Chocolate braided Christmas Tree

Guess we must not keep repeating our sentence over and over again in almost every blog post - WE LOVE WORKING WITH PUFF PASTRY! We discovered puff pastry at a local grocery store about a year and a half ago and have been experimenting with it ever since. Muskaan got so over-joyed in the first few months, that she made nutella croissants every second week! Imagine! But the store bought puff pastry is actually so so good, you would always feel like trying new recipes with it.

The puff pastry teams up best with Spinach! Have you tried our recipe for Ricotta and Spinach puffs. Click here to see the blog post. You will love it!

Anyway we have lately tried so many recipes with puff pastry involving cream cheese, different vegetables and also the sweeter version (again with cream cheese) and some berries. All of them coming soon, but we start with the Super-Season-Special => Christmas Special puff pastry recipe for you guys. This super adorable looking Christmas Tree is just something you can make with THREE ingredients - YES! Thats it! You only need puff pastry, chocolate (preferably nutella spread) and some milk for brushing. Also some icing sugar (optional!)  The trick to this gorgeous looking Christmas Tree is making the twists properly- but don't you guys worry, we have all the steps properly written for you in the recipe below.

You start by thawing the two sheets of puff pastry (should be thawed but still should be cold) and then roll out to shape both the sheets into rectangles of same size. Then the first pastry is covered with chocolate in the shape of a triangle (the Christmas tree) and then cover this sheet with other sheet of puff pastry. You have to cut out all the excess pastry (the part that is not covered with chocolate spread) - trust us, you will be able to feel with your fingers which part is covered and which part is not covered. Cut out the excess part of the pastry to form a proper tree.

With the help of a knife or a pizza-cutter, start making the branches - you need to make sure that they DO NOT meet from both the sides.

Twist each branch very carefully. If your chocolate spread has already started to get hard, then twist the pastry with extra care - it will take some effort, but eventually you should be able to twist them (at least two turns) and the top three branches - just one turn is enough.

Now brush the entire puff pastry tree with some milk and BAKE!

Here is the recipe for you guys:

Chocolate braided Christmas Tree

by Sheenam & Muskaan December – 23 – 2017

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 2 packs of 300 grams puff pastry
• 80 grams chocolate chips or nutella spread
• 2 tablespoons milk
• icing sugar for sifting post baking

Instructions:

1. Thaw and roll out the puff pastry to form rectangles (as explained in the post above)
2. Spread the chocolate spread of nutella on the pastry followed by covering it completely with another sheet of puff pastry.
3. Prepare the christmas tree as explained in the post above.
4. Brush the tree with some milk and bake it for 18-22 minutes in pre-heated oven at 180 degrees or until they are brown and cooked.
5. Sift some icing sugar before serving. (optional)