Savory Christmas trees
Savory Christmas trees is a puff pastry appetizer filled with an onion cream cheese, spinach and more cheese. It is a cute treat perfect for the holiday season, Very easy to make this recipe has a great balance of earthy, sweet & spice flavors. A crispy puff with a creamy filling- you cant go wrong with that! Add an olive or even a small cherry tomato on top as the star. These are great for get togethers during the holiday time and are super festive! The skewer makes it great food to carry and eat which is perfect for parties. This is a delicious filling to form puffs of any shapes if you do not want to form trees! All ages love this and its even great for making in mini sizes and keeping on cheese boards.
Happy Cooking!
Servings: About 10-12 puffs
Prep Time: 30-40 mins
Chilling time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 11-14 mins
Total Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
6 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 sheet puff pastry about 240g, thawed
2 tbsp chopped chives
1-2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp honey
1.5 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp Onion powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt according to taste
1.5 cups spinach
6-7 cheese slices- I used munster. Optional
Olives, one per tree
Directions:
In a bowl, add room temperature cream cheese. Whisk it till smooth and lump free. It can take 2-4 mins to become completely smooth.
Add 1-2 tbsp heavy cream and whisk it together till combined and creamy.
Add chopped chives, salt, pepper, honey, red chilli flakes and onion powder. Use a spatula and mix it together till well combined. Keep aside.
Slightly flour a surface and place a thawed puff pastry on it and roll it out thinner, about 1/6th an inch.
Put the cream cheese on it and spread it out all over to the edges.
Place cheese slices on the cream cheese leaving some space between them. Optional.
Place spinach all over the cheese.
Cut the sheets into thin strips vertically and then half horizontally.
Fold- take about 1 inch from the thinner edge of the strip and fold it over itself. Keep repeating these folds, making them lightly larger to shape a tree.Keep tucking the spinach in. It is like folding a fan. See the video for how to fold.
Place a wooden skewer through it. Repeat for all strips.
Place on a tray and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 390F.
Place the skewers spaced out on a parchment/ silicone mat baking tray and bake for 11-14 mins till golden brown and crispy.
If the cheese melts out slightly, using scissors cut that part out.
Place an olive on the thinner edge of the puff pastry.
Serve warm.
Notes/Tips:
You can make these as regular puffs filled with the cream cheese spinach and cheese if you do not want to make them as trees. You can even chop up some olives and add to the filling. If you are making them as puffs be sure to brush olive oil on the tops.
Make sure to tuck the spinach in while folding it as trees.
You can skip the cheese if you like- in fact that it will prevent the cheese from oozing out and you having to trim them. I like adding the cheese.
You can make the filling from before and then prepare and bake them when needed. You can even prepare and keep them from before just freeze them. Let it thaw and then bake when needed.
