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Cucumber bites with pickle cream cheese
Thick fresh cucumber rounds topped with a small spoonful of pickle-and-dill cream cheese, assembled close to serving.
In this guide5 sections
The cucumber is the base, not a garnish
Fresh cucumber makes a clean, crunchy base for this small snack. Cut the rounds thickly enough to carry the topping and blot their tops before adding cream cheese. Thin cucumber coins bend, while wet ones let the filling slide off before they reach the plate.
Yield: 16 bites. Prep time: 25 minutes. Cook time: 0 minutes. Choose a reasonably straight cucumber with a similar width along most of its length. You will use about 250 g of its middle section; save the uneven ends for another meal. A teaspoon works well for portioning the topping.
Ingredients
- 250 g (9 oz) fresh cucumber, enough for 16 thick rounds
- 150 g (5 oz) full-fat cream cheese
- 60 g (2 oz) drained dill pickles
- 10 g fresh dill, finely chopped
- 5 ml (1 teaspoon) lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon garlic granules
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
- Wash the fresh cucumber and trim the ends. Cut sixteen rounds about 1 cm thick, keeping them as even as possible. Lay on a clean towel and blot the top surfaces without squeezing the cucumber.
Blot the even cucumber rounds without squeezing them. - Finely dice the pickles and blot them separately. Large pieces make the small topping unstable, so run the knife through them again if necessary, keeping a dice rather than turning them into puree.
- Stir the cream cheese with the lemon juice, garlic granules and black pepper until spreadable. Let it stand briefly while you chop the dill if it is too cold to mix; do not loosen it with extra brine.
- Fold the pickles and dill through the cream cheese. Gather the mixture against the side of the bowl and check that it holds a rounded teaspoonful rather than spreading into a puddle.
The mixed topping should hold a rounded teaspoonful. - Place a small mound of filling in the centre of each cucumber round. Use a second spoon to release it neatly, leaving a visible border of cucumber so the bites are easy to pick up.
Leave a visible border of cucumber around each small mound. - Arrange on a flat plate, cover without pressing on the topping and refrigerate until serving. Assemble as close to the meal as practical; cut cucumber gradually releases water under a moist topping.
Make the filling ahead, assemble later
If you need to get organised, mix the filling first and keep it covered in the fridge. Slice and top the cucumber nearer the time people will eat. This is more effective than trying to rescue a plate that has been assembled for hours and is now sitting in cucumber juice.
A piping bag is unnecessary and can be awkward with pickle pieces in the filling. Two teaspoons give a small, slightly uneven mound that is easy to make and easy to eat. The visible cucumber edge is useful, not an imperfection to hide with more cream cheese.
Make a bowl-sized version of the pickle dip when you want fewer individual pieces to assemble. You can find more cold snacks in the recipe library for the rest of your menu.
Serving and keeping
Serve the assembled bites the same day and keep them chilled until needed. Store spare filling separately rather than scraping it back from cucumber rounds.
Keep cold during storage and serving; see the recipe library’s storage guidance.
Keep the jar open
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