Happy Advent! To welcome in the festive season and to share some joy and goodwill I will be posting as many recipes as I can on my website, along with recommendations for lovely friendly gifts, ingredients or inspiring people to follow on both my Instagram and FaceBook pages. Let's make Christmas 2023 the time to celebrate.
First up are these super cute chocolate Christmas Trees, that are so easy that they hardly deserve a recipe, but they're also so full of Christmassy joy and fun, that it's most certainly worth bookmarking these instructions.
These delightful little trees take just three ingredients and only minutes to make, but they'll certainly add some festive joy to your Christmas. I choose to temper my chocolate as it makes the tress shinier and with a better chocolate snap, but there is no need, they'll be just as fabulous if you just gently melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or in a microwave.
I found these Christmas sprinkles in Waitrose this year (2023) - how cute are these mini gingerbread men and candy canes? Plus they're suitable for vegetarians and free-from the top 14, you can't get better than that!
If you do choose to temper your chocolate, melt it to 45 degrees Centigrade and it's fully liquid. Then stir in small amounts of finely chopped chocolate until you've lowered the temperature to 27-28 degrees C, then warm gently to 32 degrees C - at this point the chocolate is tempered and will have a lovely shiny finish, set quickly and give a good snap.
I've used dark chocolate because i think it combined really well with the salty, crunchy pretzels and sweet decorations, but use whatever chocolate you prefer, they'll all taste great! Infact, white chocolate might looks pretty cute and snowy!
I tend to serve these Christmas trees as a cute after-dinner treat, but they work perfectly as an addition to a pudding or as a decoration for a cake.
Chocolate Christmas Trees
dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan
- piping bag
- sheet of baking paper or silicone baking mat
- 16 pretzel sticks
- 85 g dairy-free chocolate
- Christmas sprinkles
- edible glitter (optional)
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Lay the pretzel sticks onto the baking mat or baking paper
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Melt or temper the chocolate (instructions above) and pour into a piping bag
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Starting at one end of the pretzel stick pipe chocolate zig-zags back and forth, getting wider towards the bottom to represent the tree. Make sure you leave some bare stick to represent the trunk of the tree
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Scatter over sprinkles and dust with glitter (if using)
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Leave to set and then store in an airtight container
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