Christmas tree

Hello everybody.

As promised I’m trying to select recipes for Christmas time,you can imagine how much websites and blogs are loaded with thousands of recipes. Well I’ll do my best to find easy quick ones cause I’m sure holiday season is full of events and invitations and little time to do sophisticated dishes.

Today I made these small and big hearts and trees , original recipe was for small hearts thought to try Christmas trees turned out fine, but all small shapes are a bit hard to handle so I made two big ones also.

Ingredients and method:

Shortcrust pastry:

* 1 egg.

* 1 tsp vanilla.

* 1/2 cup icing sugar.

* 3/4 cup butter.

* 2 cups flour.

* pinch of salt.

* 2 tablespoons cold water.

* Filling:

* 1 pack cream cheese or 6 pieces Kiri.

* 2 spoons cream.

* 2 spoons icing sugar.

* finely chopped strawberries.

* Mix all dough ingredients and knead well to a ball then leave to rest for 30 minutes.

* mix cream cheese, cream and sugar well.

* form dough to any shape you like or size, fill with cream then strawberries then add some strawberries and cover with another piece of dough.

* bake in a medium heated oven for 30-40 minutes till golden.

* decorate with icing sugar or red sprinkles.

Tastes really good,a bit like pop tarts so I’m sure kids will love them.

Lunch today was fava beans with rice,yummy yummy.

fava beans with rice رز بالفول

Hello everybody.

As promised I’m trying to make a Christmas related recipe each day to give you new ideas of main dishes and sweets to add up to your lunches or dinners.

Today I made this beautiful Nutella Christmas Tree, my son send me the photo the other night and I searched for the easiest recipe, really yummy and not complicated as it looks.

Ingredients and method:

* 3 cups flour.

* 1/3 cup sugar.

* 1 cup warm milk.

* 2 teaspoons instant yeast.

* 1 tablespoon butter.

* 2 eggs.

* 1 cup Nutella.

* some crunch or sesame seeds for decoration.

* Mix dry ingredients well then add egg yolks,milk and butter and knead well for 10 minutes.

* leave covered for one hour in a warm place to rise.

* cut dough to 4 pieces.

* roll each piece into a thin triangle .

* top first layer with a very thin layer of warmed Nutella in a tree shape.

* add second layer on top of it and repeat process.

* add fourth layer on top but without Nutella then cut dough to a tree shape as shown in photos.

* make linear cuts to make branches then twist each one .

* add some milk to egg whites and whisk well together then brush on top of tree.

* bake in a medium heated oven for 30-40 minutes till all golden.

* mix a bit of icing sugar with milk and brush sides so as decorations stick well.

* decorate sides with anything you like, sesame,coconut,almonds, crunch …etc.

Oh forgot to mention that lunch is light today, chicken breasts with soy sauce,garlic,coriander and onions with any vegetable you like, I added broccoli today.

Tree looks and tastes AWESOME, a must try this season !