Yes, it’s time to start talking about Christmas recipes. Here’s one for a festive holiday goat cheese appetizer shaped like a Christmas tree, made with Boursin cheese, rosemary, almonds, olives, currants, and butterkase cheese. Serve it with crackers.
Christmas Tree Cheese Appetizer
Course: Appetizers12-15
30
minutesIngredients
3 packages (3.2 oz. each) Boursin cheese
0.75 oz. fresh rosemary
1/4 cup slivered almonds
5.3 oz. small, assorted olives
6 oz. fresh red currants
0.66 lbs butterkase cheese, in a square or rectagluar slice
Crackers, for service
Directions
- Unwrap the Boursins and stack them on a 6½-inch-diameter plate. Wrap a single sheet of plastic wrap around the the stack of cheese. Use your hands to press the cheese into a conical shape. Be careful to examine the cone from all angles, including from directly above, to make sure you’re satisfied with it.
- Remove the sprigs from the rosemary branches. Separate them into two equal-size piles: the prettiest sprigs, and all the others. Finely chop “the others.” Remove the plastic, and pat the chopped rosemary onto the cheese. Much of it will fall to the plate; tip the plate and gently shake it free, gather it up, and continue patting it onto the tree until you’ve got most of it on the tree, with some of it surrounding the tree on the plate.
- Push the prettiest almonds into the tree to create a garland effect. You won’t need all the almonds.
- Place the olives on a paper towels and dry them. Select the smallest, prettiest ones. If their holes will accomodate a currant, push the olive into the tree, and then insert the currant. If their holes too small for a currant, thread a rosemary sprig through it, pull it through as far as desired, clip off any excess at the end you pulled through, and then push the olive into the tree. Work from all sides of the tree; if you work from one side exclusively, hoping to make your way around gradually, you may push the tree out of shape. You won’t need all the olives, nor all the currants.
- If the butterkase it thick, slice its width in half. Cut a star out of the cheese. Sure, use a cookie cutter if you have one, but doing this by hand is completely charming. Secure the star to the top of the tree with a toothpick.
- Wrap the tree loosely in plastic and refrigerate until serving time. Serve with crackers.
Notes
- Substitutions: fresh thyme leaves for the rosemary – in which case do not chop; dried cranberries for the currants; any cheese that is easy to cut and will hold its shape without crumbling, for the butterkase.
Intro
This is so easy. It involves no cooking, no special equipment, and takes well to improvisation. Anyone with a bit of patience could do this, and the effect is so charmingly spectacular. Do your best, but don’t worry about perfection. The more homemade it looks, the more adorable it is.
Social Learning: tips and tricks
According to the packaging, a single Boursin serves five. I’d say four. Any flavor will work, probably. I used “garlic and fine herbs.”
You could try a smaller plate, but I’d start to worry about stability. You could try a larger plate, but the tree might look lonely on it. You might think you could arrange crackers on the lonely circumference, but it might be difficult for guests to cut into the cheese without disturbing the crackers. A better choice for a large plate might be to cut smaller stars out of the butterkase and arrange them on the plate around the tree, since they’d be less likely to go flying about. That’d give everyone a taste of the butterkase, too, which would be nice.
For the crackers, I recommend something with a complementary flavor, rather than a plain cracker. I very much like Simple Mills Veggie Pita crackers – both the Himalayan Salt and the MediterraneanHerb flavors – which I found at Whole Foods.
Christmas Tree Cheese Appetizer
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Perhaps you’ve already realized that if it weren’t Christmas, with a bit of tweaking, you could turn these into Daleks. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #15 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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Oh my god this is so cute! I’m really not sure I have the patience for this. But wow!!!
Oh come now, you make so many dishes that absolutely must require patience! But thank you!
Yes, it’s time indeed! And this appetizer looks wonderful! I’m usually not a huge fan of theme-shaped foods as they tend to be tacky, but this tree is nothing like that – very elegant!
But if you don’t want to shape food into things, how are you going to get onto the Great British Baking Show? 🙂 I’m usually of the same bent, but this one seemed kind of charming. Thanks!
Such a clever idea!
Thanks! Not an original idea, but original instructions.
A delicious idea Jeff.
Thank you, Gary!
Appetizers are my favorite food group. This is just adorable and sounds delicious. I will be making one for our Christmas holiday. Thank you for sharing Jeff.
You’re welcome!
I love this!!!
Thanks!
This Christmas tree is simply lovely
Thank you!
Oh this is a fun recipe! I love Christmas parties with friends, and this appetizer is perfect. I mean it’s a big pile of cheese…how can you go wrong there!? And I like that you did with the row of sliced almonds there, too. Very creative, sir.
Thanks, David!
Not only are you a good cook but creative as well. The tree is so cute!
Well, I have to confess that I didn’t dream this up. I saw something like it, and figured out how to do it. 🙂 But thanks, nonetheless!
Me ha encantado ti Arbol de Navidad, te voy a copiar la receta. Un abrazo
Thanks!
Un delizioso alberello, bravissimo!!!
Thank you!
So cool and so pretty! I especially love how the currants look (and I’m sure taste) inside the olives. Really a fun idea, and who doesn’t love Boursin cheese!? Excellent photo, to boot! 🙂 ~Valentina
Thanks, Valentina!
I need to make this for one of my Christmas snack boards! Brilliantly adorable and delicious!
Thank you, Tasia!
bonjour jeff, je serai bien venue a ton apéritif, pour déguster sont superbe sapin de noël, qui est magnifique!
bon week-end
bises
Thank you, Josette!
Even though I can’t believe Christmas is looming already… lol This is so super cute and no doubt it’s delicious too!! I’m definitely going to treat my family to one of these this season. It’s going to be a big hit, thank you for the inspiration Jeff 🎄
You’re welcome Marcelle!
très jolie présentation pour l’apéro et joli blog également
Thanks!
I’ve just added this to my Christmas gathering menu! Thank you!
Awesome! I’m sure it’ll be a big hit.
This sounds like such a creative and fuss-free idea! Turning something as simple as Boursin cheese into a charming holiday centrepiece is genius.
Well, thank you. It wasn’t my genius … I saw the idea elsewhere and figured out how to do it. But still, it was fun to figure it out.
Oh! What an innovative piece of work Jeff, looks lovely!
This is so incredibly fun, Jeff! I am especially enamored with the use of sliced almonds to create a garland on the tree. In the past couple of years, I have noted that Boursin has come out with several different flavors of their cheese, including shallot and chive. Definitely the one I would use to make this.
Thanks! It makes such a fun appetizer, and it’s completely make-ahead-able.
What a great idea Jeff!
Thank you, Diane!
Very cute and tasty. I love the cheese star on top!! So festive.
Thanks!