As you know, my favorite part about any holiday (after the meaningful stuff like family and togetherness, etc.) is the food. Actually, my favorite part of any given day just might be the food, but hey, to each her own. Years ago I decided I needed a festive, but still easy, holiday snack you could take to any party, so I came up with these Christmas Tree Spinach Dip Breadsticks, and thousands of you have made them since!
These yummy stuffed breadsticks start with a refrigerated pizza crust, the kind that comes in a tube, so they’re easy to make and take just over half an hour start to finish. You layer an easy homemade spinach dip in between two layers of pizza crust, then cut and twist to create a tree shape. The finished result is an impressive holiday appetizer that looks much harder to make than it actually is – that also tastes amazing!
How To Make Christmas Tree Spinach Dip Breadsticks
To make it easy for you to duplicate this recipe, I’m including a video that shows how to shape the Christmas tree. Right after the video you’ll find step by step photos and instructions. Then below the instructions there is a printable recipe card, followed by frequently asked questions. If you’d like to skip straight to the recipe card, scroll back up to the blog post title and click the “jump to recipe” button (just realize you’ll miss out on some of the tips and tricks).
1. Layer Dough + Spinach Dip
For this recipe, you’ll start by mixing up the spinach dip ingredients. Make sure to thaw the frozen spinach (or just defrost it in the microwave) and squeeze it in handfuls to get most of the moisture out. Then use a hand or stand mixer to mix it with the softened cream cheese, garlic, seasonings, and cheeses as directed in the recipe (you’ll reserve some of the cheese to put on top of the dip). Once the spinach dip is mixed up, unroll the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper. I used the “thin” style pizza crust. Using a pizza slicer, cut the crust as shown below to make a tree shaped triangle:
This gives you one large triangle and two smaller ones. You’re going to put the two smaller triangles together on a second piece of parchment paper with the long sides together, so that you have two matching triangles of dough on separate piece of parchment paper. The dough will stretch out a little as you move it around – don’t worry! Just gently tug it into the same shape as the first triangle you cut, pressing the two halves together in the middle. This will be the base of the breadsticks, so you can also tug the dough at the bottom down in the center to create a short trunk. Spread the spinach dip over the base, and then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.
Pick up the first triangle of dough, which you have set aside on another piece of parchment paper. Flip it over on top of the spinach dip. You’ll likely have to tug at the dough a little bit to make sure it completely covers the base triangle.
2. Cut And Twist
Now you have three layers in a tree shaped triangle: pizza dough/spinach dip/pizza dough. Using a pizza cutter, cut slices from the middle to each edge about every inch down the triangle as shown below. Don’t slice all the way across; leave about an inch down the middle of the tree intact.
Grab each “slice” and twist it to form a tree shape, as shown below. For the top slice that’s very short you’ll just give it a half twist; as you go further down the tree and the slices are longer you’ll give them two or three full twists.
3. Bake
Once the tree is shaped, it’s ready to bake immediately. Bake at 400 degrees for about 22 minutes until the bottom is completely cooked through. The top is going to get nice and browned, but make sure to check that the bottom is cooked through. If you are cooking on a heavy cookie sheet, like I did, you may want to cook this on the lower rack in your oven.
Once out of the oven you can move the breadsticks onto a pretty wood cutting board or charcuterie board for serving. Be sure to brush the breadsticks with melted butter, garlic salt, and seasonings. Then serve it up while it’s still warm. Everyone can tear off a breadstick or two to enjoy.
