Twisted Parmesan Christmas Tree Rolls

This month’s Food ‘n Flix was a challenge.  Like, a huge challenge!

Instead of a specific movie, participants were tasked with created a recipe based on their favorite Christmas movie.  Ok, what’s that?  I’m supposed to choose a favorite?  Impossible!

My favorites include: Christmas Vacation, Elf, The Santa Clause, Rudolf, Charlie Brown, Mickey Christmas Carol, Bells of Fraggle Rock, Home Alone, and Muppet Family Christmas.

How can I possibly choose?  They are all on the must watch list every Christmas season!

Since I couldn’t choose one, I decided to share a recipe for Twisted Parmesan Christmas Tree Rolls.  I figure it can fit in with all of my favorites: Christmas Vacation (Clark brings home a giant tree with the classic line, “bend over and I’ll show you”), Elf (Buddy cuts down a tree in the park), The Santa Clause (Christmas trees galore), Rudolf (Silver and gold decorations on every Christmas tree), Charlie Brown (the classic “Charlie Brown tree”), Mickey Christmas Carol  (Christmas trees in many scenes), Fraggle Rock Bells of Fraggle Rock (Uncle Traveling Matt hides under the Christmas tree as he investigates “the silly people”), Home Alone (Kevin decorates a Christmas tree), and Muppet Family Christmas (not critical to the plot, but there is a tree, could totally see these rolls being made by the Swedish Chef).

This recipe was a last minute creation.

Last week, the boys had a Christmas party at their piano studio.  I belatedly (that day at noon) remembered that I had volunteered to bring a snack or treat to the party.  I had also just been informed that both boys would be going directly to a second party for boy scouts.

Since I’ve been baking for weeks, I almost just made up a cookie tray, but then I realized that by going from one party to the next, I wouldn’t have time to get the kids dinner (yikes!)

I kinda thought that maybe there would be pizza at the piano party, but I couldn’t remember for sure.

So I decided to make a hardier bread that I knew my kids would love, so if there wasn’t pizza at the piano party (turns out there was so I was ok), they could still have something relatively substantial.

When making these, I had in mind my Twisted Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls.  But instead of something sweet, I wanted savory.  So instead of cinnamon-sugar, I filled these with parmesan-garlic.  I could have topped these with Italian seasoning, but since I know my boys go nuts for my everything bagel mix, I decided to go for that instead!

Because I was incredibly short on time, I used by pizza dough recipe (a fast riser) and only made 1 layer.  The resulting bread was delicious and thoroughly enjoyed by all at the piano party!

Twisted Parmesan Christmas Tree Rolls

An Amy’s Cooking Adventures Original Recipe

Dough

4 cups flour, divided

4 ½ tsp instant/quick rise/pizza yeast (2 envelopes)

2 tsp sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

1 1/3 cup warm water (120 degrees F)

1/3 cup olive oil

Filling

1 tablespoon butter, softened

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Topping

2 tablespoon butter, melted

1 large pinch sesame seeds

1 large pinch poppy seeds

1 small pinch dried minced onion

1 small pinch dried minced garlic

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place a baking stone in the oven to heat up.

Combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the water and oil and mix on low until combined.

Add in another cup of flour and stir until combined.  Scrape off the paddle and switch to the dough hook.  Add the remaining cup of flour and knead with the dough hook until combined, then continue kneading for another 2 minutes,

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, cover with a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Split the dough in half, if desired, pinch off a small piece to become the star and trunk.

Roll one half into a triangle shape and place on a piece of parchment paper.  Spread the softened butter over the surface of the dough, keeping ½-inch away from the edges.  Sprinkle the garlic powder and grated parmesan evenly over the buttered dough.

Roll the second piece of dough into a triangle as close as possible to the same size as the first.  Place the triangle over the first.  Cut 1-inch slices on each side of the dough.  Twist the pieces to form branches.

Brush the top of the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with the spices.

Transfer the dough to the pizza stone and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until deeply browned.  If the dough isn’t browning, increase the temperature to 400 and cook for another 2 minutes.

Bread is delightful served fresh from the oven or cooled at a later time.