Mincemeat puff pastry Christmas tree
This tear & share mincemeat puff pastry Christmas tree is perfect for parties, dinner parties or as a gastro present to friends & family members. It can be vegan if you use dairy-free puff pastry and mincemeat; and gluten-free pastry is also suitable for this recipe. To make sure it’s absolutely delicious, use your own, home-made mincemeat -see mincemeat recipes for inspiration. This recipe only needs one sheet of pastry, and makes 2 medium size trees.
Ingredients
Method
- Unroll the pastry into a landscape position. Fold it in half, like you would turn a book page, then once more.
- On the bottom left side draw a 2cm line upwards, parallel with the folded edge, then starting at this point,a horizontal line towards the right edge of the pastry. Cut this rectangular shape out with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.
- Starting at the top left corner, draw a line towards the bottom right corner and cut along the line with the pizza cutter.
- Carefully seperate the pastry pieces. You should now have 2 identical tree shapes, one triangle and two half triangles.
- Put the triangles in the fridge.
- Place one tree onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
- Spread mincemeat all over it, than put the other tree shape on top, pressing it down a bit.
- Using a knife, draw two vertical guide-lines in the middle of the tree, continuing the tree trunk.
- Using a knife, cut 1.5 chm wide,horizontal brunches into the tree – to the guide line of the trunk in the middle.
- Staring with the bottom brunches, twist them a couple of times towards you, pulling them slightly outwards, then press the ends to the parchment paper.
- Brush the tree with the egg or milk and put the tray in the fridge for ten minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Take the triangles out of the fridge.
- Create the base tree from the half triangles by pinching the sides together. in the middle. Put this on another baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
- Spread mincemeat on top, then put the other, whole triangle on top.
- Create a trunk from the leftover pastry, by cutting out a small rectangle and attaching it to the base of the tree in the middle.
- Create the twisted brunches, following the steps above, then brush the tree with egg or milk.
- Take the other tree out of the fridge.
- Cut out two small stars from the leftover pastry using a cookie cutter, then put these on top of trees, sticking them together with the egg.
- Bake the trees for about 15-20 minutes until golden.
- Let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a large chopping board or platter and dust with icing sugar.
- Serve lukewarm or at room temperature.