These soft fluffy cheese buns, shaped as a Christmas tree, is what your next festive gathering needs!
One of my favourite things to do during the festive season is to organise parties and dinners! I love eating but I love preparing food for others even more. For me it’s a way to celebrate friendship! Every year I try to create a different menu with something original. This year I wanted to give a try the Christmas tree buns I’ve been seeing all over. So I took my trustworthy brioche bun recipe and had fun with it.
What’s in the filling
For the filling of these buns you can pretty much use any cheese you like! I have tried this recipe with mozzarella, cheddar, and even the Maltese ġbejna. They all turned out delicious. An important tip is not to use high moisture cheese as these might cause a lot of oozing and make the buns soggy.
Cheesy Garlic Christmas Tree Buns
Ingredients
- 450 g strong bread flour
- 55 g butter cubed
- 300 ml milk lukewarm
- 1 egg
- 6 g salt
- 12 g sugar
- 11 g active dry yeast
- 100 g low moisture mozzarella cheese
- 50 ml olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp chili flakes
- handful of parsley
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix the lukewarm milk, yeast and sugar. Let the mixture foam for about 15 minutes.
- In the meantime to a mixer with a dough hook, add all the ingredients, apart from the butter and mix together. Once you have a dough starting to form, start adding the butter piece by piece until it's all incorporated. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for an hour in the warmest place in your kitchen until it doubles in size.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Once the dough is ready, punch it down and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide the dough into 40 equal parts and form into balls.
- Flatten each dough ball down and place a piece of cheese in the middle. Close the edges and roll into a bun.
- Place the buns on the tray forming a Christmas tree. Before placing the buns into the oven, brush them with some milk.
- Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the buns have a nice golden brown colour.
- In the meantime chop the parsley and mince the garlic. Combine them with the olive oil, chili flakes and a sprinkle of salt. Set aside.
- Once baked, let them rest for a couple of minutes before brushing on top the garlic parsley oil. Enjoy!
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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How cute can this be??? Can’t wait to test this! Wishing you lovely Xmas holidays if we don’t see each other until then! Xxx
Thank you so much! ♥️ Same to you! Happy holidays 😁
Making this for our first ever vegetarian Christmas, it looks gorgeous and I cannot wait to put it on the table!!
That’s great to hear! Hope that it was gladly enjoyed 💓 Happy New Year!
This looks delicious and I would like to try it this Christmas. Can it be done a day before and then heated in the oven in foil on the day?
Thank you! Yes, it can be done like that 🙂