To celebrate Chinese New Year I always make some snacks or cookies. ThisPuff pastry dragonis one of my favourite recipes, because it’s yummy, easy and dairy free. You can use gluten-free pastry too! The recipe is vegan if you don’t brush the dragons with egg yolk.

You’ll need:

• 1 pack of ready-rolled puff pastry (I used dairy-free)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp dairy-free margarine, softened
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
Or: jam (raspberry, cherry or marmalade)
• 1 beaten egg yolk (optional)
• For decoration: icing, dried fruits, candies

How to make the puff pastry dragons:

1. Mix the cocoa, margarine and sugar until creamy.
2. Unroll the pastry and slice it into 2 centimetre strips along the shorter side. Using a small spoon, coat the strips with cocoa glaze or jam, then put every second one on top of the previous one.
3. At one end, form a head by folding it back – or half-wind it up like a snail. Twist the remaining strip of the dragon, then and pull the ends slightly apart to create a tail.
4. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190 ° C.
6. Brush the dragons with egg yolk ( if used) then place them in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until nice brown.
8. When they have cooled down,  using dried fruits and icing create eyes, wings, horns, spines and legs.

Tips

• These puff pastry dragons are perfect for a Chinese New Year party.
• You can use the same recipe for making scary creatures for Halloween.
• As decoration, use dried mango or pineapple pieces for wings, spine or horns; and raisins, dried blueberries, chocolate pieces, beads for the eyes.
• If you use pastry from the freezer, you don’t need to rest the dragons in the fridge before baking.