Christmas Tree Spinach Dip Breadsticks

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, beat together the spinach and cream cheese.

• 12 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 6 oz cream cheese,  softened

Add garlic, salt, onion powder, chili powder, pepper, and Italian seasoning and beat to combine.

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Add parmesan cheese and 1/2 of the cheddar or mozz. and beat to combine. (The other half of the cheese will be sprinkled over the filling when you shape the Christmas tree.)

• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup grated cheddar OR mozzarella cheese

Shape into Christmas tree - 

Unroll the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper. Using a pizza slicer, cut the crust as shown below. This gives you one large triangle and two smaller ones. 

Transfer the smaller triangles to a second piece of parchment paper, placing the long side edges together, to make another large triangle. The dough will stretch out a little as you move it around – no biggie, just gently tug it into the shape you want, pressing the two halves together in the middle. This will be the base of the breadsticks. Use bits of extra dough to create a short little trunk at the base of the tree.

• 1 tube refrigerated thin crust pizza crust

Spread the spinach dip over the base. Sprinkle on the remaining cheese.

Then, top with the first triangle of dough. You’ll likely have to tug at the dough a little bit to make sure it completely covers the base triangle.  

Make cuts on either side as shown.  Don't go all the way across.  Leave a bit uncut in the center.

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 hit longer slices you’ll give them two or three full twists.

Bake for about 22 minutes until quite golden brown on top and cooked through on the bottom. 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, 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. Melt butter and stir in garlic salt and seasoning, then brush over breadsticks.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt

Serve warm.

Recipe Inspiration Source:  It's Always Autumn - The instruction video is below the printable recipe.
I am attempting to make this for the holidays exactly as her recipe.  It looks wonderful.  I take zero credit for this recipe.  Go to the link and watch the short video to make the whole thing a cinch!  I'm adding the recipe to my collection because hoping it will be a keeper.  Also note - this can be made in other shapes as well.