from the ham in the same sizes as the bread.

Place a ham star on top of each bread star.

Cut stars from the cheese using smaller star shaped cookie cutters and place on top of the ham to form layers.

If you have any leftover ham and an even smaller star shaped cutter, cut another star or two to layer over the cheese.

Pop into an air-tight lunch box or serve.

Note: For open sandwiches like these to survive the journey in a lunch box, you really need to use non-messy 'fillings' like ham and cheese. For a vegetarian version, try using two different varieties of cheese (e.g. red Leicester and cheddar) for the same contrasting effect.

I hope you like the sound of these easy sandwich cookie cutter sandwiches, don't forget to come back tomorrow so you can find what new sandwich idea I have in store for you in my next Sandwich Week post!

If you can't wait that long, or you'd like some more kids sandwich inspiration, check out the Fun Sandwiches for Kids section here on the Eats Amazing blog for loads more easy and creative sandwich tutorials like this one! You'll also find the rest of the sandwich week posts in the same place.

Grace

If you’re a Pinterest user, I’d love you to pin this post! You could also pop over and follow my lunch themed Pinterest boards for lots more fun and healthy lunch box ideas for kids; Kids Lunch Box Ideas & Packed Lunch Ideas.