Puff pastry Christmas tree with goat’s cheese, herbs and chutney
Recipe Serves Serves 10-12 (as part of a sharing table/snack)
Ingredients
250g soft goat’s cheese
30g parmesan (or another hard cheese), finely grated, plus a bit extra for the topping
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
Black pepper
2 x 320g sheets of all-butter puff pastry
100g Mrs Bridges Christmas Chutney, plus more to serve
1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt.
Follow The Recipe
20 minutes preparation, plus 30 minutes chilling and 20 minutes cooking
In a medium sized bowl combine the goat’s cheese, parmesan, parsley and thyme. Mix well and season with black pepper.
Line a large baking tray with baking parchment and put one sheet of puff pastry on the prepared baking tray. Spread the goat’s cheese mixture all over puff pastry leaving a 1cm (1/2 inch) border around the edges. Then spread the chutney all over the goat’s cheese mixture. Top with the second sheet of puff pastry, pressing down gently to stick everything together.
Put the puff pastry into the fridge for 30 minutes or into the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up before cutting out the Christmas tree shape.
Preheat the oven to 220°C conventional (200°C fan, gas mark 7).
Remove from the fridge and using a sharp knife cut out a large Christmas tree shape using as much of the sheet as possible. Make sure to cut out two pieces at the bottom to form the tree’s trunk. Keep the off cuts.
Brush the whole tree with the beaten egg and sprinkle generously with grated parmesan. Then use the knife to cut branches at intervals of about 2cm down each side of the tree. Don’t cut the whole way across the tree, leave a ‘trunk’ of pastry in the middle. Gently twist each branch into a spiral, alternating the direction you twist each branch.
Using star-shaped cutters or a knife cut out stars of different sizes from the off cuts of pastry. Brush the stars with egg and sprinkle with parmesan.
Put the baking tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until beautifully golden brown. After 10 minutes check on the pastry, if it is colouring too much turn the oven down to 180°C conventional (160°C fan, gas mark 4) for the final 10 minutes.
Serve immediately with more Mrs Bridges Christmas Chutney for dipping. This is best eaten on the day it is baked but it can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for three days and then reheated at 160°C conventional (140°C fan, gas mark 3) for 10 minutes.