Churro Nutella Christmas Tree -- The Pastry Rosa Would Have Approved

Guadalupe. December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, the virgin who appeared to Juan Diego on a hill outside Mexico City and who has watched over Mexican people ever since — or so Rosa believed, with a faith that was total and unquestioning, the faith of a woman who had nothing else to believe in and so believed completely in the one thing she chose. I learned faith from Rosa. Not the intellectual kind, not the studied kind, but the survival kind — the faith of a woman who prays because the alternative is despair, and despair is a luxury she cannot afford.

We celebrated early — a small observance at St. Patrick's, with Las Mañanitas sung at dawn (the traditional serenade to the Virgin), and tamales and champurrado afterward in the church hall. I brought conchas and buñuelos from the bakery, four trays, and they were gone in twenty minutes because a Mexican church hall on December 12 is a place where bread disappears like water in the desert.

Sofia asked me about La Virgen. She said, "Do you really believe she appeared to a man on a hill?" I said, "I believe that people who have nothing need something to appear. And sometimes it does." She thought about this. Then she said, "That's not the same as yes." I said, "It's not the same as no, either." She nodded. Sofia's faith, if she develops one, will be a practical faith — a faith of evidence and results, a faith that asks questions and demands answers. This is fine. All faiths are valid. Even the questioning ones. Especially the questioning ones.

The bakery is in full Christmas production. I am making conchas, buñuelos, polvorones, and tamales simultaneously, and the kitchen is a controlled chaos that Rosa would have recognized and approved of, because Rosa's kitchen was always chaos — not the disorganized kind but the productive kind, the chaos of a woman who is making six things at once and keeping track of all of them with a precision that looks like disorder but is actually a higher form of order.

I made bunuelos this week — large batches for the holiday orders. The dough rolled thin as paper, fried until golden, dusted with cinnamon sugar while still hot. I stood at the fryer and watched them puff and brown and thought about Rosa standing at her stove doing the same thing every December, and the continuity of it — mother and daughter, thirty years apart, same recipe, same hands, same hot oil — was the closest thing to prayer my hands have known this week.

Camila performed in her pre-K holiday show. She sang "Jingle Bells" — in English and in Spanish, because Camila is bilingual and refuses to choose — and she sang it at a volume that suggested she was performing for an audience of thousands rather than forty parents in a gymnasium. She forgot the words in the second verse and improvised lyrics that included something about a bakery and something about a dog (the phantom dog again, the dog we do not have and will not get) and the audience laughed and I laughed and Luis laughed and Camila took a bow like she had just performed at the Kennedy Center. She is four and she is a star and the stage will not know what hit it.

Standing at the fryer rolling out buñuelo dough thin as paper, I kept thinking about how Rosa made everything look effortless — the chaos of December, the hot oil, the cinnamon sugar flying — and how that same spirit lives in any pastry that fills a room with warmth and spice. This Churro Nutella Christmas Tree captures that same festive alchemy: the cinnamon-sugar coating of a buñuelo, the pull-apart joy that belongs on a table full of people who showed up and chose to celebrate together. It’s the kind of recipe Camila can help twist and arrange, which means it’s already perfect.

Churro Nutella Christmas Tree (Pastry Tree)

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 22 minutes | Total Time: 42 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed (from a 17 oz package)
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 1 large egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
• 1 star-shaped cookie cutter or small knife (for the treetop)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Prepare the pastry base. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Spread the Nutella evenly over the entire surface, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges.
3. Layer and seal. Lay the second sheet of puff pastry directly on top of the Nutella-covered sheet. Press the edges gently to seal the two layers together.
4. Cut into a tree shape. Using a sharp knife, cut the layered pastry into a large Christmas tree triangle — a wide base tapering to a point at the top — plus a small rectangular trunk at the bottom. Cut a star shape from the scraps for the treetop if desired.
5. Slice the branches. Starting from the center line, cut horizontal strips about 3/4-inch wide along both sides of the tree, leaving the center trunk intact and uncut.
6. Twist the branches. Gently pick up each strip and twist it 2—3 times away from the center, creating a spiral. Press the ends lightly onto the parchment to hold the twist in place.
7. Add the egg wash. Brush the entire tree, including any star topper, with the beaten egg. Transfer the parchment with the tree to the prepared baking sheet.
8. Bake. Bake for 18—22 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and puffed. If the star topper is small, check it at 12 minutes and remove early if needed.
9. Coat in cinnamon sugar. While the tree is still hot, stir the granulated sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Brush the pastry generously with melted butter, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar liberally over the entire surface. Dust with powdered sugar for extra festivity if desired.
10. Serve warm. Transfer to a serving board and serve immediately so guests can pull apart the twisted branches while the Nutella is still gooey and the pastry is at its crispest.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 318 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 148mg