Vegan Puff Pastry Christmas Tree Stars with Pastry Cream
Flaky, golden puff pastry stars stacked into a festive Christmas tree and layered with silky vegan pastry cream. Beautiful for holiday dessert boards and surprisingly easy to make.
Ingredients
- For the stars: 1 box vegan puff pastry, thawed but still cold (Pepperidge Farm is dairy-free; check labels)
- 1-2 tbsp oat milk
- 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
- For the pastry cream: 2 cups oat milk
- 1/3 cup cane sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- 1Make the pastry cream
In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly stream in the oat milk while whisking until smooth. Place over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and bubbles (3-5 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk in vegan butter and vanilla.
- 2Chill the cream
Pour into a bowl, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface, and chill until set (at least 1 hour).
- 3Bake the stars
Preheat your oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Unfold the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Use various star-shaped cutters (large to small) to cut out pairs of each size. Place on the baking sheet, brush lightly with oat milk, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until puffed and golden. Let cool completely.
- 4Assemble the tree
Transfer the chilled pastry cream to a piping bag. Start with the largest puff pastry star. Pipe a swirl of pastry cream in the center. Top with the matching size star, offsetting slightly so the points alternate. Repeat with cream and progressively smaller stars.
- 5Finish and serve
Finish with the smallest star on top. Dust with powdered sugar for a snowy finish.
