Who’s next! If this year Christmas is on you, save this recipe: the Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees Stuffed with Salmon, Ricotta, and Arugula are an easy and quick appetizer to prepare! Everyone will love it, from adults to kids! Every year there’s the issue of who will cook the Christmas Lunch and if this year that task fell to you, know that you are in the perfect cooking blog to make this festive occasion unforgettable!
For years I’ve dedicated myself to this holiday with immense joy to offer you easy, quick recipes that are delicious for adults and fun for kids. This year I presented the Christmas Trees with sandwich bread filled with tuna sauce, arugula, and ricotta, perfect also for Christmas Eve!
If you don’t want to spend too much time with cutouts and molds, you can try the Savory Christmas Tree Pie with speck, cherry tomatoes, and green olives made with a paper mold. Then there’s the essential Christmas dessert, the most delicious and fragrant, which is the Christmas Tree with hazelnut and cinnamon cream!
In the past, I proposed the Savory Christmas Trees with three different homemade creams and three small Christmas Tree Cakes with rice flour and chocolate chips in the dough, fragrant and delicious! Jot down these recipes, you can also save or print them to have them at hand for December 25th!
Below you will find all the clickable links that will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read! Remember that I’ll be waiting for you every morning in the group and on the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day! The Christmas Marathon has already started to gather all the Christmas Recipes, the Christmas Eve Menus and the Christmas Lunch!
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 20 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: New Year's Eve, Christmas
- Energy 84.71 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 6.08 (g) of which sugars 0.27 (g)
- Proteins 2.66 (g)
- Fat 5.56 (g) of which saturated 0.95 (g)of which unsaturated 4.33 (g)
- Fibers 0.26 (g)
- Sodium 147.41 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 22 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for 20 Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees Crunchy Appetizer
- 1 roll puff pastry (rectangular)
- 1 egg
- to taste mixed seeds
- 3.5 oz smoked salmon
- 1.75 oz arugula
- 1.75 oz ricotta (or other spreadable cheese of your choice)
- 1 pinch salt
Tools to Prepare the Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Cookie Cutter
- 2 Baking Trays
- 2 Parchment Paper
- 1 Oven
- 1 Knife
- 1 Small Bowl
- 1 Fork
- 1 Brush
- 1 Cooling Rack
Steps for the Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees Recipe
The recipe for this Christmas appetizer is really very simple, the only thing you need to be careful about is the cooling time of the puff pastry after baking it in the oven. If it is not completely cold, it will be difficult to cut it without breaking it. I tell you this because after an hour of waiting, I still managed to break three trees. Obviously, the main advice I can give you before starting this recipe is to choose molds that are not too small.
I made these Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees using cookie cutters which are very small. For this reason, I recommend choosing a medium-sized mold. In the list of useful tools, I indeed recommended a 13 cm tree mold to have a large enough surface to fill and that can be easily opened.
Let’s start now with this recipe. Take the rectangular puff pastry roll out of the fridge and place it on the work surface still rolled up but out of the plastic packaging. Meanwhile, keep a small bowl nearby where you will crack the egg. Take the mix of seeds and turn on the oven. Set it to 392°F with static mode and wait for it to reach the right temperature.
Place near you the Christmas tree cookie cutter or whatever shape you have chosen to create this stuffed Christmas appetizer. Also, take the kitchen brush which will be used to brush the surface of the puff pastry. You will also need some parchment paper sheets. In the list of tools I left you the link to purchase the pre-cut parchment paper I use for my recipes which I find super convenient and avoids waste.
Unroll the puff pastry on the work surface, arrange two baking trays near you with a sheet of parchment paper in each tray. Cut out as many Christmas trees as possible from the pastry. Of course, this also depends on how many guests or family members you will have for lunch or dinner, with this recipe you will get about 20 small puff pastry trees like mine. Naturally, if the shape you choose will be larger, this number will be lower.
Transfer the trees onto the baking trays, spaced well apart from each other. Crack the egg in the small bowl and add a pinch of salt. Then brush the surface of the Christmas trees with the beaten egg, sprinkle with seeds, in my case a mix of pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. You can also sprinkle the trees with some pepper or other spice if you want to give a stronger touch to this preparation.
Put the baking trays with the small puff pastry trees in the center of the oven, although they will be quite close, one above the other, don’t worry, it won’t be a problem. Let them bake for about 20 minutes, you will see the puff pastry become beautifully golden and puffy. Remove from the oven and place the baking trays on the work surface. Transfer the Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Trees to a cooling rack, do not leave them on the baking trays where they will continue to receive heat from them. Let them cool for at least an hour.
After this time, we can cut the puff pastry diagonally where we will place the filling of these Christmas trees. So take the salmon, arugula, and ricotta. Place everything near you on the work surface. Once cut, we will gently place the filling on the base of the trees and close them with the other side of the puff pastry. And here are our stuffed Christmas Trees ready. We are ready to serve the Christmas appetizer we just prepared.
All that remains is to wish you bon appétit and remind you that I’ll be waiting for you every morning in the group and on the fan page with the Recipe of the Day! Every day a recipe that is easy, quick, and delicious like this one!
Tips and Variations:
I recommend preparing these savory puff pastry Christmas trees at least three hours before serving them at the table. Consider that they will need to be well cooled before cutting them, otherwise you risk that the puff pastry is still too hot and breaks when you score them with the tip of the knife!
I also recommend filling them just before enjoying them or at least not too early so that the ingredients you will use for the filling can also be fresh. You can then accompany them with some homemade Hugo Spritz with elderflower syrup, you can find the recipe here in my cooking blog!
As for the variations, I leave you free choice, unleash your creativity to choose the fillings you like best, based perhaps also on the guests you will have for lunch or dinner. If there are any intolerances or ingredients that not everyone likes! Vary and vary again, each time these savory puff pastry Christmas trees will be different, crunchy and tasty!
As for the variations, I leave you free choice, unleash your creativity to choose the fillings you like best, based perhaps also on the guests you will have for lunch or dinner. If there are any intolerances or ingredients that not everyone likes! Vary and vary again, each time these savory puff pastry Christmas trees will be different, crunchy and tasty!
