Cheese Twist Christmas Tree
Ingredients: Frozen puff pastry, All-purpose flour, Pesto sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Spicy tomato sauce · 45 min cook time · 250kcal · ₩10,000
Ingredients
1sheet Frozen puff pastry, to taste All-purpose flour, 0.5cup Pesto sauce, 0.5cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, to taste Spicy tomato sauce
Instructions
1. Unwrap the frozen puff pastry. It usually comes folded together with annoying seams. Flour it lightly on both sides and roll it into a square about 1/8 inch thick.
2. Take a knife or pizza wheel and cut from about an inch above the bottom corner all the way up to the center point of the top on both sides to form a triangle. Transfer this piece onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet and place it in the fridge until needed.
3. Take the two pieces of dough you just cut off, place them together, overlapping them by about half an inch, and push and press them together to form a second triangle roughly the same size as the first. Take a rolling pin to flatten this out a little bit. Transfer this piece onto a lined sheet pan and place it in the fridge until needed.
4. Grab the first piece on the Silpat and place it directly on the counter. Take your pizza cutter and trim off about an inch and a half from the bottom. Then cut a piece off that piece to make the trunk, which you will simply create by sticking that underneath. With the excess, you could make a star, but I didn't. I also couldn't find my star cutter.
5. Spread pesto sauce over the dough, leaving about a quarter inch of dough exposed around the outside. Grate a generous amount of Parmesan cheese over the pesto.
6. Place the second triangle of pastry over the first one. Stretch, pull, and position it so it covers the first one, getting the edges lined up as evenly as possible. If you have some extra dough at the top, you can just yank it off or trim it off with a pizza wheel or a pair of scissors.
7. Make cuts from the bottom to the top, about every three-quarters of an inch or so, cutting almost but not quite all the way to the center. Leave about a quarter to a half inch uncut in the middle so it all stays together. As you move up the tree and it gets narrower, it's probably easier to start your cut in the center and move outward. Do this on both sides, making sure you line up the cuts the best you can.
8. Take each section and twist it up like this, maybe three or four times or whatever looks good to you. Twist up towards the top of the tree. When you get near the top, you'll only be able to twist it once. When you get to the very top, you probably can't twist it at all, so just mangle it into some kind of irregular shape, mirroring the random imperfections of nature.
9. Take a little bit of extra pesto and spread some on the exposed dough in the center of the tree, as well as any other spots you feel need it. Transfer it back onto your sheet pan and finish it up with one more generous grating of cheese.
10. Transfer it into the center of a 425°F oven for about 30 minutes or until the puff pastry is fully cooked and very well browned.
11. Before serving, let it cool for about 15 minutes on a rack so there's air circulation underneath, which will help prevent the dreaded soggy bottom. Transfer it onto some attractive surface or platter, possibly next to some spicy tomato sauce to use as a dip.
Source: Watch the original video