I’ve been meaning to make this Instagram/Tik-Tok sensation for years! Feels like years since it’s been around and there’s always plenty of videos popping up nowadays, just before Christmas, how to make it. Just love the idea as it seemed so simple, yet it definitely has that WOW effect.
Because it’s so easy to make, it’s a great bake to get smaller kids involved to make this Christmas Tree Puff Pastry Bake – they can use a pair of scissors instead of a sharp knife to cut the shape of the Christmas tree. The rest is also very straight forward: with little help they can create something really festive, tasty and fantastic looking. Also, it’s REALLY hard to mess this up. Impossible really. It doesn’t have to bee perfect, as you can see ours isn’t perfect either but it still looks great and the kiddo did have the wow effect of: oh I made this!
Filling variations
We used the combination of nut butter and chocolate shavings, but there are so many options you can try for your Christmas Tree Puff Pastry Bake:
Sweet:
- jam
- cinnamon sugar
- chocolate nut spread (like Nutella but not Nutella as that’s got palm oil)
- cream cheese with amaretto cherries
- peanut butter and jam
- almond butter and chocolate
Savoury:
- pesto
- tapenade
- cheese
- garlic butter and cheese
- Romesco or pizza sauce
- spinach and ricotta
And many other options – you can be as creative as you want!
No waste bake
Another great thing about this bake, that you don’t have to waste anything – in fact you can turn them into something of a different flavour! If you make a sweet Christmas tree filling, you can make savoury pinwheels or escargot with the cuttings.
Enjoy!
Puff Pastry Christmas Tree Dessert
- 2 boxes ready rolled puff pastry
- 3 tbsp almond or peanut butter
- 3 tbsp chocolate flakes
- butter or margarine to brush the top
- sprinkles (optional)
- 100 g chocolate buttons or blocks
- 50 ml oat milk
-
Preheat oven to 175C.
Take the puff pastry out of the fridge (if it's too warm, it won't be firm enough to work with). Cut out the Christmas tree shape. (Save the cut offs for later, you can make cinnamon or chocolate escargot with them.) Kids can use scissors instead of knife.
Spoon the nut butter on to the pastry shape and spread it. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or chocolate powder evenly all over the pastry sheet.
Unfold the second sheet of puff pastry and place on top of the first sheet of puff pastry. Press gently to seal the two sheets together. Cut the same Christmas tree shape out again.
-
Now cut slits into the pastry (they're going to be branches of the tree) - kids can also use scissors. Brush the pastry with a little bit of melted margarine or vegan butter (or of course egg or dairy butter)
Then, twist each strip of pastry twice or three times, pressing the ends into the baking sheet.
-
Place it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes approximately, until it's golden brown. Let it cool.
-
Use the leftover pastry triangles: we sprinkled them with chocolate and sugared cinnamon and just rolled them up. You can also roll them into nice croissant sort of shape. Bake them the same way.
-
Melt the chocolate buttons or chocolate blocks over hot water and mix in the oat milk when it's melted to make the chocolate drizzle. Sprinkle over the Christmas Tree Dessert generously. You can add sprinkles too if you wish.
Enjoy.
If you liked this recipe, why not try my other simple bakes:
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies Recipe