Mushroom Puff Pastry Christmas Tree - A Deliciously Flaky Celebration of Flavour and Joy!

After enduring several years of pandemic hardships, we finally see a trend of easing. After waiting and waiting, this year's Christmas can finally host more friends and family to celebrate together!

It's a gathering of friends and family, and besides fine wine, delicious food is a must. This time, I recommend everyone to try a very simple yet festive recipe — Mushroom Puff Pastry Christmas Tree. As the name suggests, it's wrapped in puff pastry. I used the kind that comes frozen from the supermarket, but if you want to take it up a notch, making your own puff pastry is certainly more authentic.

For the filling, I made a cream cheese mushroom puree. First, I mashed the mushrooms into a puree, then sautéed them until the moisture evaporated, and finally mixed them with cream cheese. This filling isn't too heavy, yet it has a delightful earthy mushroom aroma that's very tasty. The most fun step is twisting the edges of the puff pastry — each twist becomes a branch of the Christmas tree. After baking, guests can enjoy pulling apart each twisted piece according to their preference, which is a lot of fun.

In addition to the mushroom filling, everyone can unleash their creativity and make other types of fillings, such as cheese and salmon or even sweet fillings like jams or hazelnut spread. One thing to note is that store-bought frozen puff pastry sheets are typically square-shaped. However, for a more elongated Christmas tree shape, I recommend rolling the puff pastry into a rectangular shape. This will result in better-looking cutouts. In my demonstration, I rolled the puff pastry into a 40x25cm rectangle. Also, don't waste the trimmed pastry edges. Cut them into strips, and you can bake them alongside the Christmas tree for a delightful addition.

Ingredients

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Puff Pastry	2 sheets
Mushroom	400g
Garlic	3 cloves
Rosemary	1 sprig
Cream Cheese	60g
Salt	1 tsp
Ground Black Pepper	1 tsp
Egg	​1 bulb
Sesame	to taste

Steps

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1. Mushrooms roughly chopped, then placed into a blender or food processor along with garlic and thyme leaves, blended into a paste (see circle image). If too dry to blend, you can add a little oil to help.

2. Put the mixture into a skillet and stir-fry over medium-low heat until all the moisture evaporates completely, about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Once all the moisture has evaporated, remove from heat.

3. While hot, transfer the mushroom mixture to a bowl, add cream cheese, and mix thoroughly until fully incorporated.

4.　Roll out two thawed puff pastry sheets until they are flat and the same size: 40x25cm.

5. Spread the mushroom mixture evenly over one of the puff pastry sheets (leave the edges clear), then cover it with the other puff pastry sheet.

6. From left to right, top to bottom: Use a pastry cutter to press out shapes resembling large arrowheads on the puff pastry. Then, press equal horizontal lines on both sides of the triangles to form "leaves." Twist each leaf 2-3 times by hand to achieve the shape shown in the bottom right corner of the image.

7. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Brush the puff pastry with a layer of beaten egg, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Once the oven reaches temperature, bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through!

8. Simply twist each tree branch and enjoy while still warm!