Puff Pastry Christmas Tree with Chestnut Cream

📝 Ingredients

• 2 round sheets of ready-rolled puff pastry (about 230 g each)
• 120 g vanilla chestnut cream
• 25 g ground almonds
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 egg (the white for the filling, the yolk for the egg wash)
• 1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

🍴 Utensils

• Baking tray
• Very sharp knife
• Bowl and fork
• Ramekin
• Pastry brush
• Small sieve

📖 Steps

1. Take the puff pastry out of the fridge 10 min beforehand so it unrolls without cracking. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Separate the egg white from the yolk and mix the yolk with the milk in a ramekin for the egg wash.
2. In a bowl, mix the chestnut cream, ground almonds, cinnamon and egg white with a fork until smooth: the almonds thicken it and stop it running during baking.
3. Unroll one sheet of pastry on its paper onto the baking tray. Spread the filling in a thin, even layer with the back of a spoon, leaving a 1 cm bare border. Cover with the second sheet and press gently over the whole surface to push out the air.
4. Cut a large triangle out of the disc, point upwards, about 24 cm at the base and 24 cm high. Leave a 4 cm square below the base to form the tree's stump. Remove the other offcuts and place them separately on the tray.
5. Using the sharp knife, cut into both sides of the triangle every 2 cm, from the outside towards the centre, leaving a 2 cm wide central strip intact: this is the trunk that connects all the branches.
6. Twist each branch by turning it round twice, always in the same direction. Twist the offcuts into sticks too. Put the tray in the fridge for 15 min: cold pastry holds its shape better and puffs up more.
7. Brush the tree and sticks with the egg wash. Bake for 20 to 25 min at 200 °C, until the tree is well puffed and golden, underneath too. Take the sticks out after 12 to 15 min, once golden: being thinner, they cook faster.
8. Leave to cool slightly for 10 min on the tray, then slide onto a plate. Dust with icing sugar through a small sieve just before serving and let everyone tear off their own branches by hand.