In today’s post: Learn how to turn refrigerated pizza dough into adorable Christmas tree breadsticks stuffed with spinach dip!
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!
Easy Holiday Appetizer
These yummy stuffed breadsticks start with a refrigerated pizza crust, the kind that comes in a tube, so they’re easy to make in under an hour start to finish. You layer a quick 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’ve created a step by step video showing the entire process. 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).
Christmas Tree Breadsticks VIDEO
You can watch this video to see how I shape the Christmas tree breadsticks. You’ll find detailed written instructions and photos beneath the video:
Make the 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.
Create the Tree Shape
Once the spinach dip is mixed up, unroll the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper. Gently roll the dough out into a rectangle that’s about 10×14 inches. Mark the center at the top, then cut from each bottom corner to the top center as shown below. This creates one large triangle and two smaller ones.
Move the two smaller triangles to a second sheet of parchment paper. Stretch them and gently push them together to create a second triangle, like the larger one shown above, so you have two matching triangles. Pull off a small piece of dough to make a little trunk if you want.
Drop spoonfuls of spinach dip over the triangle of dough you just created, then spread the dip out all the way to the edges.
Cut and Twist
Grab the first triangle of dough that you set aside and place it over the spinach dip, tugging it a little as needed to completely cover the bottom layers. Now you have three layers in a tree shaped triangle: pizza dough/spinach dip/pizza dough. Using a sharp knife, 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 full twists.
Bake
Once the tree is shaped, it’s ready to bake immediately. Bake at 350 degrees for about 32 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 (it tastes great when it has cooled as well!). Everyone can tear off a breadstick or two to enjoy.
Christmas Tree Spinach Dip Breadsticks
Ingredients
Breadsticks
- 12 oz Frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed dry
- 6 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 tube refrigerated pizza crust 13.8 oz
Butter Topping
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a bowl, beat together the spinach and cream cheese. Add garlic, salt, onion powder, chili powder, pepper, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Beat until creamy.
- To make the Christmas tree shape, unroll the pizza crust onto a sheet of parchment paper. Use a pizza cutter to cut it as shown into one larger tree shaped triangle and two smaller triangles. Move the smaller triangles to a second sheet of parchment paper with their straight edges touching to create a second triangle of dough that is the same shape as the first.
- Spread the spinach dip across the second triangle you made. Flip the first triangle over on top so you have layers of pizza dough with spinach dip sandwiched between them.
- Now you'll make cuts, leaving about an inch in the center intact. Cut from near the center out to the side on both the left and right every inch or so to create slices.
- Grab each "slice" and twist it upwards. At the top where they are short you'll only twist halfway around. At the bottom where they are longer you can do two or three full twists.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until quite golden brown on top and cooked through on the bottom. Do not undercook.
- Melt butter and stir in garlic salt and seasoning, then brush over breadsticks, and serve warm.
Tips
Answers to questions about the recipe
So I’ve had lots of questions about this recipe, and I’ll try to answer them all right here!
I wouldn’t recommend it. The refrigerated pizza dough from a tube that I used may not hold up well to sitting in the fridge for a few hours before baking.
I’m sure you can, although I have not done so. This is a lot like a pizza, and like pizzas will taste best directly out of the oven, so your best option may be to shape it right before you leave for the party and then bake it once you get there. However, that’s not always an option. So you’re next best bet would be to bake right before you leave and then wrap it in foil and just serve it warm-ish (still tastes just fine!) or pop it in the oven for just a few minutes to heat through at the party. Some readers have suggested baking on a baking stone and transporting on the warm stone to keep it hot.
Of course! You’ll just have to adjust your baking method a bit. Homemade pizza dough should work beautifully – just let it rise a bit before shaping and then watch it while baking as the bake time will vary a bit with different dough recipes. You could also use frozen Rhodes bread dough: you’ll just need to thaw it and allow it to rise before shaping.
Absolutely! I made a pretty tear&share bread using a pesto filling in this post, which was delicious! Other readers have recommended a buffalo chicken filling, which also sounds yummy. Just avoid really runny fillings as they may leak out too much and make a mess.
Yes you can, but be aware that some store bought spinach dips are quite runny. My recipe is quite thick to make sure it doesn’t leak out while baking, so if you use a thinner dip it may not work as well.
I haven’t tried any of these options so I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking it would work just fine with any of them! Just watch the cook time (and check some of the comments – readers are sharing different things they’ve tried).
Cindy says
I have also made this several times and note that you used to show putting cheddar over the top of the spinach/creamc cheese mixture. I can’t remember if it had motzarella originally…? Is there a reason the cheddar is omitted now? Great recipe and very popular in our home during the holidays…I just happen to have an extra tube of pizza crust..what to do? 😀
Autumn says
Hi Cindy! I switched it to mozzarella but you can still use cheddar if you like that better! And I updated the recipe to mix all the cheese in with the spinach dip so it would be simpler – turns out it doesn’t make a difference in how it tastes. Glad you’ve enjoyed this recipe!
Ann says
I love this recipe and have made it since 2019! I printed it in 2019 and it originally used a 14 oz. tube of THIN crust pizza dough. I haven’t seen that product for a few years now and used other types of dough. I noticed that you changed recipe to a 13.8 oz. regular pizza crust. I bought that this year and here’s the question…
The original recipe called for baking at 400 degrees for 22 minutes, as I did this year and it came out great. But your updated recipe says 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Should I use the new instructions because it’s a different dough product? Thanks!
Autumn says
Hi! I did change the cooking temp and time – either one will probably work, but I felt like the longer time at a lower temperature ensured it cooked all the way through without getting too dark on top. Thanks!