00:14well hello there folks and a very festive welcome back to what's for tea and i hope that i find
00:19you
00:20all very well indeed and today i made this delicious and very easy pull apart pesto and
00:26cheese christmas tree it looks quite impressive but it's much much easier than you would think i
00:32promise you it's perfect for any festive gatherings you might be having i filled this one with cheese
00:38and pesto but you can make this sweet if you like if you'd rather use nutella or jam you know
00:44something like that but i've made my one savory today so let me go and show you how i put
00:49this
00:50one together so you're obviously going to need some pastry but if you're good at making your
00:54own puff pastry go ahead and use that i am terrible at pastries i'm using the shop bought pastry and
01:01on
01:01the box there you can see exactly what we're just about to attempt i didn't know this was a thing
01:07but these are a thing apparently so you want to get into a bowl an egg and a wee splash
01:13of milk and just
01:14whisk these together until they're well combined and just set that to the side for the time being
01:20get your pastry rolled out mine's has got a wee hole in the side but it doesn't matter because
01:25we're going to cut around that anyway like i said i am going to use pesto and also parmesan cheese
01:31so
01:32i've used three tablespoons of pesto and i'm just going to spread that over the top layer or the middle
01:38layer and then on top of that i'm going to put my grated parmesan as well you could use mozzarella
01:44if you prefer if you want more of a cheese pull then i would recommend grated mozzarella instead of
01:50the parmesan place your other sheet of pastry on the top ever so gently just make sure it's nicely
01:57lined up along the sides you know the top and the bottom and give that a gentle pat into place
02:03just to
02:04make sure both layers of pastry are nicely stuck together just do this nice and slowly until you're
02:11happy then i'm just going to grab my measuring tape just because you don't have to do this this is
02:17just
02:17me mine was about 24 centimeters so i made a wee dent in the 12 centimeter mark went down the
02:24middle
02:24with my tape just to create my tree stump so i'm just going to go either side of the mark
02:30that i made
02:30in the top and then cut about an inch of the way up the pastry just to give me my
02:36tree stump you don't
02:37have to bother with a tree stump but i just added the tree stump and then once you've cut out
02:42your
02:42your stump you just want to remove the excess pastry just like this and you can see how quickly this
02:48comes together and then from my center point right to the corner i'm just going to use my flexible
02:54chopping board as a guide to give me a nice straight edge i'm also going to cut a star again
03:01completely optional i'm just going to pop this at the top and with your off you know your off cuts
03:06of
03:06pastry you can just twist these into some extra twists if you like or make an entirely new tree
03:13from what you've got left that's up to you so i'm just going to trim my sides off just like
03:18this as
03:19you can see it's ever so easy to do yeah a lot more simple than you would think and i'm
03:24just going to draw
03:25two lines up the center from my trunk and this is going to give me a guide of where to
03:31stop my cuts
03:32going in from the side you just want to cut all the way up you know about half an inch
03:37or three
03:38quarters of a centimeter however thick you want to do these it's completely up to you the thinner you
03:44do these you know the more branches you will have the thicker you cut these the less branches you will
03:50have so it just depends you know how intricate you want this to look so you just want to go
03:55all the way
03:56from the bottom to the top until you have something that looks like this and then all you have to
04:01do
04:01is gently twist from the end just like this it's really really easy but the further up the tree you
04:09go the less twists you will be able to do and then by the time you get to the top
04:13you might only be able
04:15to twist this over maybe once or twice obviously because they are a lot shorter so just keep going
04:21until you reach the top and do exactly the same on the other side and i'll catch up with you
04:27in a wee minute
05:02now once you're happy just grab your beaten egg and milk and brush all over the center and all over
05:08your branches just so you get them nice and brown as they're baking in the oven and when you put
05:13it in
05:14the oven you know if it gets too dark too quickly you can cover it with foil to stop it
05:18burning because
05:19obviously that can happen i'm going to add some sesame seeds which is completely optional but i think it
05:25gives a lovely flavor and texture pop this onto an oven tray i've got an oven sheet just to keep
05:31it nice
05:32and flat and all you have to do now is pop this into your oven and bake this until it's
05:37lovely and golden
05:38brown all over and your pastry is cooked all the way through and i'm just showing you here or trying
05:44to
05:44show you how lovely and 3d this actually looks from the side because you can't really tell from the top
05:51and i was really chuffed with how this looked i thought it was going to be much harder to do
05:56than
05:56what it actually was so yeah for about 25 30 minutes like i said just until your pastry is fully
06:03cooked
06:03all the way through i had to add a wee bit of foil to the bottom where the stump is
06:08and the top where the
06:09star is because it was starting to catch ever so slightly you want to let this cool down for about
06:15five to ten minutes it's going to be very fragile at this point but i just went around the whole
06:20thing
06:20with a palette knife just to make sure it was free moving and wasn't going to stick before i let
06:26this
06:27cool but yeah give this about five minutes but do make sure it isn't stuck before you let it cool
06:32because you don't want this sticking to your paper that would be a complete disaster and this was so
06:38easy to pull apart this would be perfect for any of your festive gatherings just as a sort of
06:44wee centerpiece and everybody can just help themselves and pull a wee branch off and have
06:49whatever dipping sauce you want on the side i've just got some ketchup there but you could use pizza
06:54sauce you know something like that or if you're going to do a sweet one with maybe nutella in the
07:00middle or jam with some maybe icing sugar over the top you could use a melted chocolate or something
07:06like that as a wee dipping sauce on the side or even some runny icing would also be lovely but
07:12i
07:13couldn't stop eating this once i'd started so it is very very moorish i love pesto and cheese anyway
07:20and with that flaky pastry it was just such a lovely combination and you can see all of those layers
07:26in there as well yeah highly recommend you give this a go don't be put off and intimidated by this
07:32it is much much easier to do than you would think so thank you so much for watching and a
07:37huge thank
07:38you as usual to the supporters of the channel over on my patreon page and to the channel members and
07:44i
07:44do need to update those lists which will probably be after christmas and the new year now so if you're
07:50new
07:50your names will be there soon and thank you all for watching leave in your lovely comments for those
07:56that share the videos anyone who's bought me a coffee using the buy me a coffee link or left me
08:01a super
08:02thanks donation and i will be back during the week back here on what's for tea so until i see
08:07you again
08:08take care and bye for now bye now
08:11you
